Structure, Composition, Growth, and Potential of the Forest in Temporary or Periodically Flooding Forests by Sewage, Near Iquitos

Deforestation of primary forests in developing countries is unquestionable, particularly, in tropical regions like Peru. Even extractors already use flooded forests. Consequently, populations of plants of commercial value have declined, putting their genetic diversity at risk (FAO 1993: 10–30; Namkoong et al. 1996). In the Peruvian Amazon, this problem is alarming, because the flooded alluvial plains represent more than 12% of the territory, with more than 60,000 km2 (Kvist and Nebel 2005), with the aggravating circumstance that the exuberant forest that it presents, develops in very poor soils (Higuchi et al. 2005), as occurs in the forests of the Nanay River. The water in this river is black and very poor in silt, so the additional supply of nutrients is almost zero during the flood. To these areas, Burga (2007) mentions that it is a meandering plain characterized by the presence of ridges and semilunar bars, encompassing flatlands with slopes of less than 2%, where restinga and lowland are observed.