The Llushin River Rainforest Conservation Project is a group effort among the Amazanga Community located within the perimeter area of the Sangay, Grupo Osanimi (GO, a US based group working with the Amazanga Community for the last 17 years), and three U.S. Foundations: Family Lands Group, Living Bridges Foundation (LBF) and Tropical Rainforest Coalition (TRC). 

To date, with the help of all our generous TRC donors and supporters, our coalition has been able to purchase a total of eight rainforest plots within the perimeter zone of the Sangay Forest (The most recent are three plots totaling 415 hectares). 

Objectives

Protecting rainforests through land acquisition is a fundamental of botanical and cultural conservation. National parks are useful in protecting areas of rich biodiversity, but they can better serve the cultural and natural needs of an area if buffer zones are created around them where local peoples can thrive in an interdependent relationship with the ecology.

This land purchase is part of an urgent program to buy up remaining parcels in the area in order to create a buffer zone around bordering Sangay National Park. The Family recently won the right from the government of Ecuador to manage 50,000 Hectares in the Parque Nacional Sangay.

This is a great responsibility for the Wanduk Foundation and they have managed it in part by setting up a study center adjacent to the park where university students can come to prepare for participation in protecting the forests through learning about environmental management. This and further land purchases in the perimeter zone of the Sangay Park will begin to ensure their protection from unsustainable timber and resource extraction.

Description of the Environs

The lands known as Puca Urca are at the confluence of the Lando Llushin and the Chuya Llushin Rivers. The area is 95% covered in pre-montane primary rainforest from approximately 600 to 1000 meters elevation above sea level and is home to a wide array of wildlife and endangered species.

Principally consisting of the "premontane forest", found within it are tapirs, parrots of many kinds, military macaws, kinkajous, olingos, tyras and the rare cacomistle, the short eared bush dog, huron and dwarf porcupines.

Large and small forest cats such as pumas and jaguars as well as oncilla and maragay make this area their home. This upland jungle area is located upstream from the last uncontaminated stretch of the Pastaza River (much of it is contaminated from petrol by-products and cyanide from gold mining wastes), and as such is crucial to the health and survival of all downstream communities.

This forest, known as the "eyebrow of the Andes" is exquisite, with numerous tree species and rare palms, and teeming with bromeliads, orchids, aroids, lycopodiums, and cyclanthas.