The Naturetrek Reserves in Ecuador

Naturetrek was one of the first British tour operators to encourage clients to offset the carbon emissions generated by their travel, and has been doing so since 2000. Since 2007, we have also made contributions at our own expense for every flight we book. We set aside £15 for each person booking a long-haul holiday and £5 for every short-haul traveller; to date, this initiative has raised more than £625,000 and funded our very own carbon-retention project.

In partnership with the Ecuadorian NGO Fundación EcoMinga, these funds have enabled us to establish the Naturetrek Reserves. Located on the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, the reserves help connect Llanganates and Sangay National Parks through an area of threatened primary cloudforest. Recognised by WWF as one of the world's 200 most important wildlife corridors, this region supports exceptional levels of biodiversity.

The project has not only protected valuable habitat and its endangered wildlife from deforestation, but has also prevented the release of an estimated 105,000 to 211,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, this carbon remains stored within the forests and soils of the reserve. Today, the Naturetrek Reserves cover 2,181 acres, creating an invaluable wildlife corridor between the two national parks.

The reserves are home to iconic Andean species such as Spectacled Bear and Cock-of-the-Rock, alongside a remarkable diversity of plants, amphibians and reptiles. Among these are several orchid and frog species that were previously unknown to science.

We also invite our clients to match our contribution when booking their holiday, helping to further reduce the environmental impact of their trip. By doing so, you can help us expand the Naturetrek Reserves, retaining carbon that might otherwise be released into the atmosphere and preventing the national parks from becoming isolated cloudforest islands. In turn, this helps safeguard one of the world's most biodiverse habitats and the endangered wildlife it supports.

Since 2019, our clients have raised an additional £63,000 through voluntary donations when booking a Naturetrek holiday. If you have chosen to match our contribution, we are extremely grateful for your generosity. Thank you.

We've been operating tours to Ecuador (and the Galápagos Islands) for over 30 years. Here, where we chose to build our first Naturetrek Reserves, the Río Pastaza valley cuts through one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, the eastern Andes of Ecuador. To the north of this valley, the high mountains are protected by a large national park, Los Llanganates National Park, where the treasure of the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, is supposedly buried, but the vulnerable (and agriculturally valuable) lower slopes leading into the valley were left out of the park. To the south of the valley, another very large national park, Sangay, protects the highest mountains, but here too the more valuable and vulnerable lower slopes leading into the valley were left unprotected. These unprotected slopes were originally completely covered by rich cloudforest, full of locally endemic plant species, and rich in Andean wildlife such as the Spectacled Bear and endangered Mountain Tapir. The once contiguous forest provided a wildlife corridor between the two national parks, and hence between the north-east Andes and the south-east Andes of Ecuador, with only a shallow river separating them.

However, deforestation began early in this valley, which was one of the main lines of communication and travel between the Amazon basin and the densely settled inter-Andean plateau. In the 1950s a major road was built through it, and the forests began to be cut in earnest, mostly to grow the citrus fruit naranjilla (Solanum quitoense). Today the wildlife corridor between the north-east and south-east Andes, and the wealth of rare species it contains, is under even more threat, as the local people have begun to deploy zip lines in order to facilitate bringing crops down from even very high and steep mountain slopes.

Because the Naturetrek Reserves connect higher altitude cloudforest to the vulnerable riparian forests along the valley floor, they not only provide vital river access for large mammals and other species but also extend protection to the more diverse lower elevations that are not protected by the highland national parks in this watershed. For example, a recently discovered and very rare tree, Blakea attenboroughii, is not known from any national park yet is present in the Naturetrek Reserves. The upper Río Pastaza watershed is home to nearly 200 additional species of plants found nowhere else in the world, and this number is steadily increasing due to botanical investigation. The birdlife here is also very special, with species such as the Andean Cock-of-the-rock, Giant Antpitta, and the endangered Black-and-chestnut Eagle, one of which has been spotted by EcoMinga staff carrying a capuchin monkey through the air!

Purchasing this land for conservation is just the beginning. The benefits of the Naturetrek Reserves extend far beyond protecting wildlife, creating a positive ripple effect throughout local communities. The reserves provide employment for rangers, biologists and administrators, with many former hunters now working to protect wildlife using camera traps and smartphones instead of guns.

Education is another important aspect. Students from across Ecuador and beyond come to study alongside scientists working in the reserves, gaining valuable hands-on experience in conservation. Fundación EcoMinga pioneered a homestay programme that places these students with local families, providing a direct source of income for the community. Some families were supported to improve their homes, gaining internet access for the first time or even adding extra bedrooms to accommodate visitors. These improvements have brought lasting benefits, helping local children continue their education and creating new economic opportunities, particularly for local women living close to the reserves.

The project is also inspiring the next generation of conservationists. One local woman, whose childhood dream was to become a ranger after a Fundación EcoMinga scientist visited her school, went on to complete a biology degree and now works for EcoMinga managing one of the reserves.

“I volunteered in the Naturetrek Candelaria Reserve, and since I was very young, my uncles and cousins worked as rangers for EcoMinga. I grew up seeing their day-to-day work protecting and monitoring the forest and its wildlife. I remember Juan Pablo Reyes-Puig [an EcoMinga scientist] giving a talk and feeling very inspired by it, making me determined to finish school and study Biology, which I did at the Universidad Estatal Amazónica. After graduating, I came back to work with EcoMinga, carrying out research with Juan Pablo and supporting tourism in the reserve.” - Camilla Coca

*Fundación EcoMinga was founded in 2005 and is based in Baños, Ecuador. The organisation’s aim is to efficiently preserve biodiversity in Ecuador. Naturetrek has been working with Fundación EcoMinga since 2007.