Rainforest Connection (RFCx) used their ITP "Seeding Possibilities" grant to help advance their new project in Ecuador as well as for strategic planning for the year.

One of the goals of the Ecuador project is to establish a local Ecuadorian rainforest as a laboratory and incubator for conservation technologies that can be used to protect endangered forests and eventually to perform endangered species accounting.

Located near the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, we set up our system in a rare highland Amazonian rainforest called the Cerro Blanco Reserve. This area is a gateway to protecting an enormous amount of biodiversity, including more than 500 vascular plant species of the Ecuadorian Dry Forest Eco-region, of which 20% are endemic.

This rainforest is home to 54 mammal species including jaguars, mantled howler monkeys, and 32 species of bats. There are 221 bird species, including 9 globally threatened species such as the great green macaw and the gray backed hawk.

RFCx set up a small multitude of acoustic recording devices, which are attuned to detect chainsaws, vehicles and future incursions as the city, grows up against the border of the rainforest. We are doing this in partnership with the local Fundacion that employs eleven rangers to protect the area and maintain ecosystem health.

Most exciting to us, is the staggering amount of data that is coming out of the rainforest, sounds of the forest that we are streaming to the cloud for current and future analysis.

Based on early results we know that with the proper funding we could begin to use all this data to help monitor carbon stocks, bird and animal life, biodiversity, and the health and population of rare animals that are currently being released in this rainforest.

At the ITP retreat we look forward to sharing some of the data and sounds coming out of this unique rainforest.

-- Rainforest Connection