A Future for the Chocó
The Chocó is one of the most ecologically unique places on Earth, but rampant deforestation for ranching, agriculture, and extractive industries like gold mining and commercial logging are quickly reducing this critically biodiverse zone to a fraction of its former size. While scientists race to study this area’s endangered, new-to-science, and endemic species—species that live here and nowhere else—conservation groups are working together to build a network of strategic protected areas, purchasing plots of intact habitat that might otherwise be sold for commercial development and employing local and indigenous people as forest guardians. After establishing an entirely youth-funded nature reserve here in 2021 with Rainforest Trust and Fundación EcoMinga, Reserva is championing a creative youth-led effort to protect what remains of this irreplaceable forest, by matching letters from youth in support of nature with actual funds for conservation. This funding will support the purchase and protection of primary Ecuadorian Chocó cloud forest within the Dracula Reserve wildlife corridor, securing critical habitat for thousands of Chocó species and empowering thousands of young people along the way.
Milestones
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Buy and Protect 20 acres (Rio Faisanes Stubfoot Toad)
CompletedWe will purchase and Protect 20 acres of habitat for the Rio Faisanes Stubfoot Toad (Atelopus coynei, CR)
Empower 4,633 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Rio Faisanes Stubfoot Toad
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Ocelot
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Plate-billed Mountain -Toucan
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Flame-faced Tanager
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Spectacular Orchids - Lepanthes pecunialis
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Spiny Pocket Mouse
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Buy and Protect 50 acres (Stubfoot Toad + Rare & spectacular orchids)
DonatePurchase and Protect 50 acres of habitat for rare and spectacular orchids (i.e. Lepanthes tulcanensis, newly described species, suggested CR)
Empower 11,583 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Spectacular Orchids - Scaphosepalum decorum
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Warty Glassfrog
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Blunthead Tree Snake
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Beautiful Jay
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Golden Tanager
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Buy and Protect 100 acres (Stubfoot Toad + Rare Orchids + Black-and-chestnut Eagle)
UpcomingPurchase and Protect 100 acres of habitat for the Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori, EN)
Empower 23,166 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Black-and-chestnut Eagle
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Dwarf Robber Frog
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Green Honeycreeper
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Carchi Andes Toad
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Andean Cock-of-the-rock
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Spectacular Orchids - Platystele baqueroi
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Buy and Protect 200 acres (Spectacled Bear + Black-and-chestnut Eagle + Rare Orchids + Stubfoot Toad)
UpcomingPurchase and Protect 200 acres of habitat for the Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus, VU)
Empower 46,332 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Spectacled Bear
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Spectacular Orchids - Pleurothalis thoerlae
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Chical Cloud Forest Torrent Frog
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Spectacular Orchids - Lepanthes deformis
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Tropical Parula
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Dracula Anole
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Buy and Protect 500 acres (Spider Monkey + Spectacled Bear + Black-and-chestnut Eagle + Rare Orchids + Stubfoot Toad)
UpcomingPurchase and Protect 500 acres of habitat for Brown-headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps spp. fusciceps, CR)
Empower 115,830 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Brown-headed Spider Monkey
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Dark-backed Wood-Quail
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Burrowes' Robber Frog
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Spectacular Orchids - Lepanthes acrogenia
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Type of slender oppossom
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Buy and Protect 1,000 acres (Puma + Ocelot + Jaguarundi + Capuchin Monkey + Mantled Howler Monkey + Spider Monkey + Spectacled Bear + Black-and-chestnut Eagle + Rare Orchids + Stubfoot Toad)
UpcomingPurchase and Protect 1,000 acres of habitat to secure a wildlife corridor for Ecuador’s iconic Chocó species (Puma, Spectacled Bear, Ocelot, Jaguarundi, Spider Monkey, White-fronted Capuchin Monkey, Mantled Howler Monkey)
Empower 231,660 young people through Reserva’s 1 Million Letters #ForNature program
Protected species with this milestone
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Puma
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Mantled Howler Monkey
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Rare Snakes - Erythrolamprus vitti
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Spectacular Orchids - Scaphosepalum reptans
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Rare frogs - Pristimantis muricatus
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Ornate Hawk-eagle
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