Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary

 

Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary is within the province and district of Zarumilla in the department of Tumbes, Peru. The mangrove ecosystem is between the towns of Boca Capones to Playa Hermosa Tumbes. The Sanctuary has an area of 2,972 hectares. The Tumbes River and Zarumilla River flow into the mangrove forest in the Sanctuary.

This WHSRN site is in the extreme north of Peru at the border of Ecuador. The Sanctuary is the only natural protected area in Peru that protects a mangrove ecosystem.It is estimated that the Sanctuary protects 60% of the total mangrove forest in the country. The area qualifies as a WHSRN Site of Regional Importance for the presence of more than 20,000 shorebirds (migratory and resident) and for hosting more than 1% of the biogeographic populations of the Wilson´s Plover (Charadrius wilsonia beldingi), Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), and Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla). The data submitted for the nomination were collected during the National Shorebird Census, conducted between January and February 2010.

The area is important for migratory shorebirds as a feeding and resting site. According to information gathered in 2011 and 2012 by park rangers from the Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary, migratory shorebirds arrive at the sanctuary in August. In addition to being a final destination for several shorebird species, it is also a stopover site for species migrating further south on the continent such as the Whimbrel, Semipalmated Plover (Ch. semipalmatus) and Wilson`s Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor). Wilson´s Plover (ssp. beldingi) breed in the area and it is suspected that other resident plover species (genus Charadruis) and American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) also breed in the area.

In addition to shorebirds, the site is also critical habitat for economically important crustaceans, mollusks, and other organisms that play a role in the shorebird food chain. These crustacean and mollusk species are also critical to the socioeconomic system dynamics of the human communities living around the mangrove forest.

In 2010, a national coastal shorebird census was conducted along the entire coast of Peru, including the Tumbes Mangroves. The results of this census led to the publication of the Atlas of Peruvian Shorebirds (Senner and Angulo 2014), highlighting the Tumbes Mangroves as an important site. Since 2016, the site has been censused once a year within the framework of the Migratory Shorebird Project (MSP) coordinated regionally by Point Blue Conservation Sciences and locally implemented by CORBIDI. Thanks to these censuses, there is good information on the diversity of species at the site.

The park rangers at The Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary conduct monthly shorebird monitoring, but additional shorebird-specific studies have not been conducted at the site.

Threats to the site include discharge of untreated water from adjacent prawn farms and sewage, mangrove deforestation for prawn farms, and sedimentation of estuaries and tidal channels.

Although these are significant threats, the protected area recently approved its “Master Plan 2023-2027” that includes mitigating these threats. The Plan recognizes the existing threats and proposes conservation actions in a participatory manner to mitigate them. In addition, it recognizes the importance of the site for migratory shorebirds and defines actions such as regular monitoring of this group of birds through the Protocol for Monitoring the Relative Abundance of Birds in the Tumbes Mangroves National Sanctuary.