Jatun Sacha Biological Reserve

Habitat and location

The Jatun Sacha Biological Station was founded in 1986 out of the need to have a conservation, investigation and education center to host scientists and students interested in the tropical rainforests. It is located on the southern bank of the Upper Napo River, in Ecuador at 450 m. above sea level. The average temperature is 25�C and it has the average of 200 rainy days per year. The station includes a reserve of 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) of which 80 percent is primary tropical wet forest and the remainder is secondary growth. The forest reserve and facilities of Jatun Sacha are available for use by scientists carrying out research projects, by university and school groups conducting field courses, and by natural history tour groups.

Jatun Sacha is located on the southern bank of the Upper Napo River, at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level, at 1� 04' S, 77� 36' W, in the Napo Province.

The average yearly temperature is 25�C, it rains close to 5,000mm per year on an average of 200 rainy days. The lowest rainfall is during the months between November to January and the highest occurs between April to July. You can expect June to be the wettest month of the year.

This band of the Wet Forest is labelled as one of the most biological diverse areas, an Alpha Biodiversity Hot Spot.

Studies have demonstrated that there are 250 different species of trees in one hectare, and close to 1,500 species of plants in the same area. Out of more than 1,000 species of trees catalogued by Neill & Palacios, in the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin, 17 new species were found within the reserve.

Besides these, the Jatun Sacha Reserve has yielded many new species to science, just to mention a few: in 1997, Michael Schwerdtfeger descried a new species of Passiflora, naming it P. Jatunsachensis; Gregory O. Vigle lists more than 112 species of reptiles and amphibians. So far 222 species of orchids have been collected by various persons.

Numerous bands of saddleback tamarins (Saguinus Fuscicollis) are seen often. 51 species of mammals inhabit the reserve, including large cats like puma and jaguar, demonstrating how well the area has been preserved.

Goals of the Jatun Sacha Reserve

Conserve and protect the natural environment with its ecological systems.
Promote biological research.
Strengthen the technical capacity of the country in conservation biology.
Improve agricultural methods in the area through community extension programs.
Research non-timber products for alternative sources of income.
Develop reforestation models for the surrounding communities.
Maintain a live collection of the most important and endangered plants of the area.
Improve the health, nutrition and livelihood of the surrounding communities.
Be the model for environmental education.

To see a photo of the Jatun Sacha Biological Station