The Geographic Setting

Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela together cover all of northwestern South America – a region broadly comprising over 2,300,000 km2. The whole territory is located in the torrid tropical zone, most of it north of the equator. The ample morphological and ecological diversity determines the existence of many different natural regions, the main ones being:

1. The Pacific coast, a dry, hilly stretch of lowland in south and central Ecuador and, farther north, a mountainous humid tropical forest along Colombia up to the Panama Isthmus.

2. The Andes, a complex region formed by several cordilleras cut by longitudinal and transverse river valleys that form climatic micro-niches. The Andes, running roughly south-north, divide in Colombia into three different cordilleras, one of which extends into Venezuela, forming the Sierra de Merida.

3. The Caribbean coast, starting from the west, a dense tropical forest that gradually turns into savannah up to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada maritime massif, and then a long stretch of dry plains forming several peninsulas and encircling the Maracaibo Lake. Farther east into Venezuela there is the Central Cordillera that gradually dies out to give way to the large delta of the Orinoco River.

4. The Llanos, a large system of lowland savannahs intersected by large rivers running into the Orinoco Basin.

5. The Amazon and Guyana tropical forests, occupying eastern Ecuador, southeast Colombia and south Venezuela.