The Bolivarian National Armed Forces FANB is deployed in the Venezuelan Yapacana National Park, disabling illegal mining camps operated by transnational armed groups that threaten Venezuelan sovereignty.
This national park has an extension of 320,000 hectares and is located in the Peneplain of the Casiquiare Alto Orinoco, south of the confluence of the Ventuari river with the Orinoco.
Its declaration was due to the need to preserve areas that represent a valuable scenic and scientific resource, with pioneering vegetation, testimony to the evolution of vegetation with floristic connections from the Paleotropics and the Neotropics.
This’s other natural jewel of the Amazonas state, the Yapacana hill stands out, which gives the national park its name. It is a tepuy that rises abruptly from the peneplain that extends between the Orinoco and Ventuari rivers, at 80 meters above sea level (masl), up to 1,345 m. altitude.
The Yapacana keeps in its bowels some 46 species of reptiles and amphibians endemic to the park, among which the red poisonous frog Dendrobates steyermarkii stands out, which only inhabits this part of the world. In addition to this, it has an abundant birdlife and mammals such as the tapirus terrestrial tapir and the Orinoco capuchin Chiropotes satanas.
Another of the characteristics that attracts this natural space is its greenery, which is created by tropical humid forests and grassy, shrubby or wooded savannahs that are not subject to flooding.
The image that most attracts the attention of the place -which is also an important tourist space- is the white sand that settles at the foot of the hill, where there is also poor vegetation and strange forms of growth.
In the savannah area, at a height of 125 meters above sea level, there are some plants of the genus Penthaerista, the only representative in the world of the Tetrameristaceae family. This species is known in the American continent only from this park; the other place where it can be observed is in Malaysia.
The slopes and summits of the hill are completely covered with trees and shrubs of a great variety. Among the most abundant ones you can see the Gleasonia duidana, beautiful for its large pink and white flowers, as well as the Tepuianthus yapacanensis with small yellow flowers and very narrow leaves. Ferns are also part of the park’s plant kingdom, specifically the genus Pterogozium scopolinum being found in the cracks of the stones.
