Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena 

Reaching from the southeastern portion of Mesoamerica to the northwestern corner of South America, the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot encompasses 274,597 square kilometers along the western coastal flank of the Andes mountains.

Formerly called the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot, this hotspot possesses a rich variety of habitats, including mangroves, beaches, rocky shorelines and coastal wilderness. It contains the world's wettest rain forests, as well as South America's only remaining coastal dry forests.

This combination of flat coastal plains interspersed with small mountain ranges, has fostered the development of unique species making this one of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet. For example, 25 percent or 2,750 of the plants found here are found nowhere else.

Today, however, only 24 percent or 63,000 square kilometers of the hotspot's original habitat remains in pristine condition.

Our support focuses on the Chocó-Manabí biodiversity conservation corridor, which spans more than 60,000 square kilometers in Colombia and Ecuador where most of the region’s intact forests are located in the Colombian Chocó and parts of Panama's Darién Province. The Chocó region is globally recognized as one of the world’s most important zones for the conservation of biological and cultural resources. 

The $5 million investment aims to enable environmental programs to work in synergy with one another, benefiting both the region’s rich biological resources and historically underserved communities. Guided by an ecosystem profile developed with stakeholders, our investment in this region began in January 2002.

Our approach underpins Vision 2010 agreed to in 2001 by Colombia and Ecuador government representatives, nongovernmental organizations and scientists. The 10-year strategy seeks to catalyze human and financial resources for an integrated effort to connect natural areas by consolidating and upgrading existing protected areas, rehabilitating degraded areas and promoting sustainable agriculture and other sources of livelihood to sustain biodiversity.

Three strategic directions guide our approach:

1. Establish/strengthen local and regional mechanisms to foster corridor-level conservation.
2. Bring selected protected areas and species under improved management.
3. Identify and promote sustainable development practices in communities near selected protected areas.

Results to date include creating and strengthening public, private and community-managed protected areas. Innovative tools, such as payments for environmental services and incentive agreement schemes, were tried and tested, bringing to light new conservation approaches that consider market incentives. Management plans were created for numerous protected areas, such as Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve and the Cerro Golondrinas Protective Forest, and updated for others.

More than 70 percent of our investment has helped local groups implement initiatives directly targeting the maintenance and restoration of ecosystems upon which communities rely for livelihoods and as alternative income options.