In Peru’s far north, rivers converge and shape parallel worlds.

Here, along the Colombian border, a rush from the Andes merges with the Algodón, a meandering trickle the color of well-steeped tea. These waters feed floodplains, swamps and forests that support species found nowhere else on Earth.

Now, after more than a decade of work led by Indigenous communities, this remarkable corner of Amazonia has been officially protected by the Peruvian government.

With support from Conservation International, on June 6 the government established the Medio Putumayo-Algodón Regional Conservation Area, protecting 283,000 hectares (700,000 acres) — roughly four times the size of New York City.

As part of the process, 16 Indigenous communities received formal legal recognition — strengthening their territorial rights and ensuring they can continue fishing the rivers, harvesting fruits and gathering medicinal plants as they have for generations. For the nearly 5,000 Indigenous people living within the new protected area, the protections not only preserve their way of life, but also open the door for future opportunities, like ecotourism.

“We hope that this protected area will bring benefits to our communities,” said Gervinson Perdomo Chavez, former chief of the Indigenous Puerto Franco community. “We are going to watch over our forest so that foreign people do not enter our territory, and so we prevent the illegal extraction of wood and gold that harms us a lot.”

The Medio Putumayo is the newest piece in a vast conservation mosaic that connects three existing protected areas and stretches 18,000 square kilometers (7,000 square miles) — an area roughly twice the size of Puerto Rico. These interconnected protected areas enable wildlife to travel freely — and could act as a bulwark against extinction for threatened species.

But the benefits go beyond biodiversity. The new protected area contains one of the largest carbon stocks in Peru — storing the equivalent carbon emissions of 14 million cars driven for one year. Protecting the world’s carbon stocks is critical for staving off the worst consequences of climate change: In a recent study, Conservation International scientists found that protected forests keep an additional 10 billion metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere. That’s equivalent to one year of global fossil fuel emissions.

Peru has committed to protecting 30 percent of its natural ecosystems by 2030 in line with the global “30 by 30” pledge. Protecting the Medio Putumayo-Algodón is expected to prevent more than 46,000 hectares of deforestation over the next 20 years — helping the country move closer toward that goal, while keeping vast stores of carbon in the ground.

“This protection gives Indigenous communities what they’ve long called for — the ability to keep this forest standing,” said Yadira Díaz, a scientist with Conservation International. “It secures one of the most unique corners of Amazonia — for the benefit of us all.”

Mary Kate McCoy is a staff writer and Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.

Source: www.conservation.org