Los Achuar de la Amazonía Peruana
The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that was signed on February 2, 1971, in Ramsar, Iran. While it is formally called the “Convention on Wetlands,” it is more commonly known as the “Ramsar Convention.” The convention addresses the conservation and rational use of wetlands, especially to provide habitat for aquatic birds.... Read more about the “Ramsar Convention”
See map of the Abanico del Pastaza Ramsar Site
The Achuar territory in the northern region of the Peruvian Amazon consists of a vast network of rivers and streams, lakes, wetlands and flooded forests known as the “Wetlands Complex of the Abanico del Pastaza.” This area was declared a Ramsar site in 2002 and consists of more than 3.8 hectares. The area is a huge alluvial fan of volcanic sediments that washed down from the Andes of Ecuador and were deposited along the PastazaRiver, as well as the streams that feed into it and tributaries of the MarañónRiver.
The area contains an extraordinary diversity of permanent and seasonal wetlands, with abundant lagoons and residual islands. It is the habitat of nine species of animals listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, 70 that are listed in Appendix II and 17 that are on the IUCN’s Red List of endangered species.
Parts of the area near the Urituyacu River are especially important because of the types of palm (Phytelephas tenuicaulis and Aphandra natalia) that grow there, and the Pastaza supports a large population of another palm (Elaeis oleifera), which is found in just a few other places in Peru. Nearly 300 fish species have been recorded in this area.
Studies of the area by WWF Peru — and by WWF’s Living Waters Campaign — and the Conservation Data Center of the La Molina National Agrarian University facilitated the preparation of the proposal that the area be designated a Ramsar site.
Human occupation, limited mainly to the banks of the major rivers, is a combination of low-intensity settlement by indigenous communities and non-indigenous settlers who grow bananas, cassava and corn.
WWF-Peru, the non-profit organization Racimos de Ungurahui, local communities and indigenous organizations, in coordination with government agencies, are engaged in a project to ensure the participatory management of resources in the PastazaRiver basin Ramsar site. The project includes activities to help the communities and their organizations with the conservation and sustainable management of the aquatic resources of the area’s lakes and lagoons, which along with Lake Musa Karusha or Lake Rimachi (the largest lake in the Peruvian Amazon), form a vital habitat for the conservation of the wetlands and a center for the reproduction of aquatic wildlife in this part of Peru’s Amazon Basin.