The Municipality of Verona bought 8 hectares of rainforest in Ecuador. At the suggestion of the WBA, within the "Biodiversity Project", the Department of Ecology and Environment of the Municipality of Verona formalized the purchase of a plot of about 8 hectares of montane cloudforest on the boundaries of the Natural Reserve Otonga in the Province of Pichincha (Ecuador). The purchase, made directly by the Fundacion Otonga, includes other 19 hectares, for a total enlargement of 27,5 hectares, that are to be added to the 1.500 hectares bought out by the Fundacion Otonga in the last years. The Otonga Natural Reserve, a real "Sanctuary of Biodiversity", still last summer have been investigated by the naturalists of the WBA in the course of the expedition "Ecuador 2008".

In the volume "Biodiversity of South America.I" recently published by the WBA have been described as much as 60 species and 6 genera, all new to Science, discovered just in the Otonga Forest during the naturalistic expeditions of the WBA in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Therefore, congratulations to the Municipality of Verona for buying portions of tropical forest, besides avoiding emission of thosand tons of CO2 in atmosphere, contribute to the preservation of the extraordinary biological richness of this montane cloudforest, turned by now into a symbol of the conservation of the biodiversity in the world.