Cofán rangers protect 450,000 Hectares of Ecuadorian Rainforest

Cofán rangers in Ecuador protect more than one million acres of ancestral rainforest in the Amazon Basin.

These indigenous people defend territory that contains primary forests, wild rivers, and thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else. The community intensified these protection efforts after oil exploitation and colonial expansion threatened their lands. Cofán leadership founded Fundación Sobrevivencia Cofán in 1999 to fight for their rights.

The organization works with the Cofán Survival Fund, a United States nonprofit that provides donations for conservation programs. Since 2003, the GuardAmazonas Cofán program has used GPS units and drones to monitor the land for illegal incursions. These efforts convinced Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment to more than double the legally recognized ancestral territory for the Cofán people. Nearly 50 rangers currently patrol the land in five-person teams.

These teams carry 100-pound packs on monthlong expeditions to share ecological knowledge across different generations and communities. The project also includes conservation initiatives like the Charapa Project, where the community raises Amazonian river turtle hatchlings in protected ponds to improve survival rates. Other projects include the Lifeboat Garden Project to transplant medicinal plants to stable land and the Solar Canoe Project to replace fossil-fuel motors with battery-powered boats.