ABOUT BUENAVENTURA RESERVE

Fauna and Flora: El Oro Parakeet, Long-wattled Umbrellabird, El Oro Tapaculo, Western White Capuchin Monkey, Western Two-Toed Sloth, Spotted Tigrillo and Coati.

The Buenaventura Reserve was created to protect the home range of the El Oro Parakeet (Pyrrhura orcesi), which was discovered in 1980 by Robert Ridgely. In the 1990s, the forest cover of this area was reduced and substantially devastated, due to the creation of extensive pastures. The reserve protects one of the most extensive patches of piedmont cloud forest in the western foothills of the Andes in southwestern Ecuador.

In this area elements of dry Tumbesian forests from southern Ecuador and northwestern Peru are combined with species from the humid forests of Chocó in the northwestern Ecuador. This is one of the most devastated regions worldwide, since it is estimated that only 5-10% of the original forest cover remains standing.

In this reserve we work on reforestation activities to reinforce El Oro Biological Corridor. We also manage a nursery of native plant.

Until 2019, we held the Nest Box Program for the El Oro Parakeet, and also worked on the reintroduction of the red-masked parakeet