‘Biologists were not part of the crime food chain’: why Ecuador’s scientists are facing violence, threats and kidnapping

Despite government efforts, armed groups control many remote areas. Now researchers are caught in the crosshairs

Raul*, a biologist from Quito, has been leading conservation projects in the Choco rainforest in north-east Ecuador for more than 20 years. It has not been easy, he says, recalling the threats he has received over the years for reporting illegal hunters and loggers in reserves, but he never considered giving up.

Last year, however, tensions in the area escalated after violence soared on the country's coast. Accounts of almost daily killings in the cities of Esmeraldas and Guayaquil emerged as gangs appeared to fight over territory, while forced recruitment in rural areas increased, as did extortions, known locally as vacunas, or vaccines.