Ecuador Viewed as One of the Megadiverse Countries of the Planet

Quito - Ecuador is considered to be one of 17 megadiverse countries, and if it is taken into account the species reported by unit of area, it would be of the most biodiverse on a global scale, affirmed today the Department of the Environment (MAE). The previous thing confirms the biological wealth of Ecuador and the high rate of endemic species, 'which represents a challenge for the Department of the Environment regarding preservation', added the holder of MAE, Lorraine Blocks.

The MAE pointed out that Ecuador reports 45 kinds of vegetation, 7 per cent of the vascular plants of the world (218,677), with preponderance of the orchids - 2,999 species, of which 43 per cent are endemic-.

The South American nation protects 7,2 per cent of the amphibians known to global scale, as well as 382 mammals species, 7 per cent of the 5,490 explored ones.

In accordance with MAE, Ecuador is a part of two important tropical terrestrial ecoregion: Tropical Andes and Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena, where coexist the primitive products or traditional cultivation maintained by local peasants.

It underlined that the nation carries out the Plan of Forest Restoration to recover the fragile ecosystems, and to annul the deforestation rate estimated until 2017.

Another protection measurement is the National System of Protected Areas, which at present covers 20 per cent of the surface of the national territory, with 50 areas and parks in conservation, MAE concluded.