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Ecuador is home to more than 4000 unique plant species found nowhere else
in the world; many of these are threatened by the rapid deforestation
taking place here. In July 2005 a group of concerned Ecuadorian and
international scientists and conservationists started a foundation to
do something to save these plants and the other threatened organisms
of Ecuador's forests. We are: Lou
Jost, biodiversity specialist, resident in Ecuador, Calaway Dodson, curator emeritus of the Missouri
Botanical Garden and renowned expert on Ecuadorian orchids, recently
decorated by the President of Ecuador for his half-century of investigation
here; Nigel Simpson, a founder of the Jocotoco Foundation
and enthusiastic conservationist, decorated this year by the Queen of
England for his conservation work; Juan
Manuel Carrion, well-known Ecuadorian ornithologist, conservationist; Simon Espinosa Cordero, universally respected
member of the Comisión Anti-corrupción del Municipio de Quito;
Homero Vargas, former director of the National
Herbarium of Ecuador; Lori and Juan Miguel Espinoza, educators of
international students in Ecuador; Johanna Twelvetrees, cofounder of a successful
conservation foundation in NW Ecuador; Mike McColm, cofounder of the Jatun Sacha
Foundation; Ray Swanson, graphics artist and environmentalist;
Francesca Rota, well-known Ecuadorian
artist; Ron Kaufmann, biologist and orchid conservationist;
Howard Teich, New Yorker active in progressive
causes; Ximena de Salvador, biology educator in Ecuador.
The botanists on this board have personally discovered or scientifically
described many of Ecuador's endemic plants, and all members of the board
have an emotional tie to the beautiful forests we have studied or visited
here. We intend to work hard to save them while we still can.
Click
here for project information
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