For your Peru jungle trip, choose to visit primary rainforest
11 October 2024 (185 visits)When you plan your vacation, make sure that you choose to visit primary rainforest during your Peru jungle trip. From our comfortable jungle lodge, at Tambopata Ecolodge we have been protecting an area of Amazon rainforest since 1991. In our own Private Conservation Area, and also in Tambopata National Reserve, for which we serve as an important buffer zone, we offer our guests jungle trips to see wildlife and experience Amazon plant life.
While we have worked for the past three decades to recover and protect forest that had previously been impacted by human activity –known to biologists as secondary forest- we like to take our guests into primary rainforest habitat, where they have the best chance of seeing and photographing wild animals, during their jungle tour with us.
Primary rainforest is composed of pristine vegetation, unaffected by any human activity. These habitats are characterized by a full canopy, over multiple layers of understory. In primary rainforest, the ground level is almost entirely clear of dense vegetation, because the thick canopy only allows limited sunlight to penetrate downward to the forest floor. Periodically, on the occasions when trees fall, this canopy is opened up, allowing for the growth of plants below. Primary forests are considered the most biologically diverse type of forest, and the Amazon basin is home to the largest expanse of tropical rainforest found anywhere on Earth.
Secondary forests are rainforests that have been disturbed by some type of human activity, such as logging, agriculture or mining. They are characterized by a minimal canopy structure, reduced biological diversity, and generally smaller trees. A less dense canopy means that more sunlight reaches the forest floor, which therefore supports more ground level vegetation.
Recent research has shown that, when they are left to thrive, secondary forests recover their biological diversity much more quickly than previously thought. Our own conservation work at Tambopata Ecolodge supports this finding: the areas of secondary forest that we have bought and protected over the past 30 years have certainly recovered very quickly, and they continue to do so, with animals, including jaguars, having returned to areas they had previously abandoned.
When you visit the rainforest in Peru, with our eco-lodge as your base, you are helping to support our decades-long conservation work.
