WILD ANIMAL RESCUE & REHABILITATION
LIMITATIONS OF CONSERVATION PROJECTS IN ECUADOR
To date the major limitations that effect conservation projects in Ecuador are lack of resources and lack of adequate numbers of professional technical and experienced work teams.
These factors, plus the ongoing problems of animal and plant trafficking have brought many rescue centres in Ecuador to the very serious situation they are in now: often lacking money for essential items like veterinary assistance, 
foods for the animals, materials for better enclosures and facilities such as a quarantine or a clinic, as well as often lacking technical support and knowledge in order to improve the management methods of the centres. In the very worst cases these factors also affect the direction of some centres, and here the general objectives of a conservation project are forgotten. In such cases attracting paying visitors (as in a zoo) and/or building touristic facilities on the premises become part of the centre.
In our own case, we have also lacked financial resources and technical assistance at times. Nevertheless, thanks to the great sacrifices made by our resident team, and the volunteers and professionals who have worked with us in Ecuador, we have always been able to work towards improving the standards in our own and other centres, and to ensure the efficiency of our rehabilitation and educational programs.
Our main income to enable to cover the expenses of our work here comes from volunteers, on whom we rely heavily in order to continue saving these wild animals. Volunteers pay a small fee to live and work with us, as with other animal conservation projects in Ecuador.
All year-round the Flor de la Amazonía Animal Rescue Group works on presenting funding applications to national and international organisations supporting conservation projects. We are very fortunate and grateful to have received financial support from the Seaworld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund (www.swbg-conservationfund.org) through their Grant Awards 2008, as well as from numerous individual donors.
THE ONGOING PROBLEMS OF ANIMAL TRAFFICKING IN ECUADOR
Still there are overwhelmingly high numbers of wild animals (many of these endangered) found in private homes, hostels, markets and circuses all over Ecuador, and in South America in general. These animals are victims of animal trafficking (for pets or pelts), mistreatment (inhumane care) or loss of habitat (deforestation). The continuing disappearance of natural spaces and loss of its species is disheartening.
These wild animals are captured from their jungle/forest habitats (mainly using traps, nets, or by killing the adults and capturing their young) and kept as prisoners in small confined cages with no food or water and, if noisy, they are often silenced with cheap anaesthetising drugs. 
It has been estimated that only one of every ten animals captured reaches its final destination.
While travelling in Ecuador it is common to come upon sad scenes such as monkeys tied by their waists or necks in busy city streets, parrots with cut wings living in hostels, baby ocelots being sold for $25 at local markets or even sloths being kept in restaurants where they are made to dance with the clients as a source of entertainment. In all of the situations these wild animals suffer greatly. They do not receive the right food, they are confined to loneliness, they live in the wrong climate under extreme levels of stress, and once they are adults they often become aggressive and consequently are imprisoned or abandoned or killed.
In addition, 
the ongoing wild animal market (live animals or their constituent parts) has found success in many developed countries of the world. Within Europe, Japan and the United States there are some of the highest levels of illegal wild animal trade. In these countries it is not difficult to find some of the most endangered animals of the world, sold for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This irrational demand has created highly lucrative illegal businesses placing the wild animal trade at the same level as the drug trade. During transportation, the animals are kept in highly inhumane conditions, and only a few of them arrive alive. (When we talk about wild animals, these include reptiles, amphibians, insects and spiders. Additionally many rare plant species are smuggled across continents, worth thousands of dollars in many countries.)
Specialised groups have estimated that the illegal wildlife trade generates a business of between 10,000 and 20,000 million dollars every year. This business has placed more than 700 species on the verge of extinction.
In order to help these endangered species it is necessary to decrease the unsustainable commercialisation and purchase of wild animals worldwide, as well as to create alternatives for the third world communities, so that they don't need to over-exploit their natural resources to survive.
