Northwestern Andean montane forests

The Northwestern Andean montane forests is an ecoregion on the western slope of the Andes mountains, in western Ecuador and Colombia. This ecoregion is part of the Northern Andean Montane Forests global ecoregion, in turn located within the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, in the neotropical realm.

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Both flora and fauna are highly diverse due to the effect of alternating glacial and inter-glacial periods, which created isolated pockets of warm and cool zones respectively, and the consequent formation of endemisms therein. Since the environment is hospitable to humans, the habitat has been drastically affected by farming and grazing since the Pre-Columbian era. The high biodiversity and the anthropic impact these forests possess qualify it as part of the tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot.