Rio Canandé

Situated in Esmeraldas province in north-western Ecuador, Rio Canandé Reserve is the site of the World Land Trust's newest Carbon Balanced project. The Reserve lies in the western foothills of the Andes at an altitude of around 500m a.s.l. and receives incredibly high levels of rainfall – up to 16,000mm per year. Combined with its equatorial location, this creates an extremely humid climate throughout the year, and it is this feature that lies behind its remarkable tropical vegetation.

This project serves as a replacement for a site purchased at the Buenaventura Reserve (the Rodas property) that was originally intended to form a Carbon Balanced project location. As this land was also targeted by the World Land Trust's Ecuador fund, the property ultimately became part of the Trust's Ecuador Rainforest Conservation Project instead. The Rio Canandé project will ensure the offset of emissions equivalent to those that were to be sequestered by the Rodas property at Buenaventura. The World Land Trust thanks its supporters for their invaluable funding support that has not only guaranteed the preservation of the Rodas property, but also helped in establishing the new Rio Canandé project.

Known as the Chocó, a form of tropical forest characterised by its lush and exceptionally varied flora, this region of Ecuador has been designated a 'hotspot' of endemism. It is one of only twenty-five such areas on Earth and, as well as boasting an estimated 10% of all Neotropical plant species, is particularly important for the diversity of its native bird life. This is recognised in its Birdlife International status as an Endemic Bird Area.

Logging near the border of Rio Canandé
Reserve; evidence of the real threat to the
survival of these forests © WLT.

Once stretching almost uninterrupted from Panama in Central America, down through Columbia and into northern Ecuador, the Chocó has now been reduced to isolated patches of forest. Those surrounding Rio Canandé are among the most extensive remaining, and yet even here deforestation rates approach 40%. Logging, and clearance for agriculture and, increasingly, for palm oil plantations, are the main drivers of deforestation and all are real threats at Rio Canandé.

The Chocó's extremely high levels of biodiversity and critically threatened status make the forests at Rio Canandé a conservation priority for World Land Trust. Reinforcing its biodiversity value, this region is known to support large mammal species such as the Jaguar, Black Howler Monkey, Spider Capuchin and Baird's Tapir, in addition to its bird and plant life.

Camera Trap image of an Ocelot taken in the
Rio Canandé Reserve

In the face of probable deforestation, Rio Canandé Reserve was established by the World Land Trust project partner Fundación Jocotoco. The reserve is presently 2,150ha in size, with a future target of 5,000ha. Within this the Holger Velez property, site of the World Land Trust's latest Carbon Balanced project, takes in around 50ha.

Over the 20 year project accounting period, Carbon Balanced activities at Rio Canandé are expected to sequester some 10,881 tonnes of carbon dioxide. With the Holger Velez property predominantly composed of primary standing forest, the majority of carbon sequestration will occur by avoided deforestation. Assisted natural regeneration of marginal land will generate the residual carbon storage element. This will all be supervised by wardens from Fundación Jocotoco.