EcoMinga Foundation has established a national network of 15 reserves protecting approximately 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres). These areas preserve hundreds of species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic and globally threatened. Among them are dozens of small vertebrates—frogs, lizards, rodents—as well as orchids, vines, and even new species of trees discovered within our reserves. These protected areas are often adjacent to national parks that safeguard higher-altitude ecosystems. In this way, our reserves help extend protection down into the mid and lower elevations of the Amazonian foothills and the western slopes of the Tropical Andes in northwestern Ecuador.

Two of our reserves—Cerro Candelaria and Río Zuñag—are officially recognized within Ecuador’s National System of Protected Areas (SNAP) as Private Wildlife Refuges.