Attractions

Yasuní National Park

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Amazonian wildlife and ecology in Ecuador’s largest reserve.

Covering an area of 10,000 square kilometres, which is mostly ‘terra firma’ - dry upland humid rainforest, but also has areas that are seasonally flooded (varzea) and permanantly flooded swamplands (igapó).

This remote region in Amazonian Ecuador lies next to the Huaorani Ethnic Reserve to the west and meets the Peruvian boarder in the east.

This tropical rainforest (the ‘Napo Pleistocene Refuge’) has an enormous biodiversity and boasts an enormous number of species, many of which are endemic. Over 500 species of bird live here and sixty per cent of Ecuador’s mammal species, including pink freshwater dolphins, manatee, giant otters, jaguar, ocelot, tapir, a dozen different species of primate and over 80 species of bat. In a study of tree species found in just one hectare, just short of 500 different types were found, which suggests that this is likely to be the most biodiverse place on in the world.

Declared a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, the region is under continual threat from the outside world. A 150 kilometre stretch of road (the ‘Via Maxus’) has been built directly into the reserve by oil companies keen to exploit the rich oil deposits found under the surface here.

Unregulated extraction plants continue crop up in remote areas, where constant fires burn off the excess gasses like beacons in the forest (polluting the air and killing off insects attracted by the light and the bats that follow), oil is spilled and contaminated water seeps into the ecosystem threatening the environment and health of the creatures that live there.
As trucks laden with oil pound these remote dirt roads, access is opened up for illegal logging and further deforestation of this sensitive area.

Well managed tourism may be a way to help preserve the area and support these communities that live here in maintaining their traditional ways and not losing contact with their history which is under threat of being edged out by the imposing oil companies.