• The Endangered horned marsupial-frog (Gastrotheca cornuta), was rediscovered in the Canandé Reserve in a 2018 herpetological expedition by the group Tropical Herping. The frog, which once ranged from Costa Rica to Ecuador, persists in this yet untouched area of the Chocó lowland rainforest thanks to our efforts. This good news received international media attention with stories in National Geographic and The Guardian.

• In 2019, 640 hectares were added to the reserve, including the first property that officially connects the western part of Canandé Reserve to the Tesoro Escondido Reserve. This acquisition is highly important, as it builds connectivity between two large protected areas owned by Fundación Jocotoco, securing contiguous habitat for species with large home ranges, such as jaguars and white-lipped peccaries.

• As further evidence of Canandé’s high conservation value, one of the rarest anurans in South America was recorded in the reserve in 2019. This was only the 4th record of this species of flying tree frog, the Río Cauca fringe-limbed tree frog (Ecnomiohyla phantasmagoria). In addition, three new species of amphibians and reptiles and two new orchid species were discovered in Canandé in 2019.

• With ICFC's support, the Canandé Reserve was expanded by 640 ha in 2019, and now comprises 7,453 ha.

The Canandé Reserve is situated within the Ecuadorian portion of the Chocó-Darién biogeographic region (the Chocó), an area which has been identified by BirdLife International as an Endemic Bird Area due its high number of Restricted-range Species (62) in the world. It is also part of the important Bird Area EC005 Verde-Ónzole-Cayapas-Canandé. When it comes to amphibians and reptiles, the Canandé Reserve is the most herpeto-diverse locality west of the Andes in Ecuador, and the most diverse in the Chocó region. The Ecuadorian Chocó is home to 212 species of amphibians and reptiles, 134 of which are found within the Canandé Reserve (Ortega-Andrade et al., 2010). In comparison, richer communities of amphibians and reptiles in the Neotropics are only found in the upper Amazon basin i.e., 220 in Leticia, Colombia; 185 in Santa Cecilia, Ecuador; and 271 in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador (Arteaga, 2016). Furthermore, the Ecuadorian Chocó, and in particular the Canandé Reserve, are special because 10% of their species are endemics.

About 22% of the species known to occur in the Canandé Reserve have not been evaluated by the IUCN, although some are likely to qualify as endangered, and 20% of species have been evaluated as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered. These include: the elusive and Endangered Mache Glassfrog (Cochranella mache), the recently described and Not Evaluated Nieto’s Rainfrog (Pristimantis nietoi), the Vulnerable Ornate Rainfrog (Pristimantis ornatissimus), and the Not Evaluated Dwarf-Gecko (Lepidoblepharis grandis). Lastly, the Canandé Reserve area also harbours probably the most important population of the Critically Endangered Brown-headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps fusciceps), a subspecies of the also Critically Endangered Black-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps). The Brown-headed Spider Monkey is one of the 25 most endangered primates in the world. In addition, the Canandé Reserve also harbours the largest population of one of the rarest endemic tree species in Ecuador, the Critically Endangered Ecuadodendrum acosta-solisianum, which is only known from two localities.