Expeditions & Exploration

Rio Mazan

The Río Mazán Project was initiated by conservationists in the town of Cuenca who successfully campaigned to protect 500 hectares of high Andean habitat in the Río Mazán valley in the 1980s. Most of this steep valley is covered in dense stands of montane cloudforest, grading naturally into paramó above 3,400 m, with red-barked Polylepis trees growing in clumps on the high slopes. In 1986 and 1987, a group of more than 40 biologists from the UK studied the ecology of the Río Mazán forest in conjunction with biologists from Ecuadorian universities. The team was invited to the area by the Ecuadorian conservation group Tierra Viva and the forest’s managers, the water company ETAPA (Empresa de Agua Potable), Two groups formed subsequently to advocate the forest’s protection and further research: the ‘Amigos de Mazán’ volunteer group in Cuenca and the Río Mazán Project in Norwich. The former became the Fundación Ecológica Mazán in the early 1990s and remains active to this day, in Río Mazán and elsewhere….

We were fortunate enough to take part in this expedition in 1987, with thanks to Rose for getting us in. Items from this expedition are rare, but we have a few in the Travel Museum collection, but perhaps the best legacy is the forest itself - home for countless species - el bosque es vida - the forest is life! It also goes a little way to offset our undoubted massive carbon footprint, and as a latest update it is now a biosphere, providing homes for wildlife, and education for people, we could not have hoped for a better result. Special; thanks to the Rio Mazan charity, and for making us welcome. We will always remember Morleys frog walks, and the help so many people have freely given their time to make this happen. In addition to María Inés for yet more of her wonderful artwork.