Sharing the Manu Landscape through images

Without a doubt, Manu National Park is one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. In its almost two million hectares, more than 1,000 species of birds, 223 of mammals, 1,300 of butterflies, 300 of ants, and more than 300 species of amphibians and reptiles have been recorded. As an example of its extreme biodiversity, up to 250 tree species have been recorded in a single hectare of forest.

On May 29th, Manu National Park celebrated its first 50 years and to mark the occasion, SERNANP, together with organizations such as San Diego Zoo Global Peru, Amazon Conservation, Grupo Viajeros, and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, inaugurated a travelling photographic exhibition that has begun its journey in Lima. The inauguration event was held on May 4 at the Centro Cultural de España (CCE), one of the most prestigious points of diffusion of the arts in the city, and in parallel at the Gran Teatro Nacional, where it was attended by the President of the Republic, Dina Boluarte, as well as several members of the ministerial cabinet.

 

At the CCE, the exhibition was inaugurated by the Ambassador of Spain, Alejandro Alvargonzáles. It included speeches by Marcos Pastor Rozas, Director of Strategic Development of SERNANP, as well as by Juan José Jara, specialist of Manu National Park, and Gabriel Herrera, communicator of Regenera and producer of the exhibition.

 

The curatorship of the exhibition -which includes 80 images by renowned photographers from Peru and abroad- was in charge of Jessica Groenendijk, Regenera’s communications coordinator, Oscar Mujica, photographer of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, and Joel Mendoza, specialist of Manu National Park.

The work of photographers of the stature of Frans Lanting and Charlie Hamilton James, both from the ranks of National Geographic are represented in the exhibition. Alongside them are images by Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner André Bärstchi, as well as Walter H. Wust, Christian Quispe, Dano Grayson, Paul Bertner, Fortunato Rayan Quispe and Oscar Mujica.

In addition to photographs displaying the geography, wildlife, culture and management of Manu, there is an immersive room that transports the visitor for a few minutes to the jungles of Manu through a video that – as the eagle flies – shows all the geographical areas of the park.

The exhibition runs until June 10 in Lima and will then move to the cities of Cusco, Puerto Maldonado and Pilcopata, before ending as a permanent exhibition at the Limonal guard post, in the heart of Manu.

This cultural event is carbon neutral through Regenera, and offsets its footprint through the conservation and forest restoration actions of the indigenous Matsigenka communities that make up the Manu Landscape.