Ramón Pucha walks through his property in Alto Ila, Ecuador, where pastures once replaced forest, and stops to identify the plants he has helped bring back. He and his family say they maintain a living collection of seeds from native Amazon species that are at risk, growing them into seedlings that can be returned to their own patch of forest.
Pucha, 51, described the work as driven by a long personal attachment to nature. He said that when he first began collecting seeds, people often mocked his commitment, and he now frames his conservation effort as something meant to last beyond his own life. As he pointed out young trees on the land, he said the small plants represent a long-term inheritance for his children and for “humanity,” even when he expects he will not see them fully mature.
Pucha said he has spent about a quarter century gathering seeds from threatened species, including by going into the rainforest for extended stretches. In at least one account, he described noticing a puma’s tracks while returning from the forest, and he said he kept going with what he called a “precious” load of seeds. He has said he travels into the Amazon—often without traveling with more than basic supplies—and that at times he returns empty-handed because some large trees no longer release seeds every year.
As he explained it, climate change has disrupted those cycles. Pucha said trees that previously produced seeds annually now produce them every two, three or even up to five years. When the seeds arrive back home, his wife, Marlene Chiluisa, takes charge of germinating them so they develop into small plants before they are ready to be replanted. She also described the mixture of satisfaction and uncertainty that comes with the work, saying she wonders what the future will bring as global warming continues and as environmental damage drives “many deaths.”
The family’s approach depends on turning seed collections into an expanding local nursery-to-forest pipeline. Pucha and his family said at least 20% of the young plants are sold or given to neighbors who also want to regenerate forest and preserve threatened species, in a community effort that spreads beyond their own property.
Their plantation effort centers on a 32-hectare farm called El Picaflor, reached by crossing areas of deforested forest. Ecuador’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has described El Picaflor as “a seed house” for at-risk native species and said it functions as “a living laboratory” in a zone it characterizes as under constant logging for 50 years. The ministry’s description is part of a broader national context in which Ecuador became the first country to enshrine “rights to nature” in its constitution and also includes the Galápagos Islands and parts of the Amazon.
Pucha’s son, Jhoel, has taken on the next phase of the family’s conservation work, stepping into the role as an expert who identifies plants by common, traditional and scientific names. The article describes him as a botanical successor who also helps visitors safely cross the Ila River, and it says his commitment to conservation began in childhood while he helped tend seedlings in a nursery maintained by his mother. Jhoel said his pledge to be a guardian of the seeds would last for life, and he has described going into the forest for up to 15 days to gather samples and climbing to reach seeds high in trees.
The story also ties the replanting effort to broader ecological change around the property. The family said that repopulating the area with native species has coincided with an influx of birds, mammals and reptiles that they said were not present before. They link that shift to the return of plant diversity in the landscape—an outcome they say depends on continued seed collection and careful germination, as well as the durability of conservation conditions on the ground.
In the political and environmental backdrop, the story notes that some measures under President Daniel Noboa have raised concerns among environmentalists and indigenous groups. It says critics point to steps such as integrating the Ministry of the Environment into the Ministry of Energy and Mines as moves that could put Ecuador’s environmental reputation at risk.