Matsiguenga Communal Reserve was established by means of Supreme Decree Nº 003-2003-AG on March the 15th of 2003. It is located in the mid part of the eastern side of the Cordillera of Vilcabamba, in the District of Echarate, Province of La Convención, in the Department of Cusco, covering a surface of 218905.63 hectares.
This Reserve was created for the purpose of preserving the biological diversity of this zone in favour of the Matsiguenga native communities living in this region of the country. The mid and upper parts of the Cordillera of Vilcabamba are very important for the native communities, because they represent a source of resources that are used as food, medicine and to build their homes, besides having an important magical religious significance.
The Matsiguenga base their economy on agriculture, complementing it with fishing, hunting, recollection, and the production of handicraft on a small-scale. They keep in this way an economy of subsistence, mainly orientated towards satisfying their immediate family needs.
The geography of this zone is mainly mountainous and sheathed with tropical vegetation. It has diverse altitudinal floors that house a great biodiversity and which comprise ecosystems ample enough as to protect important populations of little known species.
The following Life Zones have been identified within the area: Tropical Mountainous Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Mountainous Rainforest, Tropical Mountainous Lower Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Mountainous Lower Rainforest, Tropical Pre-Mountainous Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Rainforest, Tropical Pre-Mountainous Very Misty Forest, and Sub-Tropical Very Misty Forest.
The predominant vegetal species are those characteristic of the tropical misty forest, such as the cedar (Cedrela sp.), and the mahogany (Maena Capimori), amongst great vegetation diversity. The fauna is also much variegated with mammals such as the jaguar (Panthera onça), the tapir (Tapirus terrestris), the deer (Mazama americana), and the puma (Puma concolor), besides different types of monkeys, standing out.
Amongst the main bird species identified in the Reserve, we have the sparrow hawk (Buteo magnirostris), the green kingfisher (Chloroceryle sp.), the lesser yellow-headed vulture (Coragyps atratus), and the King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa). The main objective of Matsiguenga Communal Reserve is to protect the great biological diversity of the zone in view that its conservation contributes to the development of the native communitieS.
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