One of the 6 areas we were able to protect at that time was the Los Cedros Biological Reserve which we helped create with the help of a substantial grant from the Australian Government Aid Agency.

This reserve was the brainchild of Jose DeCoux and he remains the reserve’s director to this day. Los Cedros Biological Reserve consists of 17,000 acres of premontane wet tropical forest and cloud forest. Of this, 2,650 acres is formerly colonized land, while the remainder is primary forest.

The reserve is a southern buffer zone for the 450,000 acre Cotocachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, and both are part of the Choco Phytogeographical Zone. The Choco region is perhaps the most biologically diverse and endemic habitat on Earth.

In the intervening years we have stepped up on numerous occasions to help Los Cedros surmount various challenges.In early October 2012  we received an appeal from Jose - $5000 is needed to report and evict illegal loggers and farmers who have invaded the reserve to cut timber and develop farms.