At 20,800 sq km, this is the largest of Peru's parks and reserves. Typically, Pacaya-Samiria provides local people with food and a home, and protects ecologically important habitats. In this case 42,000 people live in and around the reserve. Juggling the needs of the human inhabitants while protecting wildlife is the job of 20-30 rangers. Staff also teach inhabitants how to best harvest the natural renewable resources to benefit the local people and to maintain thriving populations of plants and animals.

The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, second largest natural protected area in Peru, covers an area of over 2,000,000 hectares and has an amazing biodiversity and is home to a small number of native communities that live off the Reserve’s resources. It is also the largest protected flood forest in the Amazon region.

Located in the heart of Peru’s amazonian sub-equatorial tropics, it is bounded on the north by the Marañon river and on the south by the Ucayali-Puinahua. The Samiria, Pacaya and Yanayacu-Pucate are the three main river basins within its territory.

The reserve is home of aquatic animals such as Amazon manatees, pink and grey river dolphins, two species of caiman, Giant South American river turtles, and many others. Monkeys and birds are abundant.