NCI-Ecuador Reserves
The World Land Trust is helping Nature and Culture International, Ecuador (NCI) to purchase and protect highly threatened habitat in southern Ecuador. It has been calculated that more than 40% of Ecuadorian biodiversity can be found in the forests in the south of the country.
The forests within the Podocarpus-el Condor Biosphere Reserve are important both for biodiversity and for maintaining water supplies for local communities and towns and cities downstream. As with most tropical forests they are threatened by the spread of agriculture as well as fire. It is also cause for concern that many of the Municipal Reserves within the Biosphere Reserve are currently too small and fragmented to adequately represent the habitats they protect and the wildlife they support. The aim is to increase the reserve sizes to ensure more forest is protected and that wildlife has room to roam safely.
NCI reserves supported by WLT
With the help of WLT funding, NCI have purchased and protected 3 properties situated within the Podocarpus-el Condor Biosphere Reserve, in southern Ecuador, along the border with Peru.
Reserva Biologica San Francisco
The 276 acre (112 ha) property forms part of the existing Reserva Biological San Francisco situated in the North of the Podocarpus-el Condor Biosphere Reserve. It consists of tropical mountain forest and is adjacent to NCI’s San Francisco Private Reserve helping to consolidate a biological corridor between Podocarpus National Park and Bosque Protector Corazon de Oro. The reserve is home to the White breasted Parakeet (Pyrrhura albipectus), which is endemic to southern Ecuador and northern Peru.
Bombuscaro
The 247 acre (100 ha) purchase forms part of the Bombuscaro Reserve and is situated within Podocarpus National Park. The reserve boasts primary vegetation typical of Amazonian forest in the foothills of the Andes, and will help to protect the Bombuscaro river basin.
Los Rubies
This new reserve is particularly significant as it extends the Chinchipe Municipal Reserve. WLT has provided funds for the municipality and NCI to collaborate in purchasing the reserve. As well as protecting this critically threatened Amazonian rainforest it also safeguards the Los Rubies river basin, within the reserve.
More information about WLT's work with NCI-Ecuador
Nature and Culture International, Ecuador
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Sir David Attenborough, WLT Patron
