Greetings Cofan Survival Fund Supporters!
I always appreciate it when you, our supporters, let me know what you’d like to hear about in our newsletters. (Always feel free to email me directly at michael.cepek@utsa.edu.) One of you recently suggested that I remind us all what we’re fighting for. We at the Cofan Survival Fund are not just dedicated to the welfare of Cofan people, we want to make sure we provide them the resources they need to protect the forests and rivers they call home. And the Cofan’s forests and rivers are some of the most diverse, beautiful, and important in the world.
Between 2001 and 2009, scientists from the Field Museum of Natural History joined Cofan natural historians to catalogue the astounding diversity and ecological importance of Cofan territory. Their results were shared in a series of “Rapid Biological Inventories” (RBI’s). Each inventory told the world—and the Ecuadorian government—how deserving of protection the Cofan homeland is. And each either helped create a Cofan-controlled protected area or strengthened one that already existed.
In the RBI “Ecuador: Serranías Cofán–Bermejo, Sinangoe,” a Field Museum team surveyed the upriver Cofan territory that eventually came under Cofan control as part of the Cayambe–Coca Ecological Reserve and the entire Cofán–Bermejo Ecological Reserve. This region is “where the most diverse mountain range in the world rises out of the richest lowland forest on Earth.” The RBI continues: “These are the Serranías Cofán, rising up from the Amazonian lowlands in a complex tangle of topography and biodiversity. We were drawn to them because the distinctive climate and geology of their transitional forests—intermediate between the snowcapped peaks to the west and the hot Amazonian plains to the east—have fostered unique biological communities, where plant and animal communities from the lowland forests rub shoulders with the Andean flora and fauna, in the company of hundreds of endemic and undescribed taxa. In a day’s climb here, a biologist can eat breakfast in an Amazonian forest and dinner in an Andean one, stopping for lunch in the narrow, mid-elevation ribbon where two of the world’s most diverse biotas overlap briefly in a mix of species found nowhere else on Earth.”
In the RBI “Ecuador: Cabeceras Cofanes–Chingual,” which helped convince the Ecuadorian government to grant the Cofan legal rights over a large portion of the Río Cofanes watershed, Field Museum scientists wondered again at the ecological riches of the Cofan homeland: “Following the tracks of a mountain tapir, one can descend from the surreal, windswept páramos of Cabeceras Cofanes-Chingual through the precipitous slopes of cloud forests dripping with mist and orchids all the way down to tall Amazon forests in the lowlands. . . . The streams that drain the region are the sources of the Aguarico-Napo river system, one of the most important fluvial systems of western Amazonia. The Cofanes and Chingual rivers, which join to form the Aguarico, are some of the last unfragmented mountain rivers in Ecuador and provide crucial habitat for aquatic biota. Páramos and forests filter rainwater and modulate river flow in these headwaters, protecting critical sources of water for domestic and agricultural uses. . . . The intact vegetation of Cabeceras Cofanes-Chingual allows free movement of bears, tapirs, macaws, and other wide-ranging species up and down the mountains in search of food, mates, and nesting sites. The forested slopes buffer the effects of climate change because they allow species to migrate in response to hotter, wetter, or drier conditions.”
In a third RBI, “Ecuador, Perú: Cuyabeno–Güeppí,” the Field Museum investigated the region surrounding Ecuador’s northeastern border with Peru and Colombia, home to the Cofan people of Zábalo. This community has legal control over approximately 375,000 acres of incredibly rich forests, rivers, and wetlands, which overlap with the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve. The report begins: “Located in a remote region that may be the most diverse on earth—at the trinational border of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru—the forests we surveyed held high promise for species new to science or new to each country. . . . Our findings surpassed our expectations. Although these results still need further analysis, the preliminary numbers are impressive: 1 genus of plant and 13 species (11 plants, 2 fishes) are new to science. And, 4 plant genera and 22 species of plants and fishes had never before been recorded in Ecuador. . . . This region offers opportunities for protection of diversity unique not only in Ecuador, but on earth.”
The best way to experience the wonders of the Cofan homeland is to see it yourself. Cofan communities are always eager to host visitors, so if you want to meet the leader of our work, Randy Borman, in his home community of Zábalo, let us know. Ecotourism has long been a reliable source of sustainable, environmentally benign income for Cofan people. Just as importantly, it has allowed them to create close, personal relationships with outsiders, many of whom have become crucial allies. It was only after I met Randy in 1994 that I committed to a lifetime of advocacy for the Cofan Nation and its homeland.
As Cofan people constantly remind us, they’re protecting their lands not just for themselves but for the whole world. The more than one million acres of ecologically intact territory they control are crucial to mitigating the effects of climate change, maintaining essential hydrological and climatological systems, and ensuring that our planet does not lose a priceless portion of its biodiversity. Without the Cofan’s vigilance, many of these lands would already be destroyed. But to do their job well, they need our support. Preventing deforestation and the despoliation of waterways requires constant legal work in Ecuador’s cities, a park guard force with first-rate equipment and logistical capabilities, and an educational program that will produce new generations of Cofan activists ready to take on loggers, miners, and oil companies while creating sustainable income sources for their people. These are the causes to which we direct all your donations. Please help us continue the fight to protect the Cofan homeland—for all of us.
You can contribute online by credit card by clicking on our website: www.cofan.org. Or you can mail a check to: Cofan Survival Fund, 53 Washington Boulevard, Oak Park, IL 60302. Another way to give, if you shop at amazon.com, is to go to smile.amazon.com and select the Cofan Survival Fund as your designated charity. Then, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of every one of your purchases to the CSF.
Sincerely,
Michael L. Cepek, CSF President
CSF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. For gifts of $250 and larger, you will receive a receipt for tax purposes.