Tucupita Municipality
The Tucupita Municipality is one of the four municipalities that makes up the eastern Venezuelan state of Delta Amacuro and, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, the municipality has a population of 93,368. The town of Tucupita is the municipal of the Tucupita Municipality.
History
The city of Tucupita was founded in 1848. The city's population began making significant growth in 1933 thanks to the petroleum exploration in the region that lasted until the early 1960s.Geography
Delta Amacuro consists almost entirely of the swampy Orinoco River Delta. The hot and humid Tucupita lies well into the delta on the Caño Manamo river. It is approached by a road which runs along the top of a gigantic barrier constructed in the 1960s to create dry land. The project is considered by many to be a failure since little dry land was created and massive ecological disruption was caused by salt water penetration of the delta.The delta is covered mostly by mangrove swamp but there is a huge range of other flora and fauna making it one of the world's more ecologically diverse places. Significant amounts of oil have been discovered in the western parts of the delta and there is apprehension that exploitation of this oil will cause substantial ecological damage.