Centinela is still alive!
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Opportunities for conservation action
in western Ecuador's iconic cloud forest
A legendary hotspot of plant diversity, Ecuador’s Centinela cloud forests were written off and left for dead following reports in 1991 of their total destruction.
But the forests are not dead.
In 2021, our teams revisted the Centinela region and discovered surviving fragments of primary cloud forest. We 'rediscovered' plant species that were believed extinct—having never been found anywhere else—and collected several new species.
The cloud forest wildflower Gasteranthus extinctus, found alive and well on November 12, 2021 (photo by Thomas L. P. Couvreur).
Centinela has now become a symbol for conservation action.
Our goal is to raise awareness about the threatened forests at Centinela and western Ecuador, and promote the many urgent opportunities to preserve them. Follow the links below to learn more, explore resources, and find ways to support or get involved with the project.
Learn about the many ways you can help with science and conservation actions.
Keep up to date on our team's actions and progress.
The backstory
The backstory
When legendary botanists Cal Dodson and Al Gentry raised the alarm in a 1991 paper about the devastating habitat loss and extinction occurring in western Ecuador, their keynote was Centinela: a prominent extra-Andean ridge draped in cloud forest. They celebrated it as the most botanically interesting forest they had visited in western Ecuador, harboring many unique plant species... and then noted that the forest had been entirely destroyed for agriculture. In his best-selling book, The Diversity of Life, E. O. Wilson coined the term “Centinelan extinctions” to describe a hemorrhagic loss of diversity caused by the clear-cutting of tropical forests holding endemic species (pp. 243-244). While the alarm was desperately needed, few botanists ever returned to check the extent of deforestation and search for survivors—until now.
The literature
White, D.M., N.C.A. Pitman, K. Feeley, G. Rivas-Torres, S. Bravo-Sánchez, F. Sánchez-Parrales, J.L. Clark, C. Ulloa Ulloa, X. Cornejo, T.L.P. Couvreur, M. Peñafiel, G. Benavides, C. Bonifaz, J.C. Cerón, A. Fernández, R.P. Fortier, D. Navas-Muñoz, V. Rojas M. J. Nicolás Zapata, J. Williams, J.E. Guevara Andino. Refuting the hypothesis of Centinelan extinction at its place of origin. Nature Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01832-7 (2024). Access here.
N. C. A. Pitman, D. M. White, J. E. Guevara Andino, T. L. P. Couvreur, R. P. Fortier, J. N. Zapata, X. Cornejo, J. L. Clark, K. J. Feeley, M. K. Johnston, A. Lozinguez, G. Rivas-Torres. Rediscovery of Gasteranthus extinctus L.E.Skog & L.P.Kvist (Gesneriaceae) at multiple sites in western Ecuador. PhytoKeys 194: 33–46. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.194.79638 (2022).
C. H. Dodson, A. H. Gentry, Biological extinction in western Ecuador. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 78(2), 273–295 (1991).
A. H. Gentry, “Speciation in tropical forests” in Tropical forests: Botanical dynamics, speciation and diversity, L. B. Holm-Nielsen, I. Nielsen, H. Balslev, Eds. (Academic Press Limited, London, 1989), pp. 113–134.
A. H. Gentry, C. H. Dodson. Diversity and biogeography of neotropical vascular epiphytes. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 74, 205–233 (1987).
A. H. Gentry, Species richness and floristic composition of Choco region plant communities. Caldasia 15(71–75), 71–91 (1986).
A. H. Gentry, “Endemism in tropical versus temperate plant communities” in Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity, M. Soulé, Ed. (Sinauer Associates. Sunderland, MA, 1986), pp. 153–181.
We are grateful for the support—both personnel and financial—of the following institutions:
We are grateful for the support—both personnel and financial—of the following institutions:
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