Mindo is a small village, located in a subtropical valley at 1224 m above sea level. It is 84 km away from Quito, on the western slopes of the Andes with a population of about 2000. It has become one of the most famous destinations in Ecuador for nature lovers. One of the most popular ativities in Mindo is birdwatching, there are some butterfly farms, waterfalls and other touristic attractions.
The community of Mindo proposed the declaration of the protected forest to the Ecuadorian government, and in August 1988 this protection was granted. It has an area of 19,200 hectares between 1300m and 4700m above sea level, and includes several ecological zones such as paramo, cloud forest and subtropical foothill forest.
It was also declared as an "Important Bird Area" (AICA- Area Importante para la Conservacion de las Aves), the first AICA in South America.
The diversity and the endemism of Mindo is mainly caused by being part of the bio region of the Chocó.

In Mindo we work in a private reserve which has an extension of 100 hectares, it is a property of a local family who are dedicated to recreational tourism.

Goals of the project:
• Support a local family in their initiative to conserve the reserve: improving the management of the reserve by using only a small area for tourism and thereby achieve the conservation of the rest of the reserve as an refuge for wild life
• Research the existing biodiversity in the reserve to publish field guides
• Contribute to a better knowledge of the local fauna and flora and thereby cooperate with the environmental protection of the region.

Currently we are working on:

Maintenance and conservation of the reserve:

this includes a big variety of work like: opening an access trail to the highest part of the reserve, maintenance of existing trails, working on new trails, helping to construct new facilities in the touristic part of the reserve, pick up trash, making signs etc.

Inventory of the local biodiversity:

we have divided the biodiversity in 20 different groups, we already have a base of information of birds, frogs, butterflies, plants and mushrooms. The initial work consist of making an photographic sampling of all subgroups in a systematic way.

Monitoring of birds:

We have already the drawings of a big part of the more than 120 species of birds that exist in the reserve. We keep going with field work to get some more information about them and to publish a field guide about birds of Nambillo.