About EcoMinga

This blog keeps you updated about EcoMinga’s conservation work in Ecuador, and gives news about the plants and animals of our reserves there (discoveries, rare sightings, etc). We also have an older website,
href=”http://www.ecominga.net/” target=”_blank”>www.ecominga.net, but that site is not being updated. We direct readers here for live updates.

Our eastern Andean reserves. See more detailed map below. Our new northwestern reserve, the Dracula Reserve, is still being assembled and is not shown on this map.

Fundacion EcoMinga (EcoMinga Foundation in English) is an Ecuadorian foundation with international sponsors, dedicated to the conservation of the unique foothill forests, cloud forests, and alpine grasslands (“paramo”) of the Andes, especially those on the edge of the Amazon basin in east-central Ecuador and those on the super-wet western Andean slopes of the Choco region in northwest Ecuador. The foundation was established in Ecuador in 2006, under the statutes and supervision of the Ecuadorian Ministerio del Ambiente. Its current directors and advisory board members include Juan Manuel Carrion, Mario Yanez, Renato Valencia, Catalina Quintera, Xavier Silva, Flavia Alban, Juan Kohn, Monica Andrade, Lou Jost, Lori Swanson, Juan Miguel Espinoza, Natalia Espinoza, Chiara Correa, Francesca Rota, and Simon Cordero Espinoza. Jo Twelvetrees, Calaway Dodson, Howard Teitch, and Nigel Simpson are former directors who are now honarary directors. Javier Robayo  is our Executive Director and west Andean reserve manager, Juan Pablo Reyes is our east Andean reserve manager, and Lou Jost is the current president.

In the upper Rio Pastaza watershed (east-central Ecuador) between Banos and Puyo we have established ten reserves covering all elevations from 1100m to 3860m. Each of these reserves contains unique plant and animal species endemic to this watershed. These include the Rio Anzu Reserve (1100-1200m elevation, Amazonian foothill forest on limestone), Rio Zunac Reserve (1300-2200m elevation, very diverse cloud forest on granite), Rio Verde Reserve (2200-3000m elevation, cloud forest on volcanic rock), Cerro Candelaria (1700-3860m elevation, many different habitats including alpine grassland; our largest reserve with ca. 2700 hectares), Naturetrek Reserve (1500-2000m, rich cloud forest), Viscaya Reserve (2400-3100m, wet high cloud forest), Olivier Currat Reserve (2800-3200m, cloud forest) and Chamana Reserve (2400-2600m, windy cloud forest). The total area protected is almost 5000 hectares (12000 acres). Most of these reserves adjoin national parks, which protect higher-elevation habitats; we extend their protection down into the much more diverse middle and lower elevations which are not protected. Click on the map below to enlarge. This map does not contain all Banos-area reserves, I will update it shortly.

Our reserves between Banos and Puyo. Click to enlarge.

More recently we have established the Dracula Reserve (named for Dracula, a genus of rare orchids) and Manduriacu Reserve in northwestern Ecuador. More information appears about those reserves elsewhere  in elsewhere in this blog.Like our eastern Andean reserves, these reserves protect local centers of endemism that are not protected by Ecuador’s national parks or protected areas.

We need your help to continue protecting these forests. If you can, consider donating to EcoMinga. See our Donation page for instructions.

Este sitio da noticias sobre el trabajo de la Fundacion EcoMinga en el Ecuador, y tambien sobre nuestras animales y plantas. Por favor vease  www.ecominga.net o www.loujost.com para mas informacion sobre estos temas. Lamento que en este momento casi todo esta en ingles, pero poco a poco vamos a cambiar esto.

Gracias, thanks for visiting,

Lou Jost