Yasuní National Park

Yasuní National Park covers approximately 1.1 million hectares of lowland Amazonian rainforest in Orellana Province, sitting at the convergence of the Napo, Curaray, and Yasuní rivers in what is generally considered the most biodiverse region on the planet — a place where species counts for virtually every taxonomic group exceed those of temperate ecosystems by an order of magnitude.

The park sits within the territory of the Huaorani people, an indigenous group who have maintained significant cultural autonomy, and also contains one of the last confirmed zones of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon, groups who have chosen to remain outside sustained contact with the wider world and whose territory within the park is designated as a no-take zone.

The forest canopy in Yasuní reaches 40 meters or more, creating a vertical world of extraordinary complexity — the upper canopy home to different species of macaws and parrots, the mid-canopy populated by monkeys, the forest floor a relatively sparse but species-rich layer where jaguar tracks have been recorded and where the leaf-cutter ant columns are the most visible large invertebrate activity.

The park's extraordinary biodiversity is attributed to its location at the meeting point of the Andes, Amazon, and the Equator — the three major biogeographic systems converging here produce a mixing of species from different origins that has resulted in exceptionally high local endemism across plants, insects, birds, and mammals.

Pink river dolphins — the Amazonian boto — and the giant otter inhabit the rivers and floodplains that run through the park, with the rivers also serving as the primary transport routes for visitors who access the park by boat from Francisco de Orellana (Coca), the nearest town and river port.

The Ecuadorian government has faced persistent pressure to expand oil extraction into parts of the park, with the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputinis (ITT) bloc — containing an estimated 850 million barrels of oil — overlapping significantly with the park's most biodiverse zones; a 2007 proposal to leave the ITT oil in the ground in exchange for international compensation was partially implemented but has since been undermined.

Visiting Yasuní requires travelling by boat up the Napo River from Coca and staying at a lodge or in the park's limited camping facilities, with guided walks and night canoe trips providing access to different aspects of the forest; the experience of the Amazon at its most intact and biologically dense is unlike any other natural environment in the Americas.

Yasuní has the highest documented biodiversity of any terrestrial protected area on earth, with an extraordinary concentration of plant, animal, and insect species.

The park contains confirmed uncontacted indigenous peoples and is a critical zone for Huaorani cultural survival, giving it cultural significance beyond its ecological value.

The park's Amazonian rivers and floodplain ecosystem provide habitat for pink river dolphins, giant otters, jaguars, and over 600 bird species.