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A forest in isolation
Cut off from the rest of the Amazon by the Andes, The Chocó region’s Rainforest, in the Awacachi Corridor, Ecuador, is one of the most biodiverse on the planet. It’s home to rare species such as the Great Green Macaw and the Brown-headed Spider Monkey.
Like many rainforest communities, the people living in the Awacachi Corridor were facing increasing threats and mounting pressure from palm oil cultivation and logging activities.
The critically endangered Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus) can be found in the Awacachi Corridor, Ecuador.
The Chocó rainforest
Cool Earth’s Awacachi Corridor Project began in 2008 with a simple goal. Protect more than 55,000 acres of Chocó rainforest in Ecuador. In order to achieve this, we worked together with NGO Fauna & Flora International to partner with four local communities to protect 900,000 acres of protected Ecuadorian rainforest.
The Launch of People-Powered Projects
Providing alternative options away from logging that bring in cash relieves the pressure on local people. Through our People Powered projects, we were able to develop and diversify income streams so that we could address poverty for communities in the Awacachi Corridor. This ensured that people didn’t have to give up their resources, including the forest itself, to survive. These projects included cacao production, benefiting 40 families, and the sale of handicrafts.
This forest is valuable in terms of both economics and biodiversity. To better understand both the threats and the biological value in order to foster positive community relationships, a team of community rangers were employed to monitor and report on both illegal activities and the plant and animal life in the area, on behalf of their communities.
A cacao pod hangs in a tree waiting to harvested.