Click on a project for information:
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Conserving Ecuador's
Biodiversity
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An as-yet-unnamed Teagueia
orchid, one of many discovered in the Upper Pastaza
Watershed by the botanists who are board members
of EcoMinga, and their student volunteers. This
one is endemic to our Cerro Candelaria Reserve.
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Please download our
2008-2009 Annual Report and our 2009-2010 Annual Report!
Ecuador is home to more than 4600 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.
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 are working hard to save them while we still
can.
EcoMinga is efficiently preserve biodiversity
by a mixture of innovative and traditional approaches
to protect strategic centers of endemism in Ecuador.
We work with local communities and international tourists
to raise awareness about the value of Ecuador's biodiversity.
Our first goal is to preserve the rich flora
and fauna of the Upper Pastaza Watershed, home
of many endemic plants, especially orchids. This area
was declared a "Gift to the Earth" by World
Wildlife Fund and contains over 190 species of plants
not found anywhere else in the world. It also
contains Spectacled Bears, Mountain Tapirs, and an enormous
bird diversity. It is currently being cut down, especially
in the flatter eastern portion. We have projects on
both the east and west slopes of the Cordillera Abitagua,
the last foothills of the Andes along the Rio Pastaza,
on the edge of the Amazon basin. This area was first
explored by the great Scottish botanist Richard Spruce
in 1857, and is still an endless source of new discoveries.
In our Rio Zuñac Project, on
the western slopes of the Cordillera Abitagua, we are
working with local people to protect a very rich cloud
forest with many endemic orchids. Our Rio Anzu
Reserve (in partnership with the CEIBA Foundation)
near the town of Mera on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera
Abitagua protects an unusual Amazonian forest on limestone
outcrops.
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Lepanthes lophius,
endemic to a small area
in eastern Ecuador, including our Cerro Candelaria
reserve. |
Farther upstream in the Upper Pastaza Watershed, we
have created a very large Cerro Candelaria Reserve
(2600 hectares, elevation range 1800m to 3800m), in
partnership with the World Land Trust, with major support
coming from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Puro Coffee (UK).
This reserve protects a vast virgin cloud forest ecosystem
spanning many vegetation types. Endangered species include
the Spectacled Bear, Mountain Tapir, and 16 orchid species
new to science in the genus Teagueia. It helps
to bridge the gap between two large national parks,
Sangay and Los Llanganates.
This reserve will hopefully generate some ecotourism
income for the neighboring village of El Placer and
the nearby town of Baños. The local people seem
very supportive of this reserve, and we look forward
to a fruitful collaboration with these communities.
For more biological information on the orchids of these
forests, see www.loujost.com.
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Our curent
projects are located on the eastern edge of the Amazon
basin in Ecuador
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This map shows our reserve sites on a
map of rainfall in Ecuador. The project area includes
one of the wettest cloud forests in Ecuador (and
the world) and a sharp precipitation gradient from
east to west; for this reason it is especially diverse
in plants. |
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In this map it is easy to see the strategic
importance of the area we are trying to protect.
It is the corridor between two large national parks,
connecting the northern and southern ranges of the
eastern Andes in Ecuador. Our reserves are the first
steps toward protecting that corridor. |
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The canyon of
the Rio Anzu is a spectacular place with
a unique set of plant species, including
a new species of orchid found nowhere else
in the world. EcoMinga
and our conservationist neighbor, Sr. Cajamarca,
are protecting this canyon. |
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For
photos of our Rio Anzu Reserve, click here.
The photo below shows the completely deforested mountain
outside of Baños, a major tourist town in the
Upper Pastaza Watershed, with a still-forested
mountain in the background. If you look closely, you
can see that the base of the still-forested mountain
is already being cut down. This will be the fate of
the whole Upper Pastaza Watershed if nothing is done. |
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The advancing deforestation
in the Upper Pastaza Watershed has completely
destroyed the mountain in the foreground, and
is beginning to destroy the virgin forest of the
background mountain. |
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The directors of EcoMinga are: 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 last year by the Queen of England
for his conservation work; Juan Manuel Carrion, well-known
Ecuadorian ornithologist, conservationist and television personality;
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 Mew, 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, and Lou Jost, mathematical
ecologist and botanist resident in Ecuador for 13 years.
Help us!
Make a tax-deductible donation to EcoMinga via one
of our US or UK partners!
We need you to help us develop reasonable
alternatives to this senseless destruction. Around
each of our reserves we urgently need to buy forests
while they are still available, and develop some infrastructure
so that local people and tourists can use the reserves.
Donations for these purposes are urgently needed.
Our partners in the US and UK are
the Orchid
Conservation Alliance (US), the World
Land Trust -US, and especially the World
Land Trust (UK). All are registered charities
in their respective countries and donations made to
them for EcoMinga are tax-deductible. We are also
now participants in the Orchid
Conservation Coalition's "1% for
Conservation" program. Write these foundations
directly to make donations, and write me for more
information:
See the website, www.loujost.com,
for biological information about the Upper Pastaza
Watershed which we are trying to protect, and please
watch this page for news as we get going.
EcoMinga
would like to thank the following organizations
and people who have contributed to EcoMinga's
land purchases or have supported scientific
work related to EcoMinga: |
PriceWaterhouse
Cooper |
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John and the late
Ruth Moore |
Dr. Malli and Vera
Lee Rao |
Dr. Steve Beckendorf
and Cindy Hill |
Dr. Nigel Simpson,
O.B.E |
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South East Pennsylvania
Orchid Society (SEPOS) |
Jardin Botanique
de Montréal |
Orchid societies
of the Bay Area, California |
CEIBA Foundation |
Wild Waters Foundation |
Henri Botter and
Ardy van Ooij |
Orchid Growers Guild
(Madison, WI) |
Hilo Orchid Society,
Hawaii |
Pauline Brault |
Atlanta Orchid Society |
Marisol Villagomez |
Dr. Anne Chao |
John Little |
Dr. Mary Gerritesen |
Angela Mirro |
Bryon K. Rinke |
Sam Crothers |
Naturetrek |
Canterbury School, Florida |
Edward Keith |
Barry Barker |
Metamorf |
Orchid Conservation Coalition |
Centro de Estudios, Quito |
Fundación Oscar Efrén Reyes (FOER) |
Proyecto Conservación del Tapir Andino (Finding Species, Centro Ecológico Shanca Arajuno, Tapir Specialist Group-IUCN) |
Mark Wilson
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Peter Kratochvil |
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