Podocarpus National Park

Maquipucuna pioneered community-based conservation in southeast Ecuador in the buffer zone of the Podocarpus National Park starting in 1989.  The program implemented agroforestry community development, provided potable water to local communities, studied the impact of mercury contamination due to mining, established a community-based sugar processing factory, and helped solve land tenure conflicts with the communities in the buffer zone of the Podocarpus National Park.

Podocarpus National Park includes cloud forests, high-altitude grasslands, and a series of small Andean lakes, with around 3,000 different species of vascular plants, many of which are endemic. The park was created in 1982 to shelter the largest remaining forest of three species of the tree genus Podocarpus.

Commonly referred to as “Romerillo,” the Podocarpus is the only native conifer in the Ecuadorian Andes.

More than 40 mammal species occur in the area, including the jaguar, wooly tapir, Andean bear, pudú (the smallest deer in the world), giant armadillo and Neotropical otter.

Maquipucuna is proud to have been instrumental in the initial 12-year conservation and sustainable community-development efforts in and around the Podocarpus National Park, that now, NCI-Nature & Culture has continue to conserve along these same areas, resulting in what they mention in 2007 the success in gaining the declaration by UNESCO of one million hectares – two and a half million acres - of Andean cloud forests as a biosphere reserve to conserve the pristine forests of the Loja and Zamora regions and a number of local cultures.

This incredible biodiverse area, which includes the Podocarpus National Park, is considered to be one of the most important sites for biodiversity in the world. It contains 3,500 plant species; over 40% are which are endemic or restricted to this area, including an abundance of orchids, bromeliads, ferns and tree species. Along with such attractive mammals as the spectacled bear, mountain tapir, ocelot and puma, the Reserve is home to almost 600 bird species, including 61 species of hummingbirds and 81 different tanagers.

It has had the support of local public and private institutions, including the Provincial Councils of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe, the municipalities of Loja and Zamora, the Ministry of Environment, the National University of Loja, the Private Technical University of Loja, and the MAB-UNESCO Program in Ecuador.