The shihuahuaco is a tree that takes hundreds of years to grow, and without state protection, thousands of them have fallen before the chainsaws.

According to numbers from El Comercio, in 15 years, 309,955 of these trees have disappeared and in another 10 years it could disappear completely.

“The first thing that inspires a tree like shihuahuaco is respect. To reach 40 meters in height and a meter and a half in diameter, at least 1,000 years need to pass”, El Comercio said.

This slow growth is typical of the hardest wood available in the forests. It also catches up tons of carbon from the atmosphere, which helps the climatic equilibrium. It is this hardness that has been seen with interest, for decades, by the manufacturers of floors and structures within the legal and illegal industry of wood.

“The number of shihuahuacos who have fallen in recent years is innumerable”, the media says. They also cite a recent study done by a group of scientists for the National Forest Service of Wild Flora and Fauna (Serfor) who estimated that in a period of 10 years an average of 74 shihuahuacos per day was extracted.

Data like this has turned on the alerts of the scientific community, but even so, the shihuahuaco had not appeared until now in the list of species of wild flora categorized as threatened.

(Source)
(Cover Photo Geograph)

Don’t Miss:

Tastes, Smiles, And Smells Of The Jungle At The Tarapoto Market

https://www.livinginperu.com/an-amazing-undiscovered-jungle-nut-meet-macambo/