Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena

Located in South America. Tumbes –Chocó- Magdalena spans across 4 countries.•Panama •Colombia including the Malpelo Islands•Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands.•PeruTumbes- Chocó- Magdalena is located in-between 2 other hotspots.

Hotspot Original Extent (km2) 274,597

Hotspot Vegetation Remaining (km2) 65,903

Endemic Species Plant 2,750

Endemic Threatened Birds 21

Endemic Threatened Mammals 7

Endemic Threatened Amphibians 8

Extinct Species 4

Human Population Density (People/km2) 51

Area Protected (km2) 34,338

Area Protected (km2) in Categories 1-4 18,814

Vital Signs

•The Tumbes-Chocó- Magdalena hotspot extends 1,500km and encompasses 274,500km of western coast of the Andes Mountains.•From the Panama Canal the hotspot extends south and east to the wet and moist forest of Panama Darien Province, through to the Chocó region of Colombia and he moist forest along g the west coast of Ecuador and into the dry region of eastern Ecuador.•The rest of the hotspot is within the Pacific Ocean , in addition to the mainland areas the Island of Malpelo off the coast of Colombia and the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador are also included in the hotspot.•The hotspot includes a wide variety of habitats ranging from mangroves,beaches,rocky shorelines to some of the wettest rainforests in the Colombian Chocó.•Some of South America’s only remaining coastal dry forests occur in this hotspot.

Endemic SpeciesPlants:There are approximately 11,000 species of plant in Tumbes –Chocó –Magdalena of which 2,700 of these are endemic. 5,000 of these species are found in the Colombian Chocó.e.g. Schlegelia which is pictured .

Birds:Tumbes –Chocó- Magdalena holds approximately 900 species of birds which 110 of them are endemic and can be found nowhere else in the world. E.g. The Long-Wattled Umbrella Bird which is pictured.

Mammals:There are more than 285 species of mammals with 11 of the being endemic. This includes the spider monkey. Half of the regions endemic species live on the Galapagos Island including the fur seal and the Jaguar.

ReptilesThere are more than 320reptile species with nearly 100 being endemic and 20 being from the Galapagos Island.

AmphibiansThere are 200 species of amphibians with 30 being endemic, with new species being discovered quiet frequently. The most known amphibian is the Poison Golden Dart frog which is the 3rd most poisonous vertebrae in the world and is only found in the Saija River in southern Chocó.

Fresh Water FishThere is about 250 species of fish with nearly half being endemic with the most endemism being centred around Magdalena and Atrar Valleys. There is a single endemic species , The Galapagos Cusk-eel on the Galapagos.

Human Impacts Human pressures within this hotspot vary widely from area to area. Some parts, like coastal Ecuador, are among the most highly threatened in South America and others, like northern Chocó, remain fairly intact. Across the hotspot, threats range from the effects of climate change and ultraviolet radiation on amphibians to agricultural conversion and infrastructure development that increase colonization pressure, to hunting, particularly of larger birds and mammals. Throughout the hotspot, ecosystems are under threat from over-exploitation for timber and fuel wood, as well as mass clearing for shrimp aquaculture.The coastal forests of Ecuador are in terrible straits, with only about two percent of their original forest cover left. This forest destruction has mostly resulted from explosive population growth, doubling of agricultural activity, major increases in timber extraction, and the establishment of large-scale plantation forests of palm oil and eucalyptus. Panama's Darién retains about 65 percent of its original forest, it is threatened today by the proposed extension of the Pan-American Highway south through the Darién and possibly into Colombia. The Colombian Chocó is still largely intact and undeveloped, but large-scale development in the area may be looming. Public and private investors have proposed a number of roads, an inter-oceanic canal, train routes, and hydroelectric dams. Small- and medium-scale mining, agricultural expansion, and timber extraction also threaten the integrity of the Chocó. The Galápagos Islands have been seriously impacted by invasive alien species, and only three of the larger islands are considered relatively unaltered by human activity. On the whole, about 63,000 square kilometres, or 24 percent of the original vegetation, remains in pristine condition in this region, with most of the intact forests located in the Colombian Chocó and parts of Panama's Darién Province.

Conservation Although about 12.5 percent of the hotspot is under some form of protection, only about 6.9 percent of the land area is conserved in protected areas that fall within IUCN.This area is inadequate to ensure the survival of the region's diversity. A number of small, but important, private reserves are found in the hotspot, including the 30-km² Bilsa Biological Reserve, which protects one of the last remaining stands of undisturbed forest in this part of Western Ecuador. Although they do not ensure biodiversity conservation, indigenous reserves also serve as an important component of regional conservation and sustainable use. In the Awá Indigenous Reserves spanning the Colombia-Ecuador border, the local people have instituted controls on hunting, an important step towards maintaining the forests and preserving ecological processes. Among the proposed conservation measures for the region is the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor. This corridor, which spans more than 60,000 km² in Colombia and Ecuador, aims to link many of the protected areas in the region, including Katios National Park, Utría and Tatamá National Parks in Colombia, and Machalilla National Park, Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve and Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve in Ecuador.

The Global Conservation Fund at Conservation International is supporting several initiatives in north-western Ecuador focused on protecting the remaining intact lowland forests in and around the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve and the Awá Ethnic Reserve. The Colombian and Panamanian portion of the hotspot, the Damage in Ecuador has been too severe. In Ecuador, the survival of some species may depend on reactive conservation operations in the shrinking wet and dry forests. In the Tumbesian Region (southern Ecuador and northern Peru), there is a proposal to establish a transboundary biosphere reserve that would include the Biosphere Reserve of the Northeast, which encompasses three protected areas in Peru, along with the Arenillas Ecological Reserve and several Protected Forests in Ecuador (Puyango, Jatumpamba-Jorupe). The Galápagos Islands, which have long been a focus of conservation and investment, is now recognized as both a World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve. Along with creating additional parks and corridors, the future of conservation in the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena hotspot will depend on adequate protection and enforcement to keep existing reserves intact. Lack of management capacity and enforcement has led to severe deforestation in some existing parks, including the Machalilla National Park in south-western Ecuador and the Los Katios National Park in Colombia. Since January 2002, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has invested $3.3 million in the Chocó-Manabí portion of the hotspot to fund 24 projects focused on field activities and strengthening local NGO capacity.