The Reserve (12 400 square km) is located about an hour boat ride away from Tefe, around the Rio Japura. Together with a neighbouring Reserve Amana (no tourist facilities here) and the National Park Jau, it forms the largest protected area in the Brazilian rain forest. The unique thing about Mamiraua is that it protects a flooded forest, meaning that when the snow melts in the Andes there is hardly any dry land here, so all the terrestrial animals have to survive on the trees and have to be good swimmers. Therefore there are not so many mammalian species here as in the usual rain forest. E.g. peccary or armadillo cannot survive here, but on the other hand it is a paradise for fish and the birds feeding on them, as well as for aquatic mammals, like the pink dolphin. It also means that the trees had to adopt to being under water for half a year. It is very difficult for their seedlings to survive and therefore the bottom levels of the forest are quite sparse (almost like in a European forest). After the flooding is gone, in the dry season it is possible to walk around and the animals can move down to the ground as well.
An other interesting thing about the Reserve is that it became protected following a researcher's studies here, who was observing the white uakari monkey (undoubtedly the ugliest monkey there is). He found out that this monkey only lives in this very confounded area and thus its whole home range has been declared protected and the monkey itself as an endangered species. How this researcher has managed to achieve that might be an interesting story.
So this is the area where we decided to undertake our jungle experience. We have spent 4 nights in the only lodge of the Reserve located on its edge. There is no other way of visiting the reserve. The area that the tourists may visit is restricted to a mere 35 square km. But even after 4 days there it did not seem too small, as we visited different parts of it. We arrived in the dry-to-wet transition period, so we could do both walks and boat tours. In the flooded period only the latter is possible. Because of the high amount of fish, there were many many fish-eating animals around, including birds (egrets, herons, cormorants, kingfishers etc.), caimans, and predator fish (including the largest fresh water fish, the pirarucu which can grow up to 200 kg) and of course the dolphins, both the grey and the pink river dolphins. The oxygen level of the water is quite low, particularly during the hot dry season when the rotting plant material also consumes quite a lot. Therefore the fish have developed different oxygen capturing methods. The pirarucu for example has to surface in every few minutes (with a huge splashing usually) and swallow air from which the oxygen is absorbed in its bladder. Other fish have similar organs or have tentacles around their mouth which acts as an additional oxygen filter.
The program at the lodge included jungle hikes on prepared paths, canoing, motor boat excursion, spotlighting at night on foot and from the boat and a presentation of a research project which is currently running in the reserve . There are around 50 different projects to chose from and we listened to one about the boto – the pink river dolphin. The wildlife viewing was a great experience, not only because we saw much more animals than I expected (including a sloth and coatis and all 5 resident monkey species), but also because our guide Pedro was a biologist with a huge amount knowledge about the animals. His English was excellent and he was a good spotter as well, just like the local guides who came with us to every trip. These guides could not really communicate with us, because they only spoke Portuguese, but they always carried books with the pictures of the animals with them and when we saw something they pointed to these pictures. For me the highlights were the paddling on the river with canoes and the search for animals in the canopy. The night boat ride was also quite a lot of fun. There is really a huge number of caimans in the rivers!!! Every 10-15 meters we saw the red reflection of their eyes in the spotlight. There were pretty huge ones amongst them, so there was no question any more why swimming is not recommended, only in the small cage-like pool at the lodge. Around the lodge itself there are a few resident caimans as well which are usually relaxing under the floating buildings. They seemed to be attracted by any noise one made in the water, so swimming and splashing around would definitively be a bad idea around there...
The jungle in this flooded forest is not that one might have in mind as a real jungle. There is actually quite a lot of light in it and the vegetation is not that dense, the trees are not that huge either. Probably this is why spotting the animals is easier than in the terra firme (dry land) forest which is the “typical jungle” (it also explains why we have not seen any larger animals in Alter do Chao which is a terra firme area). There are many trees with huge roots above the ground both for support and to capture air. In this environment it also makes sense to rely on fish to spread the seeds of the trees, therefore many trees have fruits in the flooded season. Similar to the typical jungle, there are also many lians and epiphyt plants (sitting on the trees like orchids and bromelias).
As the name of the Reserve suggests, the main emphasis is on the sustainable development of this area. There are quite a few regulations which limit the exploitation of the natural resources and many projects focus on increasing the income of the local communities from alternative sources instead of agriculture (which leads to deforestation) and fishing and hunting. For example most of the employees of the lodge (some 60 people) come from the local villages, living in the Reserve and many research projects also hire locals. From the lodge visits are organized to the villages (the guide there also receives payment) during which the locals can sell some handicraft. Some of the produce from the villages is also used by the lodge and the researchers. There are many research projects which investigate the impact of the Reserve on the life of the locals and on the environment. The one I could read the summary of concludes that since the establishment of the reserve the young locals use less manioc... Interesting...
Anyhow, it was a great experience to see a sustainable project working in harmony with nature and with the locals, as there are only very few of its kind in the Brazilian rain forest. The lodge itself is an ecolodge, in its real sense, not just on the ads and thus has a very little impact on the environment. They use solar energy, clean their waste, separate garbage, collect the rain water etc... So it is highly recommended for eco-conscious visitors.