Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco (Jocotoco Conservation Foundation) is an Ecuadorian non-governmental environmental organization. It was established to purchase and protect land important to the conservation of endangered birds in Ecuador.[1]

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco established its first reserve, the Tapichalaca Biological Reserve, in 1998 to protect the type locality and main range of the newly discovered Jocotoco antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi).[2] The reserve now protects more than 2870 hectares of forest and an associated 380+ species of birds and numerous range-restricted plants, amphibians, mammals, and invertebrates.[3][4][5]

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco has established eleven reserves protecting 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres):

• Ayampe, Dry forest near the Pacific Ocean. Esmeraldas woodstar, great green macaw.[6]
• Buenaventura, wet upper foot hill forest on west slope of Andes. One of only a few localities for El Oro parakeet, and El Oro tapaculo.[7] Also the Giant Caecilian has been found here.[8]
• Chakana (formerly Antisanilla), highland paramo southeast of Quito. Andean condor and spectacled bear.
• Copalinga, wet foot hill forest on eastern slope of Andes, very close to Zamora and Podocarpus National Park.
• Jorupe, Tumbesian dry forest. Henna-hooded foliage-gleaner, rufous-necked foliage-gleaner, blackish-headed spinetail, gray-headed antbird.
• Narupa, wet foothill forest on the east slope of the Andes. Coppery-chested jacamar, Napo sabrewing, many other foothill species.
• Río Canandé, wet Chocó lowlands of the northwest. Scarlet-breasted dacnis, banded ground-cuckoo, great curassow, golden-chested tanager.
• Tapichalaca, wet lower subtropical forest up to páramo on east slope of Andes. Jocotoco antpitta, golden-plumed parakeet, white-necked parakeet, Peruvian antpitta, bicolored antvireo, masked saltator, greater scythebill.
• Utuana, temperate forest on slopes above inter-Andean valley. Piura hemispingus, rainbow starfrontlet, black-crested tit-tyrant.
• Yanacocha, upper temperate forest on Volcán Pichincha. Black-breasted puffleg (one of the few remaining world localities for this critically endangered species), imperial snipe, rainbow-bearded thornbill.
• Yunguilla, woodland south of Cuenca. Only known locality for the critically endangered pale-headed brush-finch.

Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco supports an active research program at the reserves. Projects include:

• Documenting reproductive biology and identifying critical breeding habitat of Esmeraldas woodstar in coastal Ecuador[9]