Amazon Conservation Association - Sunchubamba Cloud Forest

Wayqecha Cloud Forest

The topographic heterogeneity at the Andes/Amazon interface supports a tremendous diversity of climates, habitats, and species.

One of the world's greatest concentrations of biodiversity occurs where the eastern slopes of the tropical Andes meet the Amazonian lowlands. Tremendous climatic changes occur as the landscape sweeps from snow-capped mountains across the treeless plains and dry valleys of the altiplano and suddenly descends into steep, dissected valleys of lush cloud forests down into the broad expanse of the low lying Amazon floodplain. The result of this topographic complexity is a tremendous number of habitats that sustain a vast quantity of biodiversity.

The cloud forest on the eastern slopes of the Andes give birth to the Amazon. These headwater regions are amongst the highest conservation priorities on the planet.

In September, 2000 we purchased a 1450 acre tract of cloud forest. This is a property of great conservation significance because it forms part of the altitudinal transect buffering the most biologically significant areas of Manu National Park in southern Peru. The cloud forest regions of the eastern slopes of the tropical Andes are important for several reasons.

The sheer amount of specialized species they hold is immense. Many of the species occur within a narrow altitudinal range of a few hundred meters.

The cloud forest acts a giant sponge at the headwaters of the Amazon absorbing rain, condensing clouds and gradually releasing the water into the watersheds below. This mitigates flooding and landslides and reduces sedimentation.

The headwaters are the zone where the majority of migratory fish species spawn. These fish in turn provide the bulk of the protein for human consumption throughout the entire Amazon basin.

The altitudinal transect that connects the lowlands with the highlands can act as a biological escape corridor for species that will need to migrate in response to accelerating climate change.

One of the challenges in the upper reaches of Wayqecha is to replace highland cattle that damage the native vegetation and promote burning and degradation of the forest. We will initiate a substitution program in which native alpaca and llama are reintroduced in exchange for elimination of cattle. We are reforesting areas previously occupied by Polylepis and other high altitude trees.

The eastern slope cloud forest is under considerable pressure from agricultural colonists from the highlands. The settlers typically do not have locally adapted agricultural skills such as the Inca formerly developed in the highlands. Instead they use slash-and-burn techniques to clear pasture for cattle and plant crops such as coca, peppers, and coffee. Because of the highly erosive terrain and leaching of the soils, much of this agriculture is unsustainable.

Few complete altitudinal transects that maintain intact vegetative cover from the lowlands to the highlands have formal protected status. Manu National Park in southeastern Peru is an exception. However, the cloud forest of Manu is at some risk because a road runs parallel to the southern flank of the park. Protecting this flank from colonization, burning, hunting and other destructive land use is of considerable importance to global biodiversity. This is where we are establishing Peru's first permanent field station focused on cloud forest ecology and management.