The Madidi National Park and Natural Area for Integrated Management was created in 1995, with an area of 1,895,750 ha. It is located in northwest La Paz Department, in the provinces of Franz Tamayo, Abel Iturralde and Bautista Saavedra, involving the municipalities of Apolo, San Buenaventura, Ixiamas, Pelechuco, Curva and Guanay. Madidi en compasses 31 indigenous and peasant communities, with a population of 3,714 inhabitants. Four indigenous territories overlap with the Madidi: TCO San Jose de Uchupiamonas overlaps completely, while TCO Tacana I, TCO Lecos de Apolo and TCO Lecos de Larecaja overlap partially.
Madidi is one of the most important protected areas in Bolivia and the world due to its extraordinary biological richness, which is expressed in the diversity of ecosystems, flora and fauna. It contains 12 major vegetative formations along an almost 6,000 m altitudinal gradient, including the best example of pristine savannah and the most extensive and best preserved montane forests in Bolivia. To date 193 families and 8,244 species of vascular plants have been identified in the area, representing about 60% of the Bolivian flora. Of these species, 110 are new to Bolivia and 93 endemic. Madidi is also home to a variety of animals, with 1,466 confirmed vertebrate species. It is estimated that as scientific knowledge of the region increases, the number of vertebrates could exceed 2,000 species and the number of vascular plants will exceed 12,000 species.
Madidi also protects significant populations of endemic and/or threatened wildlife species withlarge spatial requirements, such as the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus), the military macaw (Ara militaris), the Bolivian swallow-tailed cotinga (Phibalura boliviana), the woolly monkey (Lagothrix cf. cana tschudii), the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), the spider monkey (Ateles chamek), the jaguar (Panthera onca), the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), the bush dog (Speothos venaticus), the marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus),and the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus).