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Help Save El Salvador's Last Expanse of Rainforest
Tiny El Salvador has the highest population density (245 people per square kilometer) and the smallest amount of primary forest remaining (about 2%) in all of Latin America. Much of the country is intensely farmed, even on its steepest slopes. Learn more about El Salvador.
| El Imposible National Park is a beautiful forest -- a refuge for rare plants, wildlife and people. Traders from Guatemala used to travel to El Salvador's markets through this forest, carefully leading their mules through the steep "Impossible Pass," from which the park takes its name. At almost 9,000 acres, El Imposible has more species of plants and animals than any other remaining natural area in El Salvador. |
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El Imposible Natural Reserve
(© Chris Wille)
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The need for firewood, for cooking and heating, is a major threat to tropical forests.
(© Chris Wille)
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Conservationists managed to stop an illegal road from being built in the area and are having some success at controlling unlawful hunting and firewood gathering. However, the park is surrounded by coffee farms; some of these farms are nibbling away at the park's borders while others are being converted from traditional growing techniques to more environmentally destructive farming methods. |
The Rainforest Alliance is working with SalvaNATURA, Fundación Ecológica de El Salvador -- a young citizens' group with more than 50 active volunteers -- to help to save El Impossible. Saving El Imposible is SalvaNATURA's highest priority. Besides buying key habitat to add to the rainforest, SalvaNATURA is promoting shade-grown coffee plantations, a traditional technique that maintains forest cover and provides a home to wildlife (especially birds) while simultaneously increasing income to local farmers. Coffee harvested from farms that have met the Rainforest Alliance's Conservation Agriculture Program standards is sold under the ECO-O.K.® label.
How You Can Help Save This Rainforest
| Bosque El Imposible National Park is one of the last remaining remnants of El Salvador's original forests. More land needs to be purchased or maintained by private landowners as forest. If a forest is too small, there is little hope to protect its plants and animals. This forest is El Salvador's hope for the future. If SalvaNATURA can add habitat to the park and work with landowners to restore eroded land outside El Imposible's borders, then the country's wildlife will face a more certain future. |
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Ocelot.
(© Chris Wille)
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Suggested Donation
A donation of any size will be used quickly and efficiently to help secure this rich remnant of El Salvador's natural heritage.
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