Which national park in Ecuador is considered the most biodiverse place on Earth?

Yasuní National Park in Ecuador is widely considered one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, and is often described as the planet’s most biologically diverse protected area. It lies between the Napo and Curaray Rivers in Ecuador’s Amazon region, where the Equator, Andes influence, and Amazonian rainforest meet.

The park covers roughly 10,227 square kilometres and was established in 1979. UNESCO designated Yasuní and the adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve a Biosphere Reserve in 1989. Its forests support extraordinary concentrations of trees, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, mammals, and insects.

Yasuní is especially notable for local species richness: scientists have recorded about 150 amphibian species and at least 596 bird species in the park. It is also culturally significant, forming part of the ancestral territory of the Waorani people and sheltering the uncontacted Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples. Conservation debates have intensified because the park also contains major oil reserves.