Our Shared Forests

Our Shared Forests (OSF) is Ecuador and Georgia's Migratory Bird Partnership through Integrated Conservation, Bird Monitoring and Environmental Education. In Ecuador, OSF targets science-based habitat conservation throughout the Chocó Andean Corridor, one of the earth’s top five biodiversity hotspots. While, in both Ecuador and Georgia, it aims at creating awareness about 10 bird species that migrate between both regions. OSF is designed to be socially, environmentally and financially sustainable. It is a bi-national partnership between the Ecuadorian NGO Fundación Maquipucuna, the University of Georgia’s State Botanical Garden, and the Chocó Andes Alliance and APROCANE associations of farmers and landowners in Northwest Ecuador. Overall, this project is designed to bring light to the importance of conserving existing habitats and reestablishing fragmented habitats of neotropical migrant birds. Neotropical migrants are birds that spend their winters in North America and their summers in Central and South America.  Habitats of these birds are becoming fragmented as trees are cut down for timber, development and agriculture.