The Great Journey

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[ The Perplexed Indigenous People: Who is the World Heritage for? ]

The water from rain, snow, and hail that fall in the Andes pours into the Peruvian Amazon. Manu National Park that stretches itself out in the southeastern Peru is the largest nature preserve in this country. In the area the size of Shikoku Island in Japan, there is a wide range of topography including the tropical lowland at an altitude of 300 m and the highland at 4,000 m. When the damp air from the plain of Amazon hits the Andes, it becomes fog. This contributes to high humidity and plenty of rain. The forest, which is called "a crying forest," is always in the fog or in rain and almost rejects human use. When moving on Manu River in a boat, you see many birds, monkeys, and turtles. A tapir swims across the river and a group of peccaries run along the river. Sometimes, a jaguar stares out at you. The Peruvian government praises the reserve as "a precious heritage of mankind." But there are lots of complaints among the indigenous people who have lived here from the ancient times. "Since it was named as natural preserve, we can't hunt efficiently. We hunt only to eat our game. We've been doing this for a long time. We never root out animals by hunting them for sale. We don't think they will be extinct," they said.