This campaign has now closed
Rainforest Concern is creating a wildlife corridor connecting the last unprotected and immediately endangered forests remaining in northwest Ecuador with a biodiversity hotspot in southwest Colombia. The ultimate goal is to establish a 100 mile long and over 1 million acre continuous biological protected area.
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Situation
This decreasing expanse of forest is at risk from multi-national mining companies, large scale palm oil plantations, logging, charcoal burning, slash & burn farming and cattle ranching. Tropical forests cover less than 6% of the Earth’s surface but support more than half of its animal life and two thirds of its flowering plants. The Choco region is widely regarded as one of the planet's foremost biodiversity hotspots with the greatest collection of endemic birds, amphibians, butterflies and plants in the world. These forests are extremely diverse and contain many rare mammal species including the spectacled bear, and the jaguar. Our approach is to work with long-term local partners to identify strategic parcels of land that can be purchased and protected. These parcels are chosen in order to create a forest bridge with forest that is already protected as a National Park or Indigenous Reserve. Rainforest Concern has been working to develop the Choco Andean Corridor Project, since 1993. The idea is to create habitat connectivity that aids species survival by linking the last unprotected forests between the Maquipucuna, Mindo y Pululahua reserves to the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve and following north to the Awa Reserve in the province of Esmeraldas. Help us by sponsoring acres of rainforest, our target is to raise a further £500,000 to ensure that this vital work continues.