Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests

Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests (NT0121)
Sumaco volcano viewed from Tena
Ecology
Realm	Neotropical
Biome	Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Geography
Area	102,565 km2
Countries	Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Coordinates	1°55′37″S 78°07′37″W / 1.927°S 78.127°W / -1.927; -78.127Coordinates: 1°55′37″S 78°07′37″W / 1.927°S 78.127°W / -1.927; -78.127
Climate type	Aw (equatorial; winter dry)

The Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests (NT0121) is an ecoregion in the eastern range of the Andes of southern Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru. The ecoregion covers the eastern slopes of the Andes, and includes montane forest that rises from the Amazonian rain forest, with cloud forest and elfin forest at higher elevations. It is rich in species, including many endemics. It is threatened by logging and conversion for pasturage and subsistence agriculture.

The ecoregion is on the eastern slopes of the central Andes. The forests cover an almost continuous band about 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) long but sometimes no more than 30 kilometres (19 mi) wide due to the limited area of the slopes with suitable elevations. They extend along the southern part of the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia, the eastern part of the Cordillera Real of Ecuador and the northern part of the Andes of Peru. The ecoregion has an area of 10,256,352 hectares (25,344,000 acres).

In the extreme north the ecoregion transitions into the Magdalena Valley montane forests and Cordillera Oriental montane forests ecoregions. The north and central parts of the ecoregion merge into the Napo moist forests to the east and the Northwestern Andean montane forests to the west. The southern part transitions into the Ucayali moist forests to the east, Marañón dry forests to the south and Tumbes-Piura dry forests to the west. The north and central parts of the ecoregion adjoin or surround regions of Northern Andean páramo at the upper levels, and the southern part surrounds regions of Cordillera Central páramo.

The ecoregion covers rugged premontane terrain on the eastern slopes of the Andes with elevations that range from 900 metres (3,000 ft) to above 2,100 metres (6,900 ft). In Peru part of the ecoregion extends west to the Pacific slope. The southern part of the Cordillera Real contains the Huancabamba Depression, the lowest pass in the Andes at about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above sea level. The mountains south of the Huancabamba Depression were mostly formed in the Miocene (23–5.3 Ma) while the mountains to the north formed between the end of the Pliocene (5.3–2.6 Ma) and the (2.6 Ma to 11,700 years ago).