Choco-Andean Corridor

The Corridor is a sweeping conservation initiative, initiated by Fundacion Maquipucuna and the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia in 1992 to help preserve the natural value and unique heritage of the Chocó Andean ecosystems, while tackling some of the underlying social factors that threaten their biodiversity. The Chocó-Andean Corridor in northwestern Ecuador embraces two regions of global biodiversity significance, the lowland Chocó and the richest mountainous tropical Andean forests. The spatial scale of the project is large, approximately 2,500,000 acres reaching from sea level mangroves through rainforest, to paramo grasslands in the crest of the western Andes Mountains.

The Chocó-Andean Corridor is ranked among the earth’s top five "biodiversity hotspots.”  Over 8,000 different plant species have been collected in the Chocó Andean Corridor, including 458 plant species listed under different degrees of endangerment in the Red Book of the IUCN.  Over 800 species of birds, about 10% of the earth’s birds, find a home in the Corridor. The Corridor is also home to indigenous and afro-Ecuadorian peoples subsisting in traditional ways, and non-indigenous settlers making their livings mainly through modern market agriculture. They are all dependant on the continued health and vitality of this biodiverse and complex landscape.

About a third of the area is already under protected status as private protected forests or national parks such as the Cayapas Mataje Ecological Reserve, the Cotacachi Cayapas, the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve, the Angel Ecological Reserve and protected forests such as Maquipucuna Reserve, Mindo Nambillo, Cuenca Alta del Rio Guayllabamba, Golondrinas, the Awacachi Corridor, Cedros, Cambugan, Siempre Verde, Florida, Alto Chocó among other.  The rest will receive protection through participative community management plans

Our work aims to protect ecological connectivity between protected areas through conservation and restoration of private and community forests. Our strategy is to prevent and mitigate climate change through micro scale initiatives that promote sustainable economic development.  Small farmers of the highlands of the Corridor are producing organic shade-grown coffee, in the lowlands, shade grown cacao. Throughout the Corridor ecotourism is supported on remaining forests, and native bamboo is promoted as alternative to timber for construction.