Cofan Land Administration
The Cofan Nation of Northern Ecuador actively controls over 430,000 hectares (over one million acres) of pristine and intact forests, including highland páramos, cloud forests, montane and subtropical environments, and lowland tropical rainforests, wetlands and lakes. Located in the megadiverse “hotspot” of the eastern Andes of Northern Ecuador, these forests are home to numerous rare and endangered species, including Andean bear, mountain tapir, harpy eagles, jaguar, macaws, and much more. These forests are also home to the Cofan people, the inheritors of a culture and a language that predates the Inca and Spanish invasions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
This proud indigenous nation has undertaken the care of these rich ancestral territories as outside pressures have increased during the past decades. Their lands are effectively managed via innovative programs directed toward providing not only excellent control and protection but also long-term monitoring, transparent administration, and pro-active conservation programs. The results are obvious.
Since the implementation of the Cofan programs, deforestation rates have dropped to zero; the expansion of the agricultural frontier, mining activities, lumbering, illegal hunting and fishing, and other extractive and potentially harmful activities have all but ceased throughout Cofan Territories. The Cofan Ancestral Territories represent some of the best protected and administered primary forest blocks in the world.
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Ranger Program Photo Album
There are over 60 Cofan Park Guards actively involved in our innovative program
Cofan Park Guard Stations
The Cofan Nation has built a management strategy within its Ancestral Territories that seeks to ensure long term stability of both the forests and the rivers, to the benefit of both the region and the areas farther downstream.
A key component of this management strategy is to establish monitoring systems that will both create base-line data for the region and will provide us with a solid practical and legal tool to use if and when threats are detected.
 Cofan ranger recording data in the field
The first step in this process is underway in the form of extensive biological monitoring procedures and specific short term studies of key animals and plants. These studies are currently being carried out by the Cofan Park Guards as they patrol the territories. The studies enable us to create base line data banks, and give us powerful management tools.
Duglas, one of the Cofan Park Guards
A network of eight park guard stations located at critical impact points throughout the Cofan Ancestral Territories are presently manned by trained teams of Cofan park guards on a full time basis. All are associated with crucial rivers and streams.
The Cofan Park Guard Station at Pizarras |
Programs 
