This forest land is the training center and laboratory for learning about nature and wildlife.
Sharing is our commitment.
Luz M. Melendez Preserve is a rainforest land of 65 acres (25 hectares), of protected forest, situated along the large Madre de Dios River about 30 minutes by boat from Puerto Maldonado City. The habitat includes a primary floodplain forest, river succession or riverine forest, sandbanks, ponds, and forest gaps. Luz M. Melendez Preserve is seasonally flooded, it has rich soils due to annual sediment deposits from river floods. The land is often wanted for agriculture and therefore is amongst the most threatened in the area.
This piece of rainforest land is in the stages of succession, with Kapok trees, Ironwood trees, wild garlic trees, palm trees, and fig trees, and Cecropia trees. This forest also frequently have terraces, one or meters higher than others, which represent historical floods.
The forest and vegetation on each terrace are in a different stage of succession and of different age, then the others. To the untrained eye, this is unnoticeable, but to a botanist, it is like moving from one neighborhood to another in a large city.
• Implementation of Gardens for hummingbirds in Tambopata.
• Environmental Education in the Luz Marina Meléndez Reserve and the Collpa la Cachuela.
• Biological Monitoring of Mammals Through Trap Chambers in the Luz Marina Melendez Reserve.
• Evaluation of the tourism potential and inventory in the Luz Marina Melendez Reserve.
To participate in our projects more information here:
Research Coordinator: Ruth Caviedes.