Animals Suddenly Protected in Peru Paradise: Photos [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Animals Suddenly Protected in Peru Paradise: Photos
Nov 13, 2015 09:30 AM ET // by Jennifer Viegas



This week, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala approved the creation of a 3.3-million-acre national park at Sierra del Divisor, where at least 3,000 species of plants and animals are known to live.

Larger than Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks combined, Sierra del Divisor forms one of the largest contiguous blocks of protected land in the Amazon, protecting one of the planet's final remaining strongholds for wildlife and indigenous communities.

The U.S. nonprofit organization Rainforest Trust collaborated with the Center for the Development of an Indigenous Amazon (CEDIA), as well as local indigenous peoples and Peru's government, to create the new national park.

Conservationists hope that the tropical paradise will improve the prospects of the many endangered animals, such as jaguars, which live within the lush park's boundaries and are the biggest cats in the Americas.

More:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/animals-suddenly-protected-in-peru-paradise-photos-151113.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

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'El Cono' at Sierra del Divisor National Park

Cerro "El Cono" is a 1,608-foot mountain peak in Ucayali, Peru, at the new national park. It ranks as the 12th highest mountain in Ucayali.

Salaman said that this iconic peak towers "above the vast plain of Amazon forest surrounding it."

Because of so much rainforest, Sierra del Divisor and adjacent White-Sands National Reserve are estimated to store approximately 1 billion tons of carbon, which is an amount equal to the average annual emissions of all vehicles on the road in the U.S.
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