The Matsiguenga Communal Reserve was established by the Supreme Decree N 003-2003-AG on March the 15th of 2003. It is placed in the mid part of the eastern side of the Cordillera of Vilcabamba, in the District of Echarate, Province of La Convencin, Department of Cusco. It covers a surface of 218,905 has.

This Reserve was created to ensure the preservation of the biological diversity of this zone in favour of the Matsiguenga native communities that live in this region of the country. The mid and upper parts of the Vilcabamba Mountain Range are very important for the native communities, because they represent the resources they need to use as food, medicine and to build their homes, besides having an important symbolic and religious significance.

The Matsiguenga tribe bases itss economy on agriculture, complementing it with fishing, hunting, recollection, and the production of handicrafts In this way, they keep an economy of subsistence, mainly oriented to the satisfaction of their immediate family needs.

The geography of this zone is mainly mountainous and covered with tropical vegetation. It has diverse altitudinal floors that house a great biodiversity and which comprise different ecosystems ample enough as to protect important populations of some species that are very little known.

These diverse Life Zones can be distinguished within the area: Tropical Mountainous Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Mountainous Rainforest, Tropical Mountainous Lower Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Mountainous Lower Rainforest, Tropical Pre-Mountainous Rainforest, Sub-Tropical Rainforest, Tropical Pre-Mountainous Very Misty Forest, and Sub-Tropical Very Misty Forest.

The predominant vegetal species are those belonging to the tropical misty forest, such as the cedar (Cedrela sp.), and the mahogany (Maena Capimori), amongst its great diversity of plants. The fauna is much variegated, with mammals such as the jaguar (Panthera ona), the tapir (Tapirus terrestris), the deer (Mazama americana), and the puma (Puma concolor), besides the monkeys.

Amongst the main bird species registered in the Reserve, we have the sparrow hawk (Buteo magnirostris), the green kingfisher (Chloroceryle sp.), the less known yellow-headed vulture (Coragyps atratus), and the King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa). The main objective of Matsiguenga Communal Reserve is to protect the great biological diversity of the zone in view of the contribution it can make to the development of the native communities.