📋 Tender Overview
Finding strengthens the role of protected natural areas as key shelters for endemic flora and scientific research centers.The natural diversity of Peru surprises the world again. An international study led by Peruvian researcher Rosa Villanueva Espinoza, together with scientists Yunfei Deng, Robert Scotland and John R. I. Wood, has revealed the discovery of 21 species and 2 new subspecies of the genre Justice (Family Acanthaceae), consolidating the country as a nucleus of botanical diversity worldwide.
The most revealing: 12 of these new species were found within 7 protected natural areas, evidencing the fundamental role that these spaces fulfill in the conservation of unique species and still unknown to science.
The research was published in the prestigious Phytokeys scientific journal, and documents an exhaustive analysis of 45 species of the genus Justice, based on types and botanical collections of Herbarium. The study confirms that several specimens were collected in protected natural areas and their damping areas, highlighting the importance of these natural spaces not only as wildlife shelters, but as living laboratories for scientific research.
This finding positions Peru as one of the centers of greatest diversity of the genre Justice in South America and reaffirms the value of the natural areas protected as irreplaceable spaces for the discovery, protection and study of our biodiversity, said Sernanp.
Among the discovered species are:
Alpine Sub -Con. Machupicchuensis and Justice Valenzuelae in the historical sanctuary of Machupicchu,
Cajamarcensis Justice in the Pagaibamba protection forest,
Justice discolor and hyaline justice in the Manu National Park,
Huallagensis Justice in the High May Protection forest,
Oppositiflora Justice, Oxapampensis Justice, Justice Saccata and Justice Rojasiae in the Yanachaga-Chemillen National Park,
Oxapampensis Justice also in the Yanesha communal reserve,
and Tumbesian Justice in the Tumbes National Reserve.
These species not only enrich the biological heritage of the country, but many of them have morphological characteristics adapted to their unique environments, and have ornamental and medicinal potential in traditional contexts.
An impulse for science and conservation
The analysis also revealed that 23 of the 45 species studied are distributed in 12 protected natural areas or in their damping areas. This data not only reinforces the effectiveness of these spaces to conserve endemic flora, but also drives to redouble the research and scientific monitoring efforts within them.
Each discovered species is a story that barely begins. The protected natural areas are true sanctuaries of knowledge that we must preserve with national pride and pride, said Sernanp.
