| Gran Pajonal | |
|---|---|
  Gran Pajonal | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Ucayali Department, Pasco Department, Junín Department, Peru |
| Range coordinates | 10°45′14″S 74°13′12″W / 10.754°S 74.220°W |
The Gran Pajonal (Great Scrubland or Great Savanna) is an isolated interfluvial plateau in the Amazon Basin of Peru. It is located in the departments of Ucayali, Pasco and Junín. The plateau is inhabited by the Asháninka or Ashéninka people along with late-twentieth century immigrants largely from the Andes mountains of Peru. In the 1730s, Roman Catholic Franciscan missionaries established missions in the Gran Pajonal, but the missions were destroyed in the 1740s by the Ashaninka under the leadership of Juan Santos Atahualpa.
Beginning again in 1897, missionaries, collectors of rubber, settlers, and the government of Peru began to encroach on the Gran Pajonal. In the 1980s, the Asháninka achieved a measure of security when most of the land of the Gran Pajonal was deeded to 36 communities. The population of the Gran Pajonal in 2002 was estimated at 7,000, of which 90 percent were Asháninka.