The Tambopata reserve is internationally famous as the site of the world's greatest lowland concentrations of biodiversity as MANU; Tambopata offers an exciting and unique Amazon experience.

Of interest two of the most important ecological areas of Tambopata are Sandoval Lake, located within the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, a short distance from the Madre de Dios-.

The original Tambopata Candamo Reserved Zone (TCRZ) was created by a ministerial resolution in January 1990 as a step towards a larger policy of land management in the area and to protect the land whilst it was properly surveyed to determine the best land-use for it. The status of Reserved Zone gave the area greater protection than it had before, though a number of factors came into play from 1990 undermining the whole process begun by the Institute of Natural Resources (INRENA) who manages the area.

One of the land-use proposals put forward was for a national park to protect the watershed of the Tambopata and other rivers and their natural resources from the encroachment of civilization. The proposed National Park was to be called Bahuaja-Sonene. The National Park status was given to 54 thousand hectares of the previous Reserved Zone in August 1996 - a blessing for nature, as Peruvian law at present restricts the entrance of people into such areas (except under very special circumstances).