Located in the departments of Piura and Tumbes over a land surface of 91 300 hectares of Equatorial dry forests, the Cerros de Amotape, or Amotape Hills, provide shelter to a wide and unique collection of plant and animal wildlife. It was created in 1 975 to protect the vast forests of the Amotape Cordillera and the neighboring valleys, subject to intense lumbering activity due to the valuable hard woods that grow there like hualtaco and guayacán.

The American crocodile and the north-eastern otter are some of the animals that find shelter in this ecosystem. Both are endangered species on the verge of extinction. Other residents of the dry forest are the Tumbes howler monkey, white-tailed deer, ocelots and more than 100 bird species, many of which are endemic, like the white-winged guan and the northern magpie.