Fundacion Jocotoco

Fundación Jocotoco was established in 1998 to protect globally threatened bird species of the Ecuadorian Andes. Since then, they have successfully created fifteen reserves, restored forests and wetlands, and achieved the establishment of a 60,000 km² marine reserve.

Funding from ERF will help to increase the size of the Buenaventura Reserve by 450 hectares. Buenaventura is the only reserve protecting the unique cloud forests of southwestern Ecuador. Here, where the Tumbes and Chocó ecoregions integrate, species endemism is high. This region used to be a Pleistocene refugia and forms part of the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot. It remains a stronghold for many highly threatened species, including 15 globally threatened species of bird, such as the El Oro Parakeet.

Buenaventura is of high conservation impact for the threatened species these areas hold, reaching to protect new areas north of the existing reserve, linking existing parts of the reserve and targeting altitudinal expansion. Inclusion of large areas of Buenaventura within Ecuador’s protected area system will reduce the threat of mining operations.