Yasuni National Park, Ecuador
OVERVIEW
Global Conservation has deployed Global Park Defense in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, one of the Amazon’s bastions for biodiversity. Yasuni, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the last continuous tracts of virgin tropical forest in eastern Ecuador. The park sits at the intersection of the Amazon, the Andes, and the equator, converging several unique ecosystems and creating one of the richest biodiversity hotspots on the planet.
SIZE
2,200,000 Hectares
GOAL
$880,000
VISITORS BY 2030
40,000
Introduction
Yasuní National Park, part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve (YBR), a UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning 2.7 million hectares, is one of the last continuous tracts of virgin tropical forest in eastern Ecuador. Yasuní sits at the intersection of the Amazon, the Andes, and the equator, converging several unique ecosystems and creating one of the richest biodiversity hotspots on the planet.
Unfortunately, illegal loggers and bushmeat traffickers are operating on a large scale in the Ecuadorian Amazon in and around Yasuní National Park. The majority arrive via river from Peru to extract old-growth cedar trees and hunt bushmeat, often on a commercial scale. Within Yasuní National Park, indigenous groups like the Waoranis, Kichwas and Záparas are documenting and fighting illegal logging and hunting in their territories.
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Led by Margoth Quispe, GC Director of South America, we traveled last month to Yasuní to meet with national park authorities and to Quito to meet with Ministry of Environment officials, along with our proposed partners for Global Park Defense deployment and biodiversity monitoring – Tiputini Research Station and WCS Ecuador.
GC is now preparing a proposal for a five-year Global Park Defense deployment in Yasuní, focused on the Northern Sector, Napo River and border areas with Peru. Those areas experience the heaviest illegal logging and wildlife poaching pressures.
Our five-year structured Global Park Defense program will help Yasuní increase actual and perceived protection. We will work with local communities to improve patrolling as guardians of their lands, and help the Yasuní Park Authority upgrade systems, equipment and patrolling effectiveness.
Natural and Cultural History of Yasuní
The Yasuní Biosphere Reserve is an area of land comprised of Yasuní National Park (the largest protected area in Ecuador at over 1 million ha), Waorani Ethnic Reserve, and the Tagaeri-Taromenane Intangible Zone, designated to protect indigenous peoples and wildlife from environmental and cultural exploitation.
At its core, the YBR contains the one-million-hectare Yasuní National Park. This tropical rainforest is one of the world’s biodiversity jewels, containing 1,300 tree species, around 600 bird species, around 400 fish species, and at least 170 species of mammals, including lowland tapirs, white-lipped peccaries, jaguars, bush dogs, short-eared dogs, and 13 species of primates.
Yasuní has important populations of two endangered mammal species, the white-bellied spider monkey and the giant otter. Both are endangered due to habitat destruction and degradation. Fewer than 250 reproductive giant otters are estimated to remain in Ecuador, with Yasuní harboring an estimated 20 groups of around five individuals each.
Yasuní is also important for the threatened golden-mantled tamarin and giant armadillo, and is also among the most important sites in Ecuador for jaguars. In all, Yasuní protects a considerable number of threatened species, and is a global hotspot for threatened mammals.
The Gran Yasuní Important Bird Area, which includes both the park and adjacent Waorani Territory, contains several rare bird species, including seven species listed as Vulnerable or Near Threatened.
The YBR is also known for its exceptional cultural value. It is home to the last representatives of the Waorani ethnic group and two indigenous groups in voluntary isolation, for whom the 800,000 hectare Tagaeri–Taromenane Intangible Zone was declared. This landscape is also home to Kichwa, Shuar and non-indigenous colonist communities.
Conservation Significance of Yasuní
World records for tree and liana diversity
43 species of endemic vertebrates
Despite covering less than 0.15% of the Amazon Basin, roughly 33% of the Amazon’s reptile and amphibian species are found in Yasuní (121 reptiles and 150 amphibians).
382 species of fish (estimates range from 382 to 499 species)
100,000+ species of insects (roughly the same as all of North America)
595 species of birds
169 species of mammals (could be as high as 204 species)
4,000+ vascular plant species
Home to over 130 globally threatened species
Saving Yasuní
Though Yasuní is legally protected, it is virtually unprotected in practice. The area where Yasuní is located is highly vulnerable to the impacts of development activities such as road construction, as well as illegal activities, such as logging, commercial hunting, and wildlife trafficking.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, commercialization of balsa wood has grown exponentially, causing further deforestation and degradation. Unless urgent action can reduce these threats, Yasuní will likely succumb to increasing human pressures in the coming decades.
