Presentation of Rapid Inventory Report in Ecuador Celebrates New Municipal Reserve

 Credit: A. del Campo

ECCo’s presentation of the Cofanes-Chingual report (Rapid Inventory #21) in Ibarra, Ecuador, doubled as a celebration for the government’s protection of the now Área Ecológica de Conservación La Bonita-Cofanes-Chingual. Rapid protection of this landscape, the last remaining in the northern Andes that rises intact from 2,000–13,000 feet in elevation, became possible through an intense collaborative effort funded by the MacArthur Foundation that began as soon as we left the field in November 2008. During presentation of our final results we launched efforts to begin immediate protection of the new 173,000-acre reserve and to conserve the strip of intact forests adjacent to the reserve.