Last December 21st, 2020, the ARBIO forest was added to the Fragile Ecosystems in Madre de Dios list.
The National Forestry and Wildlife Service (SERFOR) from the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Watering added 24 Fragile Ecosystems to the Sectorial List of Fragile Ecosystems in Madre de Dios –with an area of 205 028 hectares–, among which was the ARBIO forest in the basin of the Las Piedras river, Tambopata province. This was done in coordination with the regional authorities, local communities and establishments, native communities, conservation concessionaries, and ecotourism concessions.
Fragile ecosystems are areas of high conservation value, rich in wildlife of all kinds –flora and fauna–, where endangered species and endemic species make their home, and where healthy natural habitats can be found that offer ecosystemic services for the benefit of the local population.
With this inclusion, ARBIO is now one of the 154 fragile ecosystems in Perú that make up the aforementioned list and are thus a part of the Ecologic Protection and Conservation Zone of the forest land classification.
With this categorization of the ARBIO forest as one of the fragile ecosystems of high conservation value, we dearly hope the regional and local authorities will see to it that there’s a special management for its protection. This would entail actually setting in motion control procedures, supervision rounds, inspections in the area, and forest vigilance; all of this in accordance to the Institutional Action Protocol for the Management and Protection of the Ecosystems included in the Sectorial List of Fragile Ecosystems, which was approved in August of 2020 by the Supreme Decree N° 007-2020-MINAGRI.
This is a call from ARBIO to the authorities for this to come true. For this decree to not stay in dead writing since, even to this day, the forest it manages is threatened by the impunity of the daily, constant, and ever-expanding illegal activities of the region.