DRACULA RESERVE PROJECT
Hector Yela and his wife Norma are pillars of the community of Chical, Ecuador. He has been president of the local government, supervised the project that brought electricity to the region, and supervised the feasibility study for one of the major roads connecting communities in the region. His wife is a much-loved schoolteacher who taught most of the younger members of the community. Their daughter Pamela was fascinated by the local orchids, and began to accompany Hector in his field work so that she could see them. Through her, Hector also became fascinated by orchids. Pamela was killed in a transit accident at the age of fifteen, and since then Hector has had a special relationship with orchids as bridges to the memory of his lost daughter. Hector developed friendships with many Ecuadorian and international orchid scientists, and helped uncover the region’s extraordinary concentration of endemic plant species. He himself discovered several new species. When Fundacion EcoMinga established a reserve in his area specifically to protect these endemic orchids, he took a leading role in helping with land selection and negotiation, and he is now pleased to be the main protector of these forests.