Thank you for visiting our newest initiative: the official Blog of the Yachana Rainforest Preserve. Hopefully, we will be able to continuously update this blog with information on the Yachana Foundation's research, conservation, and protection efforts in this critical reserve.
I hope visitors will take the time to ask questions, give their opinions and suggestions, and offer comments on our work. We're very proud of what we are trying to accomplish, and welcome the opportunity to share information.
Happy browsing!
Yachana Forest
The Yachana Preserve
The Yachana Rainforest Preserve is an officially designated protected forest reserve consisting of a total of 1,800 hectares (4,400 acres), divided into two tracts, in Napo Province, Ecuador, at 0° 5’ 0”S/077° 13’ 60”W. and located on both sides of the Napo River. The largest tract of 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres), located on the west bank of the Napo River, is bounded on two sides by main and side branches of this river, on the third side by pasture and agricultural land, and on the fourth side by the Rio Bueno. The preserve is located in the buffer zone of the Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, an important UNESCO Man-and-the-Biosphere Reserve of international significance. The Yachana Rainforest Preserve represents one of the largest remnants of mature rainforest left in the buffer zone. Almost all of the remaining 500,000 ha of the buffer zone have been heavily impacted by agriculture, mining, and commercial logging. The land is owned and managed by the Ecuadorian non-governmental organization Yachana Foundation for Integrated Education and Development.
The reserve shows promise of both high absolute (i.e., species count) and endemic biodiversity. Habitat heterogeneity is high due to topography. Flora in the reserve is consistent with rapidly disappearing flora of the Napo Moist Forest Ecoregion, Amazon Floristic Province. Forest types include terra firme and island varzea forest. Primary productivity is high due to rich soil in many areas renewed annually by the Rio Napo, a whitewater river draining the Cordillera Oriente from its source near Cotopaxi Volcano in the high Andes. The reserve is the only known home of a newly discovered Centrolene glass frog species – one of only four glass frogs in Ecuador - as well as endemic geographic morphs of the Amazon earth snake (Atractus major) and the Amazon casque-headed frog (Hemiphractus scutatus). Large mammals of significant conservation interest identified during preliminary inventory surveys conducted during 2006-2007 include puma (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardis pardalis), and a substantial population of dwarf forest caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus).
The species of highest conservation interest identified within the reserve, however, is the neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis). Although this species does not appear to be globally threatened with a range extending from Mexico to central South America, local habitat destruction and over-hunting have substantially reduced populations in specific areas. This is especially true in the Upper Napo region of Ecuador, where little original habitat remains outside of the Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve and the Yachana Rainforest Preserve. In addition, there are substantial gaps in the scientific knowledge of this species globally. There have been few systematic studies conducted and little standardized information is available.
In 2005, the district government of Chontapunta exercised its legal right of imminent domain in order to build a public-access road through the core conservation zone of the Yachana Preserve. This right-of-way has had significant implications for reserve integrity by increasing biological edge effects and permitting access into previously-remote areas of mature forest. The incidence of incursion by local inhabitants, particularly poaching, has risen from an estimated average of one incident every 2-3 months in 2005, primarily on the reserve periphery, to 1-2 incidents per week in 2007 including multiple signs of hunting (discharged shotgun shells, temporary hunting stands, etc) deep in the reserve’s core.
The Yachana Rainforest Preserve's conservation initiatives are geared toward protecting the remaining otter populations, restoring degraded habitat, and long-term research and monitoring of this beautiful and endangered refuge.
The reserve shows promise of both high absolute (i.e., species count) and endemic biodiversity. Habitat heterogeneity is high due to topography. Flora in the reserve is consistent with rapidly disappearing flora of the Napo Moist Forest Ecoregion, Amazon Floristic Province. Forest types include terra firme and island varzea forest. Primary productivity is high due to rich soil in many areas renewed annually by the Rio Napo, a whitewater river draining the Cordillera Oriente from its source near Cotopaxi Volcano in the high Andes. The reserve is the only known home of a newly discovered Centrolene glass frog species – one of only four glass frogs in Ecuador - as well as endemic geographic morphs of the Amazon earth snake (Atractus major) and the Amazon casque-headed frog (Hemiphractus scutatus). Large mammals of significant conservation interest identified during preliminary inventory surveys conducted during 2006-2007 include puma (Puma concolor), ocelot (Leopardis pardalis), and a substantial population of dwarf forest caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus).
The species of highest conservation interest identified within the reserve, however, is the neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis). Although this species does not appear to be globally threatened with a range extending from Mexico to central South America, local habitat destruction and over-hunting have substantially reduced populations in specific areas. This is especially true in the Upper Napo region of Ecuador, where little original habitat remains outside of the Gran Sumaco Biosphere Reserve and the Yachana Rainforest Preserve. In addition, there are substantial gaps in the scientific knowledge of this species globally. There have been few systematic studies conducted and little standardized information is available.
In 2005, the district government of Chontapunta exercised its legal right of imminent domain in order to build a public-access road through the core conservation zone of the Yachana Preserve. This right-of-way has had significant implications for reserve integrity by increasing biological edge effects and permitting access into previously-remote areas of mature forest. The incidence of incursion by local inhabitants, particularly poaching, has risen from an estimated average of one incident every 2-3 months in 2005, primarily on the reserve periphery, to 1-2 incidents per week in 2007 including multiple signs of hunting (discharged shotgun shells, temporary hunting stands, etc) deep in the reserve’s core.
The Yachana Rainforest Preserve's conservation initiatives are geared toward protecting the remaining otter populations, restoring degraded habitat, and long-term research and monitoring of this beautiful and endangered refuge.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
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