Fundación EcoMinga is a conservation body dedicated to the protection of the unique foothill forests, cloud forests, and alpine grasslands (or páramo) of the Ecuadorian 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 Chocó region in northwest Ecuador.
All EcoMinga reserves protect local centres of endemism that are not protected by Ecuador’s national parks or protected areas.
Ecuador is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. Despite covering just 0.2% of the Earth’s land area, it is home to an astonishing array of wildlife, including 10% of all plant species – around 4,600 of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Fundación EcoMinga was founded in 2005 by a concerned group of international scientists and conservationists, all dedicated to the ongoing protection of Ecuador’s remarkable biodiversity.
EcoMinga currently manage 10 reserves in the upper Río Pastaza watershed, an important biological corridor linking the northern and southern ranges of Ecuador’s eastern Andes. Since EcoMinga began working here, they and others have discovered close to 100 species, almost all of which are endemic to the watershed. Most of the reserves here adjoin national parks, which protect higher-elevation habitats; our partner extends protection down from 3,860m to 1,100m, elevations which are much more biodiverse but at the same time less protected.
EcoMinga also manage two other reserves in the Chocó region of northwest Ecuador: Dracula and Manduriacu. Both have been the site of important discoveries in recent years. One standout event occurred in 2020, when an entirely new rodent genus was described based on two separate species. Pattonimus ecominga was found in Dracula, while Pattonimus musseri was found in Manduriacu.
World Land Trust (WLT) and Fundación EcoMinga have been working together since 2007, with the first land purchase at the Cerro Candelaria Reserve taking place that year. This reserve forms a key part of the Llanganates-Sangay Corridor, a now contiguous network of protected areas that links two vast national parks to the north and south of the upper Río Pastaza watershed in east-central Ecuador.
EcoMinga rangers working in the Corridor have been supported through WLT’s Keepers of the Wild programme since 2011. These rangers patrol EcoMinga reserves and protect them from those seeking to exploit threatened wildlife and their habitats, like poachers and illegal loggers.
Protection of Llanganates-Sangay corridor
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WLT funded the creation of Cerro Candelaria in 2007, and since then we’ve added 3,241 ha (8,008 acres) to the reserve over a course of separate expansions. A joint project with SSE in 2008 also funded the planting of 6,000 trees, restoring 6 ha (15 acres) of degraded habitat. Now EcoMinga’s largest reserve, Candelaria protects many different habitats, including cloud forest and alpine grassland (páramo).
The reserve’s many orchids include the world’s smallest (an as yet undescribed Platystele species) and 15 Teagueia species, six of which are found only in Candelaria. Two more species discovered here have been named after WLT Patrons: the melastome tree Blakea attenboroughii for Sir David Attenborough and the plump toad Osornophryne backshalli for Steve Backshall. Among the many resident mammals are White-lipped Peccaries, which exist at nearly the highest elevation ever recorded for the species.
In 2015, supporters of WLT’s Forests in the Sky appeal raised £500,000 to create the 1,729 ha (4,273-acre) Río Machay Reserve. EcoMinga purchased land surrounding a community forest that had been previously established by the small town of Machay. For many years, residents had looked after the rich forests and waterfalls here, conserving their land for the benefit of local wildlife and generating a sustainable source of income through ecotourism.
“We feel like we’re assisting the local people in making their own dreams come true,” said EcoMinga President Lou Jost in 2015, “giving them a better protected forest which is able to support a larger and more sustainable animal population.” Species that now have a safe home in Río Machay include Puma, Mountain Tapir, Spectacled Bear, and rare orchids like Dracula fuligifera and Lepanthes marshana, the latter discovered in a section of cloud forest that is now part of the reserve.
EcoMinga established this reserve to protect the last known home of the Tandayapa Andes Toad. Since then, another Critically Endangered amphibian has been discovered here that is not known to exist anywhere else: the Manduriacu Glass Frog. The Mindo Glass Frog is another highly threatened resident, and though it may be present at another site in Colombia, the only known breeding population is found at Río Manduriacu. The rodent Pattonimus musseri was discovered in the reserve in 2021, and Hyalinobatrachium nouns – yet another glass frog – in 2022.
For species like these that live on the very edge of extinction, every hectare is precious. Thankfully, WLT supporters have helped to expand Manduriacu, handing a vital lifeline to the unique wildlife that finds a home in the cloud forests here. Past donations to WLT’s Buy an Acre programme have added 210 ha (519 acres) to the reserve. In 2020 our corporate supporter Puro Coffee funded the purchase of an additional 66 ha (163 acres), and in 2021 a further 56 ha (138 acres) were added by a mix of WLT donors.