Sunrise over the Kosñipata Valley, one of the gateways to the Western Amazon, the most biologically-rich area of forest on the planet. Photo taken August 17 by Rhett Butler
The forests of the Western Amazon in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru are believed the be the most biodiverse on Earth. But these are increasingly threatened by gold mining, old and gas development, hydroelectric projects, new roads, logging, and industrial agriculture. Forests in this region are being destroyed particularly fast in Peru, where the above picture was taken.
This image is one of more than 100 in the first set of photos from mongabay.com’s visit to Peru last week. This set — which includes photos from areas bordering Manu National Park (1,600-8,000 feet in elevation) — is available on both Google Plus and Facebook. Two additional sets will be posted in coming weeks. Eventually a large selection of photos from the trip (more than 1,500) will be fully captioned and available on mongabay.com.
