Madidi National Park

Madidi National Park, in Bolivia's La Paz Department, protects a stretch of the upper Amazon basin running from Andean peaks down to Tuichi River rainforest, spanning elevations from 180 to 5,760 meters across roughly 18,957 square kilometers since its creation in 1995. In 2018 the Wildlife Conservation Society identified Madidi as the world's most biologically diverse national park, citing more than 8,000 vascular plant species, 272 mammal species, 1,254 bird species representing about 14 percent of all bird species on Earth, 496 fish species and 213 amphibian species, with megafauna including jaguar, spectacled bear, maned wolf and giant otter. The park is also home to indigenous communities including the Tacana, Ese Ejja, Tsimane and Moseten peoples, as well as the voluntarily isolated Toromona, and community ecotourism ventures such as the Chalalan Ecolodge combine income generation with conservation.