Protecting the Canande Reserve's Choco Ecosystem
Ecuador
Overview
Rainforest Connection partnered with local on-ground partner, Fundación Jocotoco to combat the loss of biodiversity and protect the Canande Reserve's Choco Ecosystem, one of the most threatened habitats outside the governmental system of protected areas.
Partners
Jocotoco Foundation
Objectives
Use guardians to act quickly to combat threats such as deforestation and hunting and to monitor endangered fauna.
To save the last remaining forests and mitigate climate risks in one of the most threatened ecosystems globally our project.
Provide a blueprint for climate mitigation in tropical mountain systems, the most diverse regions in the world.
Implementation
In March 2019, Topher White, founder of Rainforest Connection, visited the Canande reserve to install the first species guardians in the reserve. He was accompanied by Michael Moens (Conservation Director, Jocotoco Foundation), Ivette Solis (Canopy climber and biologist) and Jocotoco park guards.
The first expedition was organized during the peak of rainy season to test the robustness of the system and work in the most extreme conditions. During a 10-day visit, four guardians were deployed in areas with working cell phone coverage and where monitoring was needed to combat illegal hunting and logging. Guardian #1 was installed on a mountain ridge at 2 km from the lodge in order to monitor a radius of 1km around the ridge. Since this parcel is fragmented from the rest of Canande reserve, this was a strategic spot to monitor for illegal threats. Moreover, this is an important area where the Golden-chested Tanager (Chocó endemic) and the Brown-headed Spider Monkey (Critically endangered) are frequently registered. The team was accompanied by a production team of SAP technology, who donated space on the cloud to store all data generated during this project.
Guardian #2 was installed on a mountain ridge in the Alvarado property, a site chosen strategically because it has direct road access and there exists evidence of illegal hunting. Guardian #3 was installed at Casa del medio in the heart of the Canande reserve. The guardian was placed here to monitor biodiversity and possible threats, since this area is only patrolled once a month. The installation was successful and the guardian went live. Finally, Guardian #4 was installed in a property which was bought by Jocotoco to strategically block road encroachment. During the installation of Guardian 2-4, we were accompanied by the Rolex film group, to make a short documentary about the project.
Impact / Challenges
Impacts:
We successfully installed four Guardians within the tree canopy at strategic places in the Canande reserve, managed by the Jocotoco Foundation. At two sites, evidence of hunting was found and we also detected fresh Jaguar tracks.
Challenges:
The rugged terrain (combination of hills and valleys) challenged the quality of network service, which was improved in the next phase of the project, by installing repeaters to expand the network signal to more remote areas where monitoring is needed.
