Amarakaeri Communal Reserve

Amarakaeri is a communal reserve, a Peruvian category that puts management in the hands of the indigenous communities whose ancestral territory it covers - here the Harakbut, along with Yine and Machiguenga - working alongside the state park service. It covers about 402,000 hectares of forested hills between the Madre de Dios and Colorado rivers, upstream of the goldfields, and it protects the headwaters that feed the whole lower basin. Community-run tourism operates on a small scale: guided walks, river trips, waterfalls, canopy platforms and stays in community lodges, arranged through the association ECA Amarakaeri rather than commercial operators. The reserve is under constant pressure from illegal gold mining and from hydrocarbon concessions overlapping it, and the communities have been in a long legal and political struggle over both. Visits are modest in scale and depend on arrangements made in advance.

What you actually see

• The community management - a reserve run by Harakbut, Yine and Machiguenga associations.
• The headwaters - forested hills feeding the lower Madre de Dios basin.
• The community tourism - guided walks, river trips, waterfalls and local lodges.
• The pressures - illegal gold mining and overlapping concessions on the boundaries.

When to go

May to October for river and trail conditions. Two to five days. Everything must be arranged in advance through the community association; there is no turning up.

Honest expectations

Facilities are simple and capacity is small - book well ahead. Getting there involves rough roads and river travel. Wildlife is present but not easily seen. Nearby mining areas are unsafe and off any itinerary.

Nearby

Manu National Park is north-west; Puerto Maldonado is downriver.