According to Carmen Josse, scientific director of Fundación EcoCiencia, in Ecuador, these include industrial oil palm plantations as well as legal and illegal logging and mining. Ecuador - May 2001. On the other hand, it also has high levels of endemism, because it is a transition zone between very humid forests, characteristic of the Chocó, and seasonally dry forests,” Josse said.Josse said deforestation in the reserve has increased with the construction of nearby roads, among other things. by Technical University Munich. MAAP’s data and images show that 99 percent of the park’s forests were in good condition as of 2018.Schaefer from Fundación Jocotoco said Cotacachi-Cayapas remains important because it still has extensive forest coverage. “In the highland areas, on the border of the Cotacachi-Cayapas Reserve, above 1,000 meters [3,300 feet], we are talking about very large mining concessions that have caused controversy among the local population, one of them in the Ecuadoran Chocó lowland forest experienced the lion’s share of deforestation, losing 68 percent (1.2 million hectares, or 3 million acres) of its forest cover by 2018. These include, on the one hand, indigenous Chachi communities, and on the other, migrants who moved there to work in agriculture.“The declaration was complex, but it made sense, because it is an area that, although located in areas of low elevation near the coast, has a very rugged topography (consisting of a small coastal mountain range) that should not be used for agricultural activities.

By the year 2030, we might only have 10% of Rainforests left and it can all disappear in a hundred years. The forests of South Ecuador are a biological ‘hotspot’ due to their high diversity and endemism levels. Historically, deforestation occurred mainly in the Sierras and Costa region. The amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 1.43%.

Ecuador’s forest protection statistics present 21% .

Ecuadoran Chocó lowland forest experienced the lion’s share of deforestation, losing 68 percent (1.2 million hectares, or 3 million acres) of its forest cover by 2018. "This data is based on a definition of 30% tree cover.

For example, 75% includes only areas with more than 75% tree cover, whereas 10% includes all areas with more than 10% tree cover. Mongabay is a U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform. 10% of the world’s forests are now protected areas. However, he noted that the majority of land in the reserve is above 500 meters (1,640 feet), while the most threatened habitat in the Ecuadoran Chocó is the lowland forest, at elevations of less than 300 meters (980 feet).“Our intention is to protect this habitat (of lowland forests) and then connect it to Cotacachi-Cayapas, because there is evidence that the species in the western area are moving their range of altitude upwards as a result of increasing temperatures, due to climate change. "Tree cover threshold" is used for defining the tree cover area.

The first is a location close to the border with Colombia that lost 380 hectares (939 acres) between 2016 and 2018 “directly to the north of an oil palm plantation, possibly for an expansion.”The analysis also reveals the Chachi Indigenous Reserve lost around 50 hectares (124 acres) of its forest cover between 2016 and 2018.Despite the loss of forest in many areas of the Ecuadoran Chocó, MAAP’s report offers optimism and hope in the high level of conservation of the recently named Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, first declared protected in 1968 as an ecological reserve.

“We want to demonstrate that there are alternatives for working in the forest without destroying its natural resources.”Conservationists say the protection of the Ecuadoran Chocó has become a necessity due to the increasing pressures it faces.“The area has also been affected by selective logging financed by large timber companies, and so these forests, those from which high-quality wood has been extracted, have gradually become degraded and have been converted to other land uses,” Josse said, adding that this is currently still happening.If this loss of forest continues, Schaefer said, it will destroy a place of enormous biodiversity where “we are losing species, often before even discovering them.”Mongabay is a reader-supported conservation and environmental science news service.

located on the equator in the tropical Andes of South America.

Areas with less than 30% canopy cover are excluded.This data is based on a definition of 30% tree cover. Up to 28,000 species can go extinct in the next quarter century due to deforestation. km.) 75% tree cover reflects a dense canopy. Its analysis used data from Ecuador’s Ministry of the Environment for years before 2017, and the University of Maryland for 2017 and 2018.The analysis found 4,600 hectares (11,400 acres) of Ecuadoran Chocó forest were deforested in 2017 and 2018, mostly in low-elevation forest.According to MAAP’s analysis, only 39 percent of Ecuadoran Chocó forest (1.17 million hectares, or 2.89 million acres) remains. Deforestation and fragmentation are major components of global change; both are contributing to the rapid loss of tropical forest area with important implications for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity conservation. However, this ecosystem is also one of the most threatened in the world. “According to the evaluation of forest cover carried out by EcoCiencia in 2017, there are only 76,053 hectares [187,931 acres] of native forest left among the 200,000 [494,210 acres] in the area comprised of the district of Muisne and the Mache-Chindul Reserve,” notes the report “In its report, MAAP highlights two areas significantly affected by deforestation. 75% tree cover reflects a dense canopy. "This data is based on a definition of 30% tree cover. Areas with less than 30% canopy cover are excluded.