Conservation Challenges
Illegal commercial hunting for wild meat, which leads to the reduction, and in some cases the eradication, of wildlife species.
Advancement of agriculture and improper or illegal extraction of timber, both major causes of deforestation.
Road construction, which contributes to illegal timber extraction, illegal wildlife trade, population growth, and illegal settlement within protected areas.
Climate change, which affects the distribution of species and threatens to increase the frequency and magnitude of floods, droughts and diseases.
Two rivers provide 99% of the transportation for illegal logging and wildlife poaching. Hundreds of animals are killed and smoked daily to sell to Peruvian village and towns. Since the peace process with Peru, the border with Ecuador has been demilitarized, resulting in more illegal activities against forests, parks and wildlife.
To secure the protected areas, it’s critical to enable Ecuadorian-Peruvian joint patrolling and communications, support river arrests and interdictions, and deploy Global Park Defense and SMART 7.0 across the entire protection area. It’s also crucial to have an integrated Command Center and satellite connectivity to all Yasuní Protection Teams.
Global Conservation plans to work with the Yasuní National Park Authority, the Waorani communities supported by Amazon Frontlines and Land Is Life, and villages on the two rivers, as well as police and military, to provide the boats, motors and patrol operations support needed to shut down illegal logging in Yasuní.
A 2019 report alleges that illegal loggers are operating in the famous Yasuní National Park in the Amazon, crossing the border from Peru and extracting cedar from territories used by indigenous peoples living in “isolation”.
José Proaño, director of Land is Life, told PacificStandard that the traffickers are opening trails in the territory to increase logging.
“The intangible area has been so well protected and so well maintained by the villages that live there, that there is cedar by the river —something that does not happen in areas where there are roads…” Proaño said. “The first wood that is extracted is always cedar, which is valued in the market at around US $3,000 per cubic foot.”
“We are afraid that this situation of illegal logging is taking place along the entire border with Peru, in areas between the Napo River and the south along the Corrientes River,” he said.
Poaching is another major threat to Yasuní. Meat from wildlife, especially the endangered white-lipped peccary, is desirable for illegal traffickers. Local communities hunt one or two peccaries, with the meat lasting two to three weeks, but commercial poachers are now building camps that are able to smoke the meat of a whole herd of 100-150 animals. This large-scale poaching threatens to clear the forest of wildlife if it is not put to a stop.
Species Facing Extinction
In Yasuni, there are populations of giant anteaters, harpy eagles and jaguars.
The giant anteater is one of the most unique mammals in the world. Fewer than 5,000 are thought to remain across their range.
Harpy eagles are enormous birds of prey, tied for the title of world's largest eagle. They are found in rainforest habitats throughout much of South and Central America, and are threatened primarily by deforestation.
The jaguar is the largest feline in the Americas, a valuable component of the ecosystem as a top predator and an iconic symbol of South American culture.
Partners in Conservation
The WCS Ecuador Program was officially registered by the Ecuadorian government in 2001. Since our foundation, we have worked to conserve wildlife and habitat in the Yasuní Landscape in partnership with indigenous organizations, local government authorities, and Ecuador's Ministry of the Environment (MAE). In 2014, we began expanding our work to the Llanganates landscape. WCS’s team of biologists, geographers, ecologists, resource managers, anthropologists, and communicators have carried out diverse projects in the region, involving elements of applied scientific research, wildlife management, institutional strengthening, capacity building, and environmental education. Our conservation strategy is based on identifying critical conservation problems and developing science-based and community-driven solutions that benefit natural landscapes, wildlife, and human populations. WCS Ecuador has long collaborated with local communities in developing new management strategies to improve their living conditions without threatening the integrity of the natural ecosystems in which they live.
The Tiputini Biodiversity Station was established in 1994 and has provided the first biological inventories, working with Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador and others. TBS is situated on the north bank of the Tiputini River, a southern tributary of the Napo River within the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve.
Their primary activities are associated with research and education. Located within the world’s greatest biodiversity hotspot, their main goal is to better understand nature so that appropriate and effective conservation strategies may be implemented.
TBS also serves as a non-official guard post for the Yasuní National Park.