Bolivia brings an Incan legend to life with new protected park

For centuries, explorers have chased rumors of Gran Paitití, the fabled city of gold hidden deep in the Amazon.

Now, Bolivia is enshrining that legend in reality — by naming its newest protected area after the mythical kingdom. The name honors not just a legend, but a region where the Andes spill into the Amazon — a corridor of cloud forests, rivers and ruins shaped by pre-Hispanic civilizations.

“For centuries, the legend of Gran Paitití has stirred imaginations — it’s a story we consider very much our own,” said Milton Butrón Guerra, a municipal government leader involved in the park’s creation. “In the past, there were major expeditions into that Incan territory. Now, as the municipal government, we will work to ensure this protected area is also safeguarded.”

Gran Paitití Municipal Park and Integrated Natural Management Area spans roughly 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) — an area about the size of Singapore. Its creation was the result of a long collaboration: Conservation International and local partners helped shape the process, from guiding discussions to drafting technical and legal documents, always keeping community voices at the center.

The land itself carries centuries of history.

Beneath the forest canopy, ruins and ancient stairways hint at a past ruled by highland Andean states and ancient peoples of the forested plains. Its soils, still rich in gold today, once helped shape those civilizations — and now make the forests vulnerable to illegal mining.

Yet for local people, the true wealth of the Amazon is not gold, but fresh water.

“One of the main factors that motivated us to create this protected area has to do with the need to conserve all the water springs within our municipality, as well as in the agricultural areas,” Butrón Guerra said. “We want to make Mapiri a productive municipality once again.”

That productivity comes from protecting nature. The new park conserves a vital migration corridor for jaguars, Andean bears and other wildlife — including endangered frog species found only in the Bolivian Andes. In doing so, it creates opportunities for the people of Mapiri to build a new ecotourism economy. The community is planning guided hikes, wildlife viewing and birdwatching, inviting visitors to explore a landscape rich in both natural and cultural history once trails and facilities are ready.

The success of Gran Paitití and similar parks matters for Bolivia as a whole — a country struggling with one of the world’s highest deforestation rates. In 2024, the country ranked second globally for tropical primary forest loss, following Brazil.

But local communities are making a real dent in the problem.

Gran Paitití is a key piece of a vast “conservation mosaic” built largely by local municipalities and Indigenous communities determined to protect their forests. It builds on a growing movement led by Bolivian towns that have conserved 10 million contiguous hectares — about 25 million acres, nearly the size of Iceland — over the past 25 years.

“By protecting this area, Bolivia is strengthening an entire conservation mosaic that stretches from the cloud forests of La Paz to the lowland Amazon,” said Eduardo Forno, who leads Conservation International-Bolivia.

“Piece by piece, we are knitting together the fabric of the Amazon.”

Read more:

• In Bolivia, a 'conservation mosaic' gets another (big) piece
• How one South American country became a lab for conservation
• In Amazon, small towns are a force of nature

Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also,please consider supporting our critical work.