Help us to save the Chocó!

Our Save the Chocó Campaign seeks to raise US $5million to purchase and protect 57,000 acres ofunique pristine rainforest in the Chocó. This potential land purchase wouldconnect the surrounding reserves and its preservation would create a fully contiguous protected area of more than 740,000 acres!

Our Save the Chocó Campaign seeks to raise US $5million to purchase and protect 57,000 acres ofunique pristine rainforest in the Chocó, a cradle ofbiodiversity and wilderness on the western slopes ofthe Ecuadorian Andes. Floristically this is one of themost important areas in the Americas and home tomore than 140 species of amphibians and reptiles.The scale of this conservation opportunity is virtuallyunprecedented!. This potential land purchase wouldconnect the surrounding reserves and its preservation would create a fully contiguous protected area of more than 740,000 acres -more than the size of Yosemite National Park in California!

This new protected area would cover a wide altitudinal gradient, running from sea level to nearly 5,000 meters -higher than any peak in the continental United States. Protecting Chocó lowland, Andean cloud forest and Paramo (and everything in between), being significantly larger than any protected area in Western Ecuador, this protected area will be crucial to species whose survival is imperiled by a changing climate, allowing them to migrate upland in search of cooler temperatures and creating long-term resiliency. There are still many species to be discovered and found in this magnificent area such as the Trap-jaw Ant (see below). Owing to rapid deforestation, it is very important to act now before it's too late!