Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensive Plants Podcast, the official podcast of IndefensivePlants.com.

What's up, this is your host Matt, welcome to the show. How is everyone doing this week?

I'm doing great because I just spoke with one of the most inspirational conservationists I've ever met.

Today we're hearing from Javier Roballo, he is the executive director of Foundaicion Ecominga,

and this is a topic you have heard about if you've been listening to this podcast for a while now.

They own and operate a bunch of land conservation efforts down in Ecuador and all of it is really

focused on tiny orchids such as those in the genus Dracula or Tigia, but they're doing amazing work

for biodiversity as a whole in one of the most biodiverse areas of the entire world.

When you hear some of the stories he's going to tell you today, it just becomes so apparent why

land protection in this region is so important. And Javier is here to talk to us about an issue

that the Dracula Reserve is facing with legal and illegal mining operations.

Please stick around to the end of this conversation because he gives you a ton of ways that you,

yourself, no matter where you're at can actually help this mission in a major way.

Javier, like I said, is one of the most inspirational people doing amazing work to protect plants

and the planet. So let's just jump right into it without further ado.

Here's my conversation with Javier Robayo. I hope you enjoy.

And it's more the idea about Javier. My name is Javier Robayo and I'm working with the

Cominga Foundation during the last Javier's, more or less. I'm a study ecology on the

university and during my first year on the university, I listen and speak about conservation,

about cloud forest, specialties, orchids, and using orchids as a method to protect the forest

and make conservation. I remember the title of this speech was like orchids on the clouds.

It was a crazy, crazy name, who made this, this speech was Lujos. Oh, cool.

...