Qualla: Western Ecuador Moist Forests

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pull a single hectare of this forest apart and you'll find 1,250 species of plants growing in 136 families. Walk a different hectare a few kilometers away and the cast of characters changes. The narrow strip of forest pinned between the Pacific Ocean and the western slope of the Andes evolved in such isolation, broken into so many ecological islands by ridges and valleys, that new orchid species are still being named here. A 1990 survey identified 122 of them at once. The catch: most of the forest that produced this explosion of life is already gone.

Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: A Forest Between Two Walls

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Crotopaxi, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Western Ecuador moist forests stretch from southern Colombia down through the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, and Guayas, ending at the Gulf of Guayaquil. To the east rises the Andean wall. To the west, the Pacific. The strip in between covers about 34,108 square kilometers ...

Image: Crotopaxi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: Endemism Run Wild

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. Around 10,000 species of plants have been recorded in the ecoregion, and roughly a quarter of them live nowhere else on Earth. The canopy rises above 30 meters, with emergent strangler figs like Ficus dugandii pushing past 60. Brosimum, Carapa, and Virola dominate the upper story...

Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: The Birds Most People Will Never See

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. A 1993 survey identified 650 bird species in the ecoregion, and the names read like a catalog of things on the edge of disappearing. The long-wattled umbrellabird, with its absurd bib of feathers dangling from its throat. The El Oro parakeet and El Oro tapaculo, both restricted t...

Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: Critical and Endangered

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. The World Wide Fund for Nature classifies the ecoregion as Critical/Endangered. Most of the destruction happened fast, between roughly 1960 and 1980, when highways pushed in and oil exploration opened up the lowlands. What followed was a wave of plantation agriculture that has no...

Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Western Ecuador Moist Forests: What Endemism Looks Like From Above

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Every-leaf-that-trembles, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the air, the ecoregion reads as a quilt: green ridges of remnant forest interrupted by the geometric blocks of plantations, then more green, then a road, then more blocks. The mountains in the east stay forested longer because they are harder to reach. Near the coast, the mo...

Image: Every-leaf-that-trembles | CC BY-SA 4.0