The park was cre­at­ed in 1983 to pro­tect the fau­na and flo­ra of the rain­forests that are char­ac­ter­is­tic of this region of the Andes. There is a high lev­el of endemism among the fau­na and flo­ra found in the park. The yel­low-tailed wool­ly mon­key, pre­vi­ous­ly thought extinct, is found only in this area. Research under­tak­en since 1985 has already uncov­ered 36 pre­vi­ous­ly unknown archae­o­log­i­cal sites at alti­tudes of between 2,500 and 4,000 m, which give a good pic­ture of pre-Inca soci­ety.