La reserva hidrológica Ponce Paluguillo, ubicada al este de Quito, será el área protegida número 75 de Ecuador, con 4.295 hectáreas.
Environmental authorities in the new Ponce Paluguillo reserve, on May 15, 2023.
The Government announced that it will integrate the Ponce Paluguillo hydrological reserve, located in the Papallacta páramos, east of Quito, into its National System of Protected Areas.
This was stated by the Ministry of the Environment in a statement in which it specified that the incorporation into said system of the 4,295 hectares of surface that are part of the “Ponce Paluguillo Water Protection Area” has been approved.
This space, which will be administered by a trust called the “Environmental Fund for the Protection of Basins and Water” (Fonag), is the 75th protected area in Ecuador and is also an area known as a wildlife refuge, which preserves, above all, the Andean moors.
The area is considered an ecosystem that allows the supply of water for the consumption of more than two million inhabitants of Quito, but it is also the habitat of protected species such as the Andean bear, the condor and several mammals that are within conservation categories.
The Minister of the Environment, José Dávalos, said that the measure has not only been established “in relation to the provision of services such as water, but also because it houses emblematic species of flora and fauna that play an important role in the different ecosystems” of the andean zone.
The reserve is located in the axis of connection between the ecological reserve of the Antisana volcano and the Cayambe-Coca National Park, the Ministry specified.
In Ecuador, protected areas represent 19.4% of the conserved national territory and are framed in the highest category of protection according to the country’s environmental regulations.
In 2018, the Ponce Paluguillo area was established as the first “Water Protection Area” in Ecuador, a space whose purpose was the preservation of water resources for human consumption and food sovereignty.
