MAAP #93: Shrinking Primary Forests of The Peruvian Amazon

October 8, 2018

The primary forests of the Peruvian Amazon, the second largest stretch of the Amazon after Brazil, are steadily shrinking due to deforestation.

Base Map. Data: SERNANP, IBC, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, PNCB/MINAM, GLCF/UMD, ANA.
Base Map. Data: SERNANP, IBC, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, PNCB/MINAM, GLCF/UMD, ANA.

Here, we analyze both historic and current data to identify the patterns.

The good news: As the Base Map shows, the Peruvian Amazon is still home to extensive primary forest.* We estimate the current extent of Peruvian Amazon primary forest to be 67 million hectares (165 million acres), greater than the total area of France.

Importantly, we found that 48% of the current primary forests (32.2 million hectares) are located in officially recognized protected areas and indigenous territories (see Annex).**

The bad news: The Peruvian Amazon primary forests are steadily shrinking.

We estimate the original extent of primary forests to be 73.1 million hectares (180.6 million acres). Thus, there has been a historic loss of 6.1 million hectares (15 million acres), or 8% of the original. A third of the historic loss (2 million hectares) has occurred since 2001.

Below, we show three zooms (in GIF format) of the expanding deforestation, and shrinking primary forests, in the southern, central, and northern Peruvian Amazon.