Andes

NCI is working to protect Peru’s northern montane forests, an ecosystem with extremely high biological diversity due to their varied ecological zones and high species endemism. These Andean cloud forests occupy only a relatively thin band of forest between the puna and Amazonian lowlands, which becomes critical to protect – especially as their steep slopes and fragile soils make them highly susceptible to erosion and degradation.

In the past, these rich montane forests were protected by their inaccessibility and inhospitable, steep slopes. However, they are now endangered throughout their entire length by forest clearing and fragmentation resulting from the encroachment of agriculture and the construction of secondary roads.

One of the chief strategies to conserve such important natural areas is the establishment and management of Natural Protected Areas (PAs) in key sites. Because of the uniqueness and endemism in the eastern slope forests of the Andes, a chain of protected areas should be established and effectively protected along the length of this ecosystem, together with appropriate social development plans.