Profound knowledge of region-specific human ecological parameters is crucial for the sustainable utilization and conservation of tropical mountain rain forests in southern Ecuador, a region with heterogenic ethnic, socio-cultural and socio-economic structures. In order to satisfy the objectives of forest conservation on the one hand and the utilization claims of the local population on the other, an integrated concept of nature conservation and sustainable land use development is being sought (e.g. Ellenberg 1993). Within the human ecological research project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) presented here, four research topics have been explored in detail in indigenous Shuar and Saraguro as well as local Mestizo communities of southern Ecuador: Research topic 1 is concerned with the use of wild plants and local agrobiodiversity. In the research area land use is focused on cattle ranching, which poses the main threat to forests and to biodiversity. Based on an ethnobotanical survey conducted in Shuar, Saraguro and Mestizo communities, the use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and the cultivation of plant species in demand in home gardens have been identified as promising options for increasing household incomes.