Whenever we hear David Attenborough narrate a scene spanning an ecologically rich realm, we typically imagine a lush rainforest like the Amazon. Although these regions deserve their time in the spotlight, we mustn’t forget our equatorial underdog: the Ecuadorian tropical dry forest.
This ecoregion along the Pacific coast of Ecuador consists of four to seven months of dry season and a rainy season as wet, if not wetter, than rainforests, with precipitation reaching up to three meters. During the dry season, sunlight blankets the forest floor as tree canopies shrink in size due to a lack of water. While the majority of vegetation ceases to germinate, a niche group of woody plants flowers, matures their fruits, and disperses their seeds, creating an abundance of food for the countless fauna found nowhere else in the world. Soils are especially rich since they’re downwind from volcanic mountain ranges and reside on loose clay. These unique characteristics of dry forests explain why so many species have coexisted here for generations.
In this biome, boasting nearly 80 rare species of birds, you’d come across numerous troupes of howler monkeys foraging in the tree canopies, stealthy jaguars stalking their prey in the shadows, and colonies of bullet ants congregating on the understory. A conglomerate of interspecies relationships prevail here. White-tailed deer eat the fruits dropped by spider monkeys, and any leftovers are savored by scavenging caterpillars and foraging fungi.
In fact, these ecosystems are richer in species activity than rainforests – one of their many beautiful traits that have flown under the nature-media radar. Dry forests often lie in “transitional zones,” meaning they exist between two major regions: lowland coasts and rainforests. While mammals and insects spend the majority of their lives in both habitats, researchers have discovered that such transitional zones are where many species migrate over life stages – foraging, breeding, and pollination. Besides supplying the wildlife with a bounty of resources, it’s important to note how dry forests regulate the geographical composition of its own and neighboring biomes. The dry season creates a terrain that buffers rainfall runoff from rainforests to the lowland coast. This mitigates erosion and helps maintain soil stability, all of which protect downstream biospheres as well as human infrastructure.
It’s evident that a plethora of ecosystem services thrive here, supporting both the natural and human worlds. Many communities rely on the land for wood, vegetables, and medicine. Unfortunately, the forest’s elongated dry season presents the agricultural industry with various advantages—richer soils, lower rates of disease for both livestock and humans, and annual burning— compared to the neighboring rainforests. As a result, while around 98% of this coastal environment’s original land has been damaged or destroyed, only 10% is protected by national conservation laws.
It appears that this predicament is deeply rooted in the industrialization of coastal communities. Specifically, in the 60s and 70s, many native tree species were exploited to support the timber industry. The government responded by declaring “closed areas” in 1978, hoping this would prevent further resource depletion. Although commercial clearings slowed down initially, GIS data suggests that there were deforestation rates of up to 33% between the enactment of “closed areas” and 2008.
An in-depth 2019 study led by universities from Ecuador and Germany explored this issue further by using satellite imagery to identify the purpose of such forest clearings. They saw livestock grazing and agriculture as the main driving forces, with their respective impacts being described as “reducing the capacity of seeds to germinate… generating spiny and unpalatable forests” and a “change of land use since it eases sowing, cleaning, and harvesting tasks,” meaning the extinction of native species has created an environment unsuitable for new growth.
While these findings appear significant, the researchers noted numerous problematic data gaps, including a lack of soil information, deficient livestock monitoring, and poor long-term regeneration statistics. Without a previous data set to compare their results to, the full meaning of this study can be difficult to discern even if a blatant correlation exists. Indeed, it is of little surprise that dry forests are one of the most understudied tropical biomes, as well as the least protected. Insufficient data has and will always constrain conservation policy. Examining them consequences of unprotected dry forests goes beyond the loss of trees.
Daniel Janzen, biology professor from the University of Pennsylvania and author of Tropical Dry Forests: The Most Endangered Major Tropical Ecosystem, compares tropical forests to libraries, and individual species to their books: “Put most simply, how long will the public continue to support a library whose goal is to have enormous holdings but no card catalog, no librarians, and thus no readers?” Essentially, Professor Janzen argues that the public is unlikely to challenge environmental degradation of their respective ecosystems if there’s a disconnect between them and the natural world. As communities lose contact with their surroundings, there becomes a loss off familiarity with the biome’s ecological and cultural significance. Such a shift in perspective often occurs unconsciously. Most members of a community are excluded from land-use and
conservation decisions, reducing local advocacy for its protection. Over time, this disconnection amplifies the impacts of degradation: when people no longer recognize the value of the environment, they are less likely to defend it.
This cycle is rooted in a history of inadequate land protection and limited research on the respective region, which has left communities without the knowledge or tools to advocate effectively for conservation.
The complexity of such environmental destruction is wholly evident here, but a tremendously important takeaway is the effect scientific research has on conservation enactments. As seen in the previously mentioned 2019 study, the scarcity of historical ecological data is often responsible for failed attempts at land protection. We can use this tragedy as a catalyst for future research on understudied ecosystems, as the most effective way to protect land is the preparation for the impending anthropogenic threats.
References
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Gusmán, E., Weber, M., & Hildrebrandt, P. (2019, January 5). Influence of
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Foundation for Tropical Conservation, C. (n.d.). Coastal Dry Forest Conservation. Ceiba.
Retrieved October 12, 2025, from https://ceiba.org/conservation/dry-forests/
Maza-Maza, J., Rodríguez-Caballero, E., Rodríguez-Lozano, B., & Cantòn, Y. (2025,
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666719325002584
Schipper, J. (2020, September 23). Ecuadorian Dry Forests. One Earth.
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Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219281/?