Podocarpus National Park, National park in Zamora Chinchipe and Loja provinces, Ecuador.

Podocarpus National Park is a protected area in Zamora Chinchipe and Loja provinces in Ecuador, covering mountain ranges that include tropical rainforests, cloud forests and high-elevation vegetation. The landscape ranges from deep valleys with dense canopy to open areas above the tree line, where more than 100 small lakes sit.

Ecuador created the park on 15 December 1982 to protect the country's largest romerillo forest, formed by three Podocarpus species, the only conifer native to Ecuador. It covers 146,280 hectares across Zamora Chinchipe (about 85%) and Loja (about 15%), from the eastern Andean foothills to the Nangaritza, Numbala and Loyola river basins.

The park is named after the romerillo (Podocarpus glomeratus), the native conifer whose forest it was created to protect; three Podocarpus species grow here. The Cinchona, Ecuador's national tree, also grows in the park, alongside more than 4,000 plant species and a wide variety of orchids.

The park has two main entrances: Cajanuma leads into high-elevation areas with cooler temperatures, while Bombuscaro opens to lower mountain forests with warmer conditions. Both areas offer trails and basic lodging, and visitors should bring weatherproof clothing and sturdy footwear.

The protected area sits at the crossroads of four ecological systems, producing a zone with 560 bird species that represent 6 percent of the world's bird diversity. The mix of Andean geography and tropical climate creates conditions that exist nowhere else at this latitude.