Caura National Park

The Caura National Park is a protected area with the status of National Park in Venezuela. With an area of 7,534,000 ha. it is the largest park in the country and the most recently created.
The Caura River is a tributary of the Orinoco and drains an area of the Guianan Highlands moist forests.

History

In 1968 the government of Raúl Leoni decreed the creation of several protected spaces including forest reserves that include the Caura Area; in 2008 the government of Hugo Chávez created the Caura Plan to protect the resources of this river basin.
Finally in March 2017 the administration of Nicolás Maduro decreed the creation of the Caura National Park to preserve the spaces of this extensive region between the states of Bolívar and Amazonas. Its first management plan was presented in March 2018.

Ecosystem

Flora

This reserve is located in the life zone of the tropical rainforest. The most important plant species are cabimo oil, carob tree, araguaney, mahogany and carapa, among many others, with a surface of 7.534.000 Ha., average annual temperature of and average annual rainfall of.

Fauna

The representative fauna of the Caura National Park includes tapirs, white-cheeked peccary, white-tailed turkeys and red-tailed turkeys, the anteater, the limpet, the beak, the collared peccary, the yellow-bellied spider monkey, rabipelados, cachicamos and deer and cranes. It is also home to large carnivores such as the jaguar, puma and tayra. Many of these populations are affected by hunting pressure due to population growth, according to research by the University of Washington and the Wildlife Conservation Society published in 2016.