Where We Work

The Pacific coast of Ecuador used to be as densely forested as the Amazon river basin. Whereas the Amazon has lost 20-25% of its forest, coastal Ecuador has lost 98% - almost all within the last three generations. It is the most threatened tropical forest in the world, with an ecological diversity that has no parallel. As a transition zone between the wettest forests and the driest desert recorded on earth, coastal Ecuador represents an extraordinarily dynamic intersection of tropical deciduous forest, moist evergreen forest, rainforest, and cloud forest – in some cases all within a single day’s hike. It also serves as habitat for a wide range of endangered and endemic species, including six different species of wild felines (jaguar, ocelot, margay, oncilla, jaguarundi, and puma) and two different species of monkey (white-faced capuchin monkey and the mantled howler monkey). At the current rate of deforestation and forest fragmentation, little native habitat will be left by the end of this decade, and biological extinction will be massive. The Pacific Equatorial Forest is part of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot as designated by Conservation International in 1999. It is here that Third Millennium Alliance established the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve, which protects 800 acres of one of the last major remnants of tropical rainforest and cloud forest in the region. The Bamboo House Research Station, in the middle of the Reserve, is our field headquarters, and our office is in Quito. 

0° Latitude - The Last Stand

The greatest concentration of unprotected forest that still exists on the Pacific coast of Ecuador is found in the north of the province of Manabí at 0° latitude, known as the Pacific Equatorial Forest. This distinct ecosystem is mostly limited to the coastal mountain range that extends between the towns of Jama and Coaque, which roughly corresponds to the territory once inhabited by the ancient Jama-Coaque civilization (355 BC – 1532 AD). Third Millennium Alliance's Jama-Coaque Reserve is but one stronghold in region where over 47,000 acres (19,000 hectares) of forest are still unprotected. Third Millennium Alliance and a small coalition of other organizations, communities, and individuals are working together to build a regional Conservation Corridor that brings all of these last remnants of Pacific Equatorial Forest under protection, as well as the wide range of endangered and endemic species therein contained.