May 2010 Article

October 2009 Article

 January 2010 Article

The mission of the Pro-Forest Foundation is to be a private organization with ample experience in the management of protected areas with an emphasis in reforestation, agroforestry, investigation, environmental education and ecotourism programs, to support the conservation of biodiversity in dry tropical forest of coastal Ecuador through the capacity of its members and inter institutional cooperation. The objectives of the organization are to protect and rehabilitate a nationally important representative sample of the dry tropical forest ecoregion, promoting the understanding, and public appreciation of dry forest, to protect it for present and future generations of both Ecuadorian and international visitors. The Pro-Forest Foundation was created on November 9, 1992 through a decree of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture. The geographical area of the project is the Cordillera Chongon-Colonche, located in the Guayas Province and at the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest and surrounding parches of forest. The project area lies adjacent to the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. The Pro-Forest Foundation administers the 6,078 hectare Cerro Blanco Protected Forest, which protects a remnant of the critically endangered Ecuadorian Dry Forest, which is listed by the Worldwide Fund for Nature as one of the 200 globally important eco regions. Despite its close proximity to the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest with 1.9 million inhabitants, Cerro Blanco protects a rich biodiversity, including 219 bird species, nine of which are globally threatened, 54 mammal species, including the jaguar, recently documented with camera traps and howler and capuchin monkeys.