A Primal Forest Encircled By Ecuador Port Faces Ruination

Guayaquil, Ecuador, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th May, 2023 ) :A hilly forest that is a bastion of exceptional flora and fauna next to Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, is now threatened by mining, urbanization, and deforestation.

Cerro Blanco -- white hill in English -- is a vast tropical dry forest that has been gradually devoured by the port city of three million people.

In the last 15 years, Cerro Blanco has become an "island locked up and encircled by the city," Eliana Molineros, who created a foundation to protect wild animals, told AFP.

The forest's fragile and rich ecosystem has been declared in danger by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The forest of 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) is home to hundreds of bird species, around 60 mammal species, including jaguars -- the largest felines on the continent -- and dozens of endemic plants.

Only about 10 percent of the world's original tropical dry forests remain.

Cerro Blanco and its forest are one of the few remaining such environments in Latin America.

But it is also a mining area that provides the Primary material for cement, and from where the hill gets its name due to the color of the limestone.

There are 36 quarries, including 10 government-run sites, that devour the forest's vegetation.

Some abandoned illegal mines stick out like scars on the landscape.