ECUADOR JUNGLE
GENERAL INFORMATION OF ECUADOR
To the southeast of the American continent and thes northwest of the South America, is locate Ecuador, country of inigualable natural beauty, historical and cultural wealth, it has singular climatological contrasts that transform it into an ideal place for the tourist activity to the long and wide of its fascinating geography. Its limits are to the North with Colombia, to the South and the east with Peru and to the West with the Ocean Pacific. It is divided in two hemispheres by the line equatorial or parallel zero. The official language is Spanish, but other native indigenous languages exist as the Kichwa shimi, awapit, cha'palachi, tsafiqui, paicoca, aingae, huao terero, shuar and zaparo.
GENERAL INFORMATION OF THE ECUADOR RAINFOREST
The continental Ecuador has an approximate area of 248.406,5 Km², 47% (116.604,06 Km²) its correspond the Amazonia (jungle). The Amazon region, characterized by their tropical forest and possessor of an incalculable biological diversity, it is composed by the following provinces, of north to the south: Sucumbíos, Napo, Orellana, Pastaza, Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe.
In terms of biological diversity, Ecuador is one of the countries with more wealth in the world. Is the house of 1600 species of birds, 415 of amphibians and 3500 of orchids at least, representing 17%, 10% and 18% - respectively- of the world total. Almost half of the surface of Ecuador it is covered for Amazon forests. Near 13 100 000 of hectares of unique ecosystems in the world, they are occupied for hardly the national population's 5%, in their majority indigenous groups. (USAID, United States Agency of the International Development).
The Ecuadorian amazon rainforest, it is constituted by vast Andean territories, subandinos, subtropical and tropical; the presence of the Andes, gives to the amazon region particular characteristics as:
*Basins with glaciers and eternal snow in mountains, such as the Cayambe, Antisana and Sangay.
*Cloudy forests and rivers
*Active volcanos as The Reventador, Sumaco, Tungurahua and Sangay.
The relief of the Amazonía is conformed by a series of hills that originate in the oriental part of the Andes and they descend until the plains of the Amazons. There are two geographical regions: High Amazonía and Amazon plain. In the first one they are the mountain ranges of Napo Galleys, Cutucú and Condor. The most excellent reliefs in the region are in the north part, near the volcano Sumaco, and the lowest toward the side this.
In Ecuador jungle live 10 of the 14 indigenous nationalities of the Ecuador: Achuar, Andoa, Cofán, Kichwa, Secoya, Shiwiar, Shuar, Siona, Waorani and Zápara, nationalities that occupy and they depend of more than those more than 7.500 Km² of tropical humid forest. (Cardenas A. 2009)
Among the Ecuadorian récords, as for biodiversitye refers, we can point out the following ones:
- The country has 10% of the animals and plants that exist in the planet.
- It possesses 3 of the 10 hot spots of the world
- 11 of the 121 high-priority areas in the world for the conservation of birds.
- The third position in the world with more diversity of amphibians.
- The fourth position in diversity of birds (17% of the species of the world)
- The sixth position in diversity of butterflies papiliónidas.