There are five departments in the Peruvian jungle: Loreto, Amazonas, San Martín, Ucayali and Madre de Dios. This jungle, also called the Amazon, covers 60% of the South American country.
Despite its size, the population of this region only reaches 9.4% of the country's population. However, in this area there is the greatest variety of ethnic groups and native languages of Peru.
The biodiversity of the Peruvian Amazon is one of the richest in the world. This is due to the fact that it has different altitudinal floors at its junction with the Andes mountain range. This situation gives rise to the large number of particular environments that characterize it.
Departments of the jungle of Peru
Loreto
With an area of 368,852 km², Loreto is the largest of the Peruvian departments.
This department of the Peruvian Amazon jungle is located in the extreme northeast of the country and is bordered by Ecuador to the northwest, Colombia to the northeast and Brazil to the east.
On the other hand, Loreto is territorially divided into 7 provinces and 51 districts. 3.3% of the Peruvian population lives in this area.
In this department live 705 indigenous communities of the total of 1786 in the whole nation. And its main productive sectors are: commerce, services, agriculture, hunting, forestry and manufacturing.
Amazon
The department of Amazonas has an area of 39,249.13 km ², and is one of the least populated nationwide, with 1.35% of the total.
Amazonas is located in the northeast of Peru. Its territorial limits are: to the north with Ecuador, to the east with Loreto, to the southeast with San Martín, to the south with La Libertad and to the west with Cajamarca.
As for its provinces, it has seven in total: Chachapoyas, Bagua, Bongará, Condorcanqui, Luya, Rodríguez de Mendoza and Utcubamba.
Between all they add 84 districts. Its economic activities include agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, and tourism.
San Martin
The Madre de Dios department is located in the southeastern region of the country, bordering to the north with the department of Ucayali and the Republic of Brazil, to the east with the countries Brazil and Bolivia, to the west with Cusco and to the south with Cusco and Puno. It includes an area of 85,300.54 km².
This Peruvian department is the one with the smallest population, with a demographic density of 1.4 inhabitants / km².
Its capital is Puerto Maldonado, and it has 3 provinces (Tambopata, Manu and Tahuamanu) with a total of 11 districts. The main economic activity of Madre de Dios is mining.
References
- UNICEF Peru. (2014, October). Building a world of opportunities for the children of the Amazon. Recovered from unicef.org.
- The Amazon rainforest: the lung of the world. (2016, April 09). Long Island a day. Recovered from lialdia.com.
- Characterization of the Department of Loreto. (s / f). Central Reserve Bank of Peru. Recovered from bcrp.gob.pe.
- Georeferential Folder Amazonas Peru Region. (2016). Information Management and Statistics Office. General Parliamentary Directorate. Recovered from congreso.gob.pe.
- Characterization of the Department of San Martín. (s / f). Central Reserve Bank of Peru. Recovered from bcrp.gob.pe.
- Georeferential Folder Ucayali Peru Region. (2016). Information Management and Statistics Office. General Parliamentary Directorate. Recovered from congreso.gob.pe.
- Regional Population Program of the Madre de Dios Region 2013 - 2017. (2012). Regional Government of Madre de Dios Regional Management of Social Development. Recovered from mimp.gob.pe.