Amazon Tours – Tambopata Lodge – Travel Agency

Peru is a country with a population of almost 31 million people. The Amazon accounts for 60% of the national territory but is home to only 9.41% of the population. It is Peru’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse territory. There are five regions located in the Peruvian Amazon, (also called the Peruvian jungle): Amazonas, Loreto, Madre de Dios, San Martin and Ucayali. While the Peruvian Amazon is rich in natural resources, this wealth has not translated into the well-being of its inhabitants. Activities such as the extraction of rubber, petrol and gold have exposed the Amazonian population to exploitation, migration and diseases of the western world. Accessing this area by land is difficult, if not impossible. Providing basic health services, education, protection and water and sanitation are among some of the major challenges faced by the Peruvian State.

The exclusion of Amazonian communities is reflected in the situation of children and adolescents. For example, chronic malnutrition affects 4 out of every 100 children under five years of age in Lima (Peru’s capital) compared to 29 out of every 100 in the rural regions of the Amazon. The inequities between children living on the coast, in the highlands and jungle are surprising, but are even greater when the comparison is made between the urban coast and the rural jungle. Sixty-eight per cent of indigenous children and adolescents in the Peruvian Amazon live in poverty. Three of the five Amazonian regions have the highest rates of multidimensional child poverty: Loreto (80%), Ucayali (77%) and Amazonas (76%). UNICEF works in these three regions. Child Survival and Development, Education, Protection, Public Policy and Prevention and Risk Management are the main areas of UNICEF’s work for children and adolescents in the Peruvian Amazon.