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Sunrise in the Bella Durmiente cloud forest. Under its shadows, hidden in the thick
foliage, a Peruvian cock of the rock – Peru’s national bird – prepares itself to perform
its loud and alluring mating dance that, if successful, will guarantee the perpetuation of
his family. A blue morpho butterfly flutters among the leaves of a cedar tree a few meters
away looking for some fruit. In the caves, the oilbirds are resting after a long night of fruit
searching. Suddenly, an explosion of sounds – birds, insects, monkeys, and running water
– awakens the forest all at once. The sun appears over the mountaintops and creeps its
way over the treetops, burning off the thick fog that covers the forest. Another day begins
in the Tingo Maria National Park.
This moment has forever been repeated on the eastern slopes of the Andes, one of the
most productive and biodiverse ecosystems the world over, characterized by its high level
of precipitation and nearly permanent shroud of fog created by evapotranspiration.
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The Peruvian yungas – the most widespread ecoregion in the Tingo Maria National Park
– creates a band of montane forests that starts at the Huancabamba Depression and
marches southerly across the Andean slopes at an elevation between 600 and 3500 meters,
covering an area of nearly 250,000 km2. These forests are among the richest on the planet
in terms of biological diversity and endemism and are home to several important species,
like the Peruvian cock of the rock and the Andean bear.
Even though the yungas possesses enormous biological diversity, it is a region of great
fragility, threatened by the constant growth of Amazonian cities as well as the unchecked
use of natural resources. Its forests protect a spectacular community of plant species that
Tingo María National Park, 50 years