Peru plans to plant one million trees at Machu Picchu
With Andean Adventures Peru, you can help to reforest Peru when you hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu! As part of our company’s commitment to sustainable tourism and the protection of Peru’s incomparable natural heritage, we are pleased to announce that we are among the first travel companies in Cusco to formally join the new government initiative designed to reforest parts of the wilderness areas surrounding the Inca city of Machu Picchu.
On Thursday, January 9th 2020, Peru’s president, Martin Vizcarra, together with the government’s minister for the environment, Fabiola Muñoz, visited Machu Picchu to launch the new “One tourist, one tree” initiative. The stated aim of the campaign is to plant one million trees within the 32,592-hectare Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary and its protective Buffer Zone.
The goal of the project is to replant an area of more than 779 hectares particularly affected by manmade deforestation. It is estimated that one million trees native to the Andes will be required to bring the area back to its former condition as a haven for Andean species of fauna including spectacled bears and the more than four hundred species of birds known to inhabit other sectors of the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary.
The area surrounding the ruins of Machu Picchu, including the Inca Trail and the many other archaeological sites located on that famous trekking route, is known as one of the most biologically diverse areas of the Cusco region. The territory of the Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary, ranging from the subtropical forests located at 1700 meters to the high grasslands found at more than 4200 meters above sea level, is home to an extraordinary variety of ecosystems, each of which shelters many important species of fauna and flora.
In addition to enabling travelers to support conservation by planting a tree when they hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, it is hoped that the new campaign will serve to encourage the more than five thousand people who are residents of the Machu Picchu area to contribute more actively to conservation of the local environment, and to adjust their practices in order to reduce their own impact upon the natural world.
If you’d like to experience the destinations and activities mentioned in this article, contact us and we’ll help you create your Peru vacation!
