Projects and Ongoing Support

Rio Pucuno Foundation is seeking donations and grants large or small for projects that are important to forest conservation in the Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area of Ecuador.  Current projects for which Rio Pucuno Foundation seeks financial or other support include:

1. General Fund.
Arguably one of our most important funds, money donated to this fund is used for a number of purposes, including but not restricted to forest acquisition, salaries to forest guards who ensure against poaching of trees or animals, plus miscellaneous costs including office expenses. This is our vital, working fund, and all undesignated donations go into it.

2. Forest Acquisition in the Sumaco Region.
Prime forest in this area is being logged at an alarming rate, and the stripped land is turned into cattle pasture or agricultural fields. To help counteract this, funds for forest purchase and preservation are urgently needed, and we seek contributions of any size for Rio Pucuno's land fund. The contributions will be used by the Foundation to purchase and maintain forest in the Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area.

3. Pacto Sumaco Project: Development of ecotourism
     1. A high priority is building and connecting a good new trail through Pacto Sumaco's communal forest to an already existing trail in the Sumaco National Park, leading to the summit of Sumaco Volcano. In a sad state of disrepair, the present trail to the park is steep and extremely difficult to walk at the best of times, and is virtually impassable in the rainy season.
         Development of a new trail and improving access to the Sumaco National Park will be of enormous and immediate benefit both to the local people and to the development of ecotourism in the region. Costs currently estimated at $15,000 for 10 kilometers of trail and side trails, labor and materials.
     2. Building a small, rustic hotel or cabins for up to 10 guests. Local people will be employed to build and staff it, overseen by Rio Pucuno Foundation. Costs currently estimated at $60,000 for land purchase, construction materials, and labor.
     3. Building a Visitor's Center in Pacto Sumaco, staffed by local personnel. Costs currently estimated at about $10,000 for land purchase, construction material, and labor.

Similar projects are envisioned for the nearby community of Pucuno Chico, currently reached only by foot, via a difficult log, rock and mud footpath of some 5 km. The trail, winding through good forest, and crossing Rio Pucuno, is steep, and treacherous and muddy in the rainy season.

4. Bird Guide Training.
We plan to train 4-6 individuals from the village of Pacto Sumaco and from one of the local Quichua indian communities, to become birding guides for visitors to the Sumaco area. Employment in ecotourism will give these individuals pride in a career, financial reward, and increase community understanding of ecotourism's benefits.

5. Cerulean Warbler Project.
Cerulean Warbler, the most rapidly declining songbird of North America, winters in South America along the Andes from Venezuela south to Bolivia. However, the main concentration of the species' wintering range is in the eastern Andean foothills of Colombia and Ecuador. The Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area falls within this range, and Ceruleans overwinter here every year.

A major goal of Rio Pucuno Foundation is to create a Cerulean Warbler Reserve. In the Sumaco area as elsewhere, the main threat to Ceruleans is habitat loss due to logging of primary forest and cultivation of naranjilla, a tomato relative, or to create cattle pasture.

Rio Pucuno Foundation hopes to purchase and protect existing forest to help protect future populations of the declining Cerulean Warbler. In the long term we hope to be able to establish a continuous program for studying the ecology of wintering Ceruleans, to determine their habitat needs in their wintering range. Additionally this program would monitor the trends of other declining North American migrants such as Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee and Canada Warbler as well as locally threatened species such as Military Macaw and Coppery-chested Jacamar.

Your contribution to Rio Pucuno Foundation can help us buy forest in which to establish a Cerulean Warbler Reserve. 

6. Research Center.
We would like to build a simple center where visiting scientists and students could stay at minimal cost while working in the Sumaco area, for short or extended stays. Construction costs currently estimated in the $15-20,000 range.

7. Canopy Tower.
To be used for scientific inquiry into flora and fauna of the region, as well as for bird watching and ecotourism. Costs estimated at $30,000 for material, labor, possibly land.

Ongoing Support

Andean Birding donates 5% of all their profits from birding tours in South America, Central America and Mexico to Rio Pucuno Foundation's Land Acquisition and Preservation Fund.

Wildsumaco Wildlife Sanctuary S.A. donates all bar and gift shop profits, as well as most of the profit from Wildsumaco Lodge, to Rio Pucuno Foundation's General Fund.

If you would like to contribute to our general fund or to support any of these projects, please contact us. Donations large or small to your preferred project add up quickly, and all are important to our ultimate goal of preserving the rainforest in the Rio Pucuno/Sumaco area.  Ours is a grass-roots conservation effort, and we are proud of what we, with the help of like-minded individuals, have already accomplished. We look forward to our future here.

info@riopucunofoundation.org