CHAPARRI RESERVE

                        CHAPARRI RESERVE

This is a private reserve created thanks to effort of the community of Santa Catalina and the famous Peruvian photograher Heinz Plenge.

Here there is a very interesting Spectacled bear conservation program that aims to protect the existing wild population of Spectacled bear and involved the population in conservation. At the moment Chaparri has about 7 bears.

The Chaparri Private Conservation Area was established by the local community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape in 2000. The community established the reserve to protect their natural resources and to allow them to seek for sustainable alternatives to reduce poverty and improve standards of living in the area. The community embarked upon this integrated conservation development approach under their own initiative and with the support of a local conservation development organisation, Asociacion Naymlap. The creation of the reserve required a new piece of legislation to be created recognising privately owned conservation areas.

 
CONSERVATION IMPORTANCE OF THE RESERVE

The reserve is a key site for conservation at an international level. The reserve lies within the Tumbesian region which is famous for its many unique species and is widely recognised as one of the world’s highest conservation priorities, by groups including BirdLife International, Conservation International, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy and Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The reserve supports many species endemic to the Tumbesian region and seven that are considered globally threatened with extinction by the IUCN. These include the critically threatened White-winged Guan which now has a wild population of less than 200 individuals and the Spectacled Bear. We still know relatively little about the reserve as is indicated by the discovery of a new species of Porcupine here in 2004.