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© WWF / Eduardo RUIZ
The Department of Pando, located in the North of Bolivia, is part of the Amazon and has vast areas of forest that cover almost its entire territory. It is an area of high biological diversity and ranked among one of the 10 conservation priorities worldwide.
In 1996, the Land Use Plan (referred to in Bolivia as PLUS) was approved for Department of Pando as a first effort, at the departmental level, to guide and ensure an adequate use of the land, designating the most apt use for the land (for example, forestry, farming, agriculture, pasture, protection, among others), according to its potential and limitations. The PLUS also defined the general guidelines for the adequate occupation of the land, optimizing the distribution of human settlements, access to health, education and other basic services, the location of road infrastructure including support for production.
Within this Bolivian Amazon sub-region, WWF supports the Manuripi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve.
The Manuripi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve, located in the south-eastern part of the Department of Pando (Bolivia), is the largest protected area in terms of Amazon forest extension and also represents the best example of biodiversity of this ecosystem in Bolivia.
The Reserve was created to conserve humid tropical Amazon forest. Although the decree creating the Reserve dates back to December 1973, it wasn’t until 1999 that it was placed under the direct administration of the National Service for Protected areas (referred to in Bolivia as Sernap).
The following has been recorded for the Reserve:
- 112 species of fish (up until now, 2 of the species are new to science)
- 538 species of plants (the majority of them first recordings for the Reserve)
- 83 amphibians (32 are new recordings for the Reserve, 3 are new for the Department of Pando and 4 are new for Bolivia)
- 77 species of reptiles (13 are new recordings for the Reserve)
- 501 species of birds (31 are new recordings for the Reserve, 6 are new recordings for Pando and 1 new recording for Bolivia)
- 150 species of mammals (20 species are new recordings for the Reserve and 8 are new recordings for the Department of Pando).
The high number of species per taxa and the ascending curve for species accumulation for fauna suggest that the area is relatively healthy and that the number of species will continue increasing as further studies are carried out in the future, which could lead this Reserve to be considered one of the most diverse in Bolivia.
WWF Bolivia’s support to Manuripi Protected Area
Within its Amazon Program, WWF Bolivia, in close coordination with Sernap and Moore Foundation (WWF US) funding, supports the following lines of action:
- Protection infrastructure equipment and construction
- Park guard training
- Sustainable Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) management with local actors.