Ecuador: Planting fruit trees for endangered wildlife
Our partners at the AmaZOOnico wildlife rescue center in Ecuador are planting food trees for endangered animals – and they’ve captured the work in a short video. They also extend their thanks to Rainforest Rescue, whose supporters’ donations are helping to make this project possible. Take a moment to watch, and see the difference your support creates…
Our partner organization AmaZOOnico, in Ecuador’s rainforest, cares for wild animals confiscated by the authorities and freed from illegal trade and captivity. Many arrive in poor health and need medical treatment and patient care. Whenever possible, they are prepared for reintroduction into the wild.
Most of the animals are released into “Selva Viva,” the project’s protected 1,750-hectare rainforest area where the AmaZOOnico rescue center is located. Large parts of the land were once used for farming, then abandoned, and have since been covered by secondary forest. But it will take many more years before the full richness of the original biodiversity is restored.
To accelerate this recovery, our partners at AmaZOOnico have launched a multi-year reforestation program, giving degraded areas near the station a “helping hand.” Rainforest Rescue is funding the project with donations. To preserve genetic diversity, AmaZOOnico has collected thousands of fruit tree seeds from the forest itself.
The seeds were sown and nurtured in a tree nursery near the station. Now, with the support of young volunteers, the team is carrying the seedlings back into the rainforest and planting them there.
“With a little luck and plenty of hard work, in a few years these will grow into a thriving stand of fruit trees – providing food for many animal species that rely on their seeds and fruits,” explains biologist Sandra Almeyda.
Many of the wild animals rehabilitated and released by AmaZOOnico live in this part of the rainforest, where they benefit from the richer food supply. And the forest itself gains as well:
Healthy populations of wild animals need healthy rainforests – and vice versa.”
–biologist Scott Ford
The animals disperse the seeds of the fruits they eat throughout the forest, depositing them far from the parent trees – along with natural fertilizer that helps young plants take root. In this way, they regenerate the forest and help new trees establish themselves in fresh locations.