Ecuador "Save a Hectare" Project

Since 1994 Rainforest Concern has made dramatic progress through the project in buying land to build the corridor and in providing alternative income for the local communities - helping them to move out of destructive subsistence slash and burn farming and into sustainable alternatives. Biological corridors are essential to maintain migration of animal and plant species from one area to another and to ensure healthy population levels.

Hillsides cleared for farming

Rainforest Concern and partners have recently completed the final link of almost 30,000 acres for the northern phase of the corridor. This is a significant achievement in international conservation and the focus is now on the southern phase of the corridor. This phase covers the widest range of habitats with altitudes stretching from 1,000m to 3,500m.

Please help us to save some of the earths most important and threatened rainforest by making a tax-deductible donation. Every $200 that's raised will help to buy and protect a whole hectare.

Click here to Join us now and sponsor hectares of threatened rainforest in one of the world's most important ecological areas. You will be making a real difference.

All donations of $2.00 and over are tax deductible.

Please support the "Save a Hectare' Project and help to save one of the most precious rainforests in the world.

Ecuador Frequently Asked Questions

Cloud Forest in the Los Cedros Reserve and destroyed forest nearby

More information on Ecuador and the Cloud Forests

Ecuador size is 276,880 square km or a little larger than the Australian state of Victoria at 227,920 sq km. Although small in size Ecuador is an internationally recognized biodiversity hot spot. Ecuador is home to 10% of all the earth's plant species. With 1,700 species of birds it ranks fourth in avian diversity amongst all countries in the world. By comparison the size of Australia is 7,617,930 sq km and has 800 species of birds. Ecuador's human population is 13,500,000 of which 45% live below the poverty line. The income of a small Ecuadorian farmer is $5 per day. Recently the average annual income in Australia reached $50,000. Poverty is the major cause of Cloud Forest destruction in Ecuador.

Wattle and daub housing and burnt mountains in the area of the corridor

Ecuador's Cloud Forests are home to the spectacled bear, jaguar, sloth, howler monkey, puma and many other creatures. Ecuador's rainforests are being cleared at a rate of 300,000 hectares per year including large areas of the Cloud Forests.

Make a donation - "Save a Hectare"

How the project works

Like the rainforest itself the strategy of the project is diverse. Land purchase is one option and although necessary in some circumstances, the purchase of the rainforest alone is not sufficient in an economically disadvantaged country like Ecuador. Land is an resource with which people are intimately involved at a primary level. To ensure the Cloud Forests survives the establishment of economic alternatives are needed for local people to relieve their current dependence on unsustainable and destructive agriculture. So in addition to land purchase the project also focuses on assisting local people in developing small businesses for local people in sustainable agriculture, in low impact extractive industries and eco-tourism. Examples are the shade grown coffee that's sold through a fair trade agreement and community industries that collect the nuts from the Tagua Palm (also known as vegetable ivory) to create crafts and jewelry as alternatives to destruction of the Cloud Forests.

Possibly the most effective action is the creation of community owned eco-tourism. Farming communities have willingly converted their farms and Cloud Forests into Cloud Forest reserves in exchange for the infrastructure that allows them to host tourist.

Santa Lucia Lodge	Shade Grown Coffee	Junin Lodge

If land adjacent to the established eco-tourism reserves is offered for sale then it can be added to the reserve, and as required local people are employed to manage and protect the Cloud Forests. These initiatives ensure that protecting the Cloud Forests becomes part of the highly valued new economy.

You can help save the Cloud Forest today. Make a donation. You will be helping to protect Ecuador's Cloud Forest and assisting some of the world's poorest people. To protect each hectare of Ecuador's Cloud Forest requires only $200.

Make a small monthly donation and make a big difference to Ecuador's Cloud Forests.

Save the Cloud Forests by sending an Ecuador Cloud Forest Gift Card to a friend or loved one. An ideal and unique gift idea.

Toucan's from Ecuador's Cloud Forrest

Make a donation - "Save a Hectare"

The Ecuador "Save a Hectare" Project is undertaken in association with the conservation projects of Rainforest Concern (UK) and the Rainforest Information Centre (Aust).