The Condor Bioreserve in Ecuador

Resumen

The tropical Andes region has extraordinary biological diversity with considerable endemism. The complex topography, climate, geology, and biogeographic history of the Andes have helped create a high turnover in species over distance and along steep environmental gradients. The humid montane and premontane forests of the tropical Andes compete with the lowland Amazonian forests in species richness. Long-term maintenance of diversity in the tropical Andes requires a management strategy that takes account of landscape patterns. Especially in heterogeneous regions such as Andean forests, management of the landscape is more appropriate for biodiversity conservation than management of local sites.