On Saturday, March 12, the Pampa Hermosa Reserved Zone was established through Ministerial Resolution No. 0275-2005-AG. The 9,575.09-hectare zone represents one of the last refuges for flora and fauna characteristic of the cloud forests. This natural protected area is located in the Tarma and Chanchamayo provinces of the Junín district, and is a representative sample of the Peruvian Yungas ecoregion.
The reserve zone was established to protect a relict community with a particular assemblage of endemic plants and animals, including cedars (Cedrela sp.) and podocarpus (Podocarpus sp.)
In the Pampa Hermosa Reserved Zone, new amphibian species have been found, as well as fauna species that are considered vulnerable, such as the southern Amazon red squirrel (Sciureus pyrrhinus), and threatened species like the semicollared hawk (Accipiter collaris), grey-breasted mountain-toucan (Andigena hypoglauca), and black-mandibled toucan (Ramphastos ambiguus).
Conserving this area has a strategic quality in the regional ecosystem, benefiting the nearby communities of La Promisora, Chuquisyunca, Putaca, Nueva Italia, Pichita, and Lourdes, as well as the neighboring cities of San Ramón y La Merced. Likewise, the area contributes to conserving part of the environment where the Ashaninkan culture developed its cosmic vision, and it is probably a sacred place to which they lost access.
The landscape alternates between high cliffs, deep abysses, beautiful waterfalls, virgin forests, and a complex hydrologic system, with river canyons, torrents, gorges, and waterfalls that sustain the wild fauna. Because of these features and the diversity of ecosystems– which in other parts of the region and of the country as a whole have been degraded–the area is of major conservation importance. The Pampa Hermosa Reserved Zone is number 59 in the National System of Natural Protected Areas of Peru (SINANPE), which covers a total of 16,591,743.08 hectares, or 12.91% of the country\’s area.
ParksWatch-Peru, March 2005