The Sacred Sueños Eco Sanctuary was founded in 2004 with the purchase of 10 hectares of land close to the Podocarpus National Park, in southern Ecuador. Close to 100 hectares were donated in 2009. Though the second piece did have cattle on it until three donation, both were recovering from constant burning until 2001. With the fires lit just become the hard monsoon rains, the steep hillside suffered from intense erosion.
Sacred Sueños began as a regeneration project. Some some areas were planted, and some earthworks were made to stop erosion and catch water, most of the regeneration just entailed the initial clearing of the bracken that dominated the landscape, and letting wild species volunteer, and natural ecological succession take place, with very minimal pruning.
This is just a taste of the botanical diversity within the Eco Sanctuary. There are many we haven’t yet taken photos of… And of the photos we have, so many that we haven’t yet identified. We’d appreciate any leads or identification of the photos that we’ve put in the UNKNOWNIACEAE family at the bottom.
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