The Reserve:
700 acres to explore and discover
Immerse yourself in nature
Prior to Minga Lodge opening its doors, this area was threatened by hunting, and other human activities. Today, Minga Lodge & Reserve protects over 700 acres of primary and secondary-growth rainforest, and is situated between two of the most bio-diverse areas in Ecuador: Yasuní National Park and Sumaco National Park. It is also now home to about 305 species of birds, 248 Butterflies, 78 frogs, 72 reptiles, and 62 mammals, making it a nature lover's paradise.
When is the last time you saw a tree that big!?
The Reserve is home to trees that are more than 150 feet tall and five feet in diameter. They shelter deer, peccary, paca, agouti, armadillo, and birds help disperse seeds around the area. Minga Lodge partners with universities to conduct research that tracks The Reserve’s extraordinary biodiversity in order to help promote conservation.
Minga Lodge & Reserve is home to half of the area’s species of monkeys. They make fun and wonderful neighbors!
The Minga Agriculture Learning Center
Unique to Minga Lodge & Reserve is our Minga Agriculture Learning Center (MALC), the heart of our conservation and community engagement and where much of the food for the lodge is grown. Situated on over 173 acres, it houses a 10,750 square-foot greenhouse, a 4,300 square foot tree nursery and 25 flowers for a bee garden. Popular superfoods like cacao, plantains and coffee are all grown here. The tree nursery produces 5,000 seedlings every six months, most of which are native Amazon plants. These are distributed as part of the local reforestation program. The MALC is also home to the Melipona Bee Rescue Center and Sanctuary. These small, stingless bees are powerful pollinators and critical to the biodiversity of the area. On average, these beautiful bees pollinate 1000 flowers per day – producing the delicious honey that graces the tables at Minga Lodge.
