Ecuador Informa — Sunday Magazine — November 1, 2026

The boats are still going out. The fish aren't always coming back with them.

In Puerto López, one of Manabí's traditional fishing communities, fishermen are reporting disappointing catches and changes to their usual working routines. Some residents recall a similar shortage during the powerful El Niño event of 1982–1983.

Whether the two periods have the same cause is unknown. For fishing families, the immediate calculation is familiar: the cost of fuel and a day's work against the value of whatever comes back to shore.

An October 17 report by El Diario describes the shortage and the concern it is causing in the community.

When the catch is small

Artisanal fishing supports more than the people aboard a boat. Traders, vendors and others in the seafood business also depend on fish being landed.

Poor catches mean less income for crews and less product for the businesses that buy and sell seafood.

Puerto López is also known for tourism, particularly whale-watching, but fishing remains an important part of its economy and identity.

What is happening offshore?

Fish availability changes with sea temperature, currents, food supplies, fishing pressure and seasonal movements. Different species respond differently.

Residents' memories of the 1982–1983 El Niño event raise questions about ocean conditions, but the current shortage cannot be attributed to the same cause without local fisheries and oceanographic evidence.

For now, the immediate concern in Puerto López is the amount of fish reaching the docks—and whether the next trip will bring enough to make the work worthwhile.

A plant used for generations in traditional remedies can also become the foundation of a small business. In Baquerizo Moreno, a rural parish of Píllaro canton in Tungurahua, women are turning familiar skills into new sources of income.

The Asociación de Mujeres Plazuela makes herbal infusions and ointments using locally known plants, including chilca and muelán. Its members also grow organic vegetables, prepare traditional foods and make handicrafts.

Their work connects three activities that are often treated separately: earning an income, preserving local knowledge and caring for the surrounding environment.

More than a marketplace

The association has a space to prepare, display and sell products. It also organizes fairs, barter activities, workshops and programmes for children.

These activities create opportunities for women to share skills, participate in community decisions and strengthen household incomes.

The Tungurahua provincial government has highlighted the association as an example of rural enterprise linked to environmental conservation.

The group's traditional plant preparations reflect knowledge passed through the community; their medicinal uses are traditional practices, not evidence of clinically established treatments.

Protecting the landscape

Baquerizo Moreno lies near the highland ecosystems associated with Llanganates National Park, where the páramo plays an important role in biodiversity and water regulation.

Tungurahua's Páramo Management Plans support projects connecting rural livelihoods with conservation.

For the Plazuela association, the surrounding environment is closely tied to its economic future. Its products depend on local knowledge, agricultural resources and skills that can be passed to younger generations.

What began with familiar plants and household traditions has become a collective effort to build businesses and a stronger role for women in their community.

Along a road through Ecuador's Yasuní National Park, researchers have spent twenty years counting wildlife. What they have found is troubling: large monkey populations are dramatically less abundant, even where the rainforest canopy remains largely intact.

Compared with areas without hunting pressure, yellow-bellied spider monkeys were estimated to be 87% less abundant, while Poeppig's woolly monkeys were 70% less abundant.

The forest may still look healthy from above, but much of its animal life has changed.

Twenty years beneath the canopy

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Ecuador monitored mammals and large forest birds between 2005 and 2025 in an area of approximately 100 square kilometres along the Maxus road.

Researchers repeatedly surveyed six permanent four-kilometre transects, working alongside Waorani field assistants.

In 2025 alone, the teams walked 253 kilometres and recorded 5,450 observations.

Over the study period, the combined biomass of the primate community declined by approximately 68%. Biomass measures the estimated total weight of animals in an area, revealing changes that a simple count of species may miss.

Smaller monkeys remained more common. Humboldt's squirrel monkey accounted for 44.7% of primate detections in 2025.

White-lipped peccaries also declined and were not detected during the 2025 surveys, although that does not establish their disappearance from the area.

Why missing monkeys matter

Large primates eat fruit and disperse seeds as they move through the forest. Their decline can affect the reproduction and distribution of trees and other plants.

Smaller species do not necessarily replace those ecological functions.

Roads can make remote forest areas more accessible, increasing hunting pressure even without extensive deforestation.

WCS identifies control of illegal hunting, management of access routes and connections with healthier wildlife populations as important conservation measures.

The study reveals a problem that satellite images alone cannot show: preserving a forest's trees does not guarantee the survival of the animals living beneath them.

Ecuador packs an extraordinary variety of habitats into a relatively small country, from Pacific coastal forests to the Andes and Amazon.

But the climate conditions that support those ecosystems are changing. What happens to the wildlife that depends on them?

A new research series led by BirdLife International, with Fundación Jocotoco, UNEP-WCMC and Durham University, is examining how climate change could affect Ecuador's Key Biodiversity Areas.

Different places, different risks

The first four publications, announced October 30, examine climate exposure, projected changes in species distributions, nature-based tourism and conservation strategies developed with communities.

The findings show that Ecuador's important biodiversity areas face different combinations of risks.

Mountain and lowland ecosystems may respond differently to changing temperatures and rainfall. Species also vary in their ability to tolerate new conditions or move to suitable habitat.

That creates a challenge for conservation: an area protected for its wildlife today may not provide the same conditions for those species in the future.

What about tourism and local livelihoods?

The researchers examined how changes in wildlife distribution could affect nature-based tourism, an important source of income in some communities.

Species that attract visitors may face different climate risks, potentially changing where tourism and conservation efforts are most effective.

The project also considers ecosystem services—the benefits people receive from functioning landscapes, including water regulation and resources that support livelihoods.

Community workshops in the Chocó, El Oro and Podocarpus–El Cóndor areas brought together residents, public institutions and conservation specialists to discuss environmental changes and locally appropriate responses.

Eight publications are being prepared in English and Spanish, with findings intended to contribute to Ecuador's national biodiversity planning.

The research asks conservation planners to look beyond the places where species live today and consider where suitable conditions may exist in the decades ahead.

A collapsed bridge can cut off communities. A landslide can close a mountain highway. A blocked drainage channel can leave a coastal road vulnerable to the next downpour.

Across Ecuador, emergency crews are dealing with all three.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport reported repairs and preventive work in ten provinces on October 29, following heavy rainfall that damaged roads, bridges and drainage systems.

A temporary crossing in Esmeraldas

The collapse of the Tapaila bridge on the northern E15 route interrupted connections between communities around Río Verde, Montalvo and Rocafuerte.

Ministry crews established a temporary crossing beside the damaged bridge to restore access.

In Azuay, workers responded to a landslide at kilometre 66 of the Cuenca–Girón–Pasaje highway and cleared drainage channels along the Cuenca–Azogues expressway.

Landslides near the Sabanilla bridge and La Toquilla camp also affected the Zamora–Loja connection in Zamora Chinchipe.

In Bolívar, crews removed debris near Alungoto and reopened the Guardias–Balsapamba road.

Keeping the coastal roads clear

In Manabí, crews cleared drainage channels and maintained shoulders along the Portoviejo–Montecristi section of the E30 at kilometre 19.

Workers also removed accumulated material from a channel beside the E15 between San Clemente and San Jacinto, near Santa Teresa.

Other reported interventions included repairs on the Chone–Quevedo bypass in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and preventive maintenance in El Oro and Sucumbíos.

The ministry advises motorists to obey road signs, drive cautiously and consult official updates before travelling through areas affected by landslides or temporary crossings.

With further rainfall possible, keeping roads open requires both emergency reconstruction and the less visible work of clearing the drainage systems that protect them.