Ecuador

Cabeceras Cofanes-Chingual

Vriesendorp Corine, Alverson William S., del Campo Alvaro, Stotz Douglas F., Moskovits Debra K., Caceres Segundo Fuentes, Tapia Byron Coronel, Anderson Elizabeth P.

The remote, rugged Cabeceras Cofanes-Chingual is one of the last intact mountainous regions in Ecuador and serves as the most important remaining refuge for endangered, range-restricted flora and fauna of the Ecuadorian Andes. In October 2008 scientists from Ecuador, Peru, and the United States conducted a rapid biological inventory and a rapid social inventory to assess the region's suitability for protection as a municipal reserve. Working closely with local communities and indigenous Cofan, whose ancestral territory abuts the proposed reserve to the south, the teams surveyed the hydrology, geology, soils, vegetation and flora, fishes, amphibians and reptiles, birds, mammals, archaeology, and current human communities. Full and abstracted results of the fieldwork are provided in Spanish and English.

About the Author

Corine Vriesendorp is the director of the Rapid Inventories and Conservation Tools Program of Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) at the Field Museum.

William S. Alverson is a senior conservation ecologist-botanist with ECCo.

Alvaro del Campo is the international field programs manager with ECCo.

Douglas F. Stotz is a senior conservation ecologist-ornithologist with ECCo.

Debra K. Moskovits is the senior vice president of ECCo.

Segundo Fuentes Caceres is the regional director of the Ministerio del Ambiente in Imbabura, Ecuador.

Byron Coronel Tapia is the director of Medio Ambiente y Turismo in La Bonita, Sucumbios, Ecuador.

Elizabeth P. Anderson is the conservation sustainability director of ECCo.

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