The Tambopata River is a river in southeastern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and northwestern

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. Most of the Tambopata is in the Madre de Dios and

Puno Puno ( Aymara and ) is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 140,839 (2015 estimate). The city was established in ...

regions in Peru, but the upper parts of the river forms the border between Peru and Bolivia, and its origin is in La Paz department in Bolivia. The Tambopata is a tributary of the

Madre de Dios River The Madre de Dios River () is a river shared by Bolivia and Peru which is homonymous to the Peruvian region it runs through. On Bolivian territory, it receives the Beni River, close to the town of Riberalta, which later joins with the Mamore Riv ...

, into which it merges at the city of

Puerto Maldonado Puerto Maldonado () is a city in southeastern Peru in the Amazon rainforest west of the Bolivian border, located at the confluence of the Tambopata River, Tambopata and Madre de Dios River, Madre de Dios rivers. The latter river joins the Madeira ...

. The river flows through the Tambopata National Reserve. Seven types of flooded forest are recognized for this Reserve: * Permanently waterlogged swamp forests are former

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or stream pool, pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is meander cutoff, cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether ...

s still flooded but covered in forest. * Seasonally waterlogged swamp forests are oxbow lakes in the process of filling in. * Lower floodplain forest are the lowest floodplain locations with a recognizable forest. * Middle floodplain forests are tall occasionally flooded forests. * Upper floodplain forests are tall rarely flooded forests. * Old floodplain forests have been subjected to flooding within the last two hundred years. * Previous floodplain are now ''terra firme'', but were historically ancient floodplains.

History

Between 1900-1912 during the

Amazon rubber boom The Amazon rubber cycle or boom (, ; , ) was an important part of the socioeconomic history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the commercialization of Natural rubber, rubber and the genocide of indigenous ...

, companies like the Inca Mining Company, Tambopata Rubber Syndicate and the Inambari Para Rubber Estates Ltd operated on the Tambopata river. These companies were granted concessions by the government of Peru to develop land routes through the isthmus of Fitzcarrald. Like many other rubber extracting enterprises, these companies practiced 'hooking by debts.' Lucien J. Jerome, a British Consul in Callao at the time referred to the treatment of the indigenous in the Madre de Dios as “slavery pure and simple.”

References

Rivers of Peru Rivers of La Paz Department (Bolivia) Rivers of the Department of Madre de Dios Rivers of the Department of Puno {{Peru-river-stub