Send critical funds to communities fighting wildfire in Ecuador

09/26/2023

Wildfires in Southern Ecuador are destroying habitat for numerous species including the rare Ecuadorian Vizcacha.

We urgently need your support to help the communities and wildlife that call this area home. In the mountainous forests between the regions of Espíndola and Quilanga, in the province of Loja, Ecuador the fires continue to spread. Local volunteers like Diana Granda, Group Coordinator of “Sembrando Vida” are working to stop the blaze. While on the frontlines she regrets, “it is consuming a lot, a lot of hectares of wildlife and flora.”

Nature and Culture works closely with the local community and has facilitated the declaration of three protected areas in the region. The Quilanga Municipal Conservation Area, the Espíndola Municipal Conservation Area, and the Catamayo Municipal Conservation Area which cover a little over 120,000 acres. It is in this region that the critically endangered vizcacha (Lagidium ahuacaense) was first described in 2016. This unique mammal is endemic to southern Ecuador and our team works together with the Techincal University of Loja and local researchers in the Ecuadorian Vizcacha Conservation Project to protect the vizcacha’s threatened habitat and help existing populations recover.

Our team in Ecuador is supplying volunteer firefighters with food and medicine, but we need your support. There is so much at stake. Additionally, these Municipal Conservation Areas secure areas of hydric importance and critical water sources for local communities.

Over 2,000 acres were reported to be affected by the wildfires as of September 21, 2023.