We continue to protect our corner of the Peruvian Amazon
11 March 2022 (517 visits)At a time when the Amazon rainforest is experiencing unprecedented threats and stresses, at Tambopata Ecolodge we continue to protect one corner of the Peruvian Amazon through our Private Conservation Area, and to help protect the pristine ecosystems of our immediate neighbor, Tambopata National Reserve, where we operate our ecotourism packages.
Experts have been warning since the beginning of this century that the Amazon forest will reach a tipping point, when global climate change will become irreversible as the Amazon basin is rendered incapable of producing enough rainfall to sustain itself.
Until recently, it was thought that this degradation of the rainforests, leading to vast areas being transformed into a much drier savannah ecosystem, would be reached within the next twenty years.
However, a recent study has reported that the Amazon is already on the verge of that world-changing tipping point. The study suggests that the world’s largest surviving rainforest is seeing its resilience eroded. In other words, it is losing its ability to recover from periodic droughts, seasonal fires, and ongoing deforestation.
In South America, what this means is that huge areas of tropical forest are at risk of becoming savannah, a very different ecosystem composed of sparse tree cover and grasslands. Such areas are far less efficient at removing carbon dioxide from the air, meaning that the continent would cease to act as a vast carbon sink, while the carbon currently trapped by the forests of the Amazon would be released into the atmosphere. Already, according to the study, some parts of the Amazon have begun to produce more carbon than they absorb.
The enormous pressure being exerted on the world’s largest rainforest is the result of a drive by the nine countries that share custodianship of the Amazon to grow their economies. In this context, many environmentalists argue that the only way to conserve the forests for the future is to demonstrate to local populations that they can become a source of income while being left to flourish.
At Tambopata Ecolodge, in our own Private Conservation Area and through our ecoadventure activities in Tambopata National Reserve, for more than three decades we have been leading the way in ecotourism-based rainforest conservation. This means that when our guests come to stay with us and experience the rainforest through our naturalist-guided excursions, they are helping to protect our corner of the rainforest for the future. And, at the same time, they are helping us to show the Peruvian people that the Amazon is important to their own future.
At Tambopata Ecolodge, we believe that the Amazon will only survive going forward if eco-lodges like our own can continue to attract international tourism. And that is why we continue to work to protect our corner of the Amazon forest, and to invite travelers from all over the world to contribute to our work, simply by coming to experience their own once-in-a-lifetime adventure in the tropical forests of southeastern Peru.
