The Pacific Equatorial Forest is part of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena global biodiversity hotspot. Because of the convergence of the Humboldt and El Niño ocean currents at roughly 0° latitude, coastal Ecuador is a transition zone between the wettest forests (in Colombia) and the driest desert (the Atacama, in Peru and Chile) on earth. The result is an intersection of tropical deciduous forest, moist evergreen forest, rainforest, and cloud forest. Only along the Jama-Coaque mountains, however, can each of these forest types be found within the same 5-mile stretch of land. The sharp altitude changes of this mountain range and the corresponding climatic changes account for an extraordinarily diverse ecosystem. 

Tropical deciduous forest (also known as dry forest) is found closest to the ocean at elevations lower than 320 feet (100 meters), and is more predominant in the south of the region. From Ceiba Foundation’s description of the Lalo Loor Dry Forest Reserve: “Dry Tropical Forest is found in regions where there are several months of severe to absolute dry season, with most rain falling during a (usually) brief wet season… The single most important adaptation, among plants, to the extended droughts of the dry forest is deciduousness, the shedding of leaves. Plants drop their leaves after the rains end, and essentially halt photosynthesis, which otherwise produces water losses the plant cannot sustain during the dry season… These forests can be very rich in bird life, often numbering over 200 or 300 species.”

Moist evergreen forest (also known as seasonal rainforest) is found on the lower slopes of the mountains, up to roughly 1,650 feet (500 meters) of elevation. Annual rainfall is less than 2,000 mm with a dry season of at least four months. The vegetation resembles that of a rainforest during the rainy season, and even during the dry season the trees maintain all their leaves, although a seasonally change in appearance is still evident – comparable to that of late August in northern temperate regions. In the Jama-Coaque Reserve, the moist forest is characterized by stands of candy-green bamboo, large emergent trees such as strangler figs and rubber trees that grow up to 150 feet tall, and a magnificent array of palm species. Non-tree species - including epiphytes, lianas, shrubs and terrestrial herbs - are a very significant portion of the overall diversity of the plants in tropical forests, and epiphytes are a particularly species-rich element of the flora.  

Tropical rainforest (also known as wet forest) is more predominant in the north of the region, and can be found at elevations ranging from 640 feet (200 meters) to 1,800 feet (550 meters) of elevation, and receives close to 2,000 mm of annual precipitation with a very mild or almost non-existent dry season. Botanist David Neill compares the Pacific coast rainforest to those of the Amazon: “The canopy is c. 40 m high and fairly continuous, with few gaps. The absence of gaps and the relative abundance of large trees (dbh 70 cm or more) are striking features in comparison with Amazonian Ecuador's forest, where gaps appear to be more frequent and there are fewer large trees.”