CHARLES MUNN : Following His Natural Instincts

For the past 17 years, Charles Munn has spent three to six months every year in the Manu Biosphere Reserve in southeast Peru, studying and protecting macaw parrots. Manu is the most biologically diverse tropical rain forest park in the world and home to the seldom-encountered Machiguenga Indian tribe.

In “Spirits of the Rainforest,” the Discovery Channel brings viewers into the wilds of Manu for a look at tiny, chattering squirrel monkeys, giant otters, and brilliantly jewel-colored parrots flocking at a secluded clay lick.

The documentary also introduces the Machiguenga, who Munn calls the best hope for protecting fragile Manu. Munn, a zoologist with the Wildlife Conservation Fund and an authority on wild macaws, talked about Manu with Times Staff Writer Maria L. La Ganga.

What is a biosphere reserve?

A biosphere reserve is a designation that was come up with by the United Nations. It is the concept where you have a core inviolate area where nothing extractive or destructive goes on, and then concentric circles basically of more and more intensive use until you get to the point where you’re then surrounded by complete agricultural fields and things. But it’s not really a national designation in most places.

So it sounds more protected than it is.

Yes, because there’s no basis in Peruvian law for a biosphere reserve.

Why was Manu chosen for this preserve and for the documentary?

The Amazon, first of all, is the largest rain forest in the world, by far--about the size of the 48 states. And by far the best of the Amazon is the western Amazon. It has much more biological diversity and better soil quality as well, which means a higher density of animals and everything. Of this western edge of the Amazon, near the foot of the Andes, the best, most intact part of that is southeastern Peru. Manu is the best park in the western Amazon.

How many species are there in Manu? The documentary talked about 1,000 species of birds and 200 mammals.

Hard to say. There are several million, I’m sure, arthropod species, beetles and bugs and stuff. Overall there are about 15,000 flowering plants. You’re talking about 7% to 8% of all flowering plants in the world, 11% of all the bird species in the world. And there are more mammal species than any other park.

How many of these species are endangered?

Estimates are that a rain forest species, particularly an insect, is going extinct every ten minutes, roughly.

How much invasiveness do research and filmmaking cause?

It all depends on how you do it and what kind of sensitivity you bring to it. Our relationship, the relationship of the Wildlife Conservation Society with the Machiguengas and Manu, has been built up over a 10-year period in which we gradually learned more from them and they’ve gradually realized we’re okay. Having us around is really helpful to them. Occasionally they’ve had serious medical emergencies, and we’ve helped them survive.

How about invasiveness to the species that you’re looking at, the birds, the otters?

It’s really quite the reverse. The macaws will put up with lots of human presence if they’re not being shot or captured by the humans. Forty macaws were shot in one afternoon at one clay lick in 1989. Since my former assistant set up a little conservation project there to protect it, there have been no macaws shot. Generally, as soon as macaws see a human within even hundreds of meters of their nestry, they’ll fly because they’re scared of being shot. But these macaws have become so cheeky, because they’re accustomed to us going into their nests, that they won’t let us into the nests anymore.

In the documentary you commented that many biologists come to places like Manu, realize that no research has been published about the area and conclude that nobody knows anything about it. But you found out how wrong that attitude is.

The Machiguengas turned the situation on its head by showing us how much more they knew than we did. I’m like the scribe who’s writing down what the Indians know. But a lot of biologists never get to that point, and I was one of them. I’m a convert now to the indigenous views.

What is the best way to protect Manu?

The Indians themselves, we’ve found, are the best people to protect it. I’ve spent a lot of time in the last few years trying to get support for people who are titling low densities of Indians to very large pieces of rain forest. Those Indians, once they have legal title to that land, they have no intention of cutting the rain forest down. The best way to protect all the forests surrounding Manu and even Manu itself is to make sure that those people take an active stake in protecting it, in the stewardship and protection of the area, and that they add as much value as possible to the forests.

“Spirits of the Rainforest” airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Discovery.