The Cordillera del Cóndor (Condor

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

) is a mountain range in the eastern

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

that is shared by and part of the

international border Borders are generally defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ...

between

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

The range extends approximately 150 km north to south and its maximum elevation reaches approximately 2,900m. The Río Santiago and Cenepa River flow along its eastern slopes on the Peruvian side. For over 160 years, the area of the border was in dispute, and sparked armed conflicts between the two countries in 1941, 1981 and 1995. After the border conflict of 1995, the two countries began diplomatic negotiations, resulting in the 1998 peace treaty that established the exact location of the international border. The Cordillera del Condor is an area of great interest to

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

, possibly having the richest flora in any area of the same size on the

South American continent South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, and is considered by

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, in Arlington County, Virginia. CI's work focuses on science, policy and partnership with businesses, governments and co ...

to be one of the most important

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

areas on the planet. The cordillera has one of the highest concentrations of

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...

species yet unknown to science. The area is part of the ecoregion of the Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests. The area is also culturally sensitive and includes territory belonging to the Indigenous

Shuar The Shuar, also known as Jivaro, are an indigenous ethnic group that inhabits the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazonia. They are famous for their hunting skills and their tradition of head shrinking, known as Tzantsa. The Shuar language belongs to ...

people. The ecological and cultural diversity of the Cordillera is threatened by gold and copper mining.

Botanical expeditions

In 1993, Alwyn Howard Gentry and his colleagues, in a trip organized by Conservation International and helicopter support provided by the Ecuadorian Army, were able to collect

bromeliads The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

from the prairies for the first time. Robin Foster and Hamilton Beltrán conducted botanical inventories in 1995 on the Peruvian side of the border, on a second trip sponsored by Conservation International. Numerous collections of

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

s from the region were made by Alexander Hirtz and Carlyle Luer. Following the armed conflict in January 1995, exploration of the biological region became impossible. José Eduardo Manzanares and Cave were perhaps the first botanists to visit the area after the signing the Peace Treaty of 1998, with a short visit in May 1998 to collect

Bromeliaceae The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

. With the support of the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

, the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropy, philanthropist Henry Shaw (philanthropist), Henry Shaw. I ...

and the National Herbarium of Ecuador, in December 2000 a series of expeditions were launched to make inventories of the flora in the Ecuadorian slopes of the cordillera, visiting places that no biologist had set foot in before, such as the Ijiach Naint hill in the Coangos River Basin. These recent field trips, carried out with the collaboration of the Shuar Federation, yielded a number of plants new to science, not seen in previous trips to other locations in the Cordillera del Condor.

Mining

In 2000, copper rich ore was found in the Cordillera by David Lowell. Despite protest by local

and Saraguro Kichwa communities, as well as environmental agencies (such as MiningWatch and OCMAL), the Ecuadorian government handed out concessions to multiple international mining companies (among which Aurelian and Ecuacorriente - a Chinese joint venture - as well as

Corriente Resources Corriente Resources was a multinational corporation based in Canada that completed feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments (EIA) for open-pit copper mines in the Ecuadorian rainforest, including the Mirador mine. The Mirador min ...

of Canada, Kinross of Canada, and Lowell). Mining companies have developed several projects in the area, most notably the Mirador gold and copper mine, which began production in 2019 with its first shipment of copper to China. The environmental effect of mining here is questionable. Some of the concessions cover protected forests and nature reserves. Besides destroying primary rainforest, and with it the habitat of many unique species, the storage of toxic mine waste in up-river impoundments may contaminate a huge ecosystem downstream. Human rights violations have also been reported at Mirador. The mine is part of an ecologically and culturally sensitive area that includes territory of the Indigenous

people. Locals report contamination of their rivers and several families being forcibly evicted from their homes. The

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

reports that mining companies employed divide and conquer tactics to crush local resistance to the mine by enlisting local elites in side deals with, "perverse social and political effects" Mining is ongoing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordillera Del Condor

Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua language, Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the And ...