Our goal is to consolidate a forest plot network as sites for long-term ecological research to investigate diversity and ecosystem functioning in natural and reforested areas along a large environmental gradient in a highly diverse strongly anthropogenic tropical landscape. The project takes place in the north-western slopes of the Andes of Ecuador, in an area that includes the Andes Chocó Biosphere Reserve, along an elevation gradient that ranges from 300 to 3000 m above sea level.