The Province of Pastaza is one of the 24 provinces that make up the Republic of Ecuador, located in the northeast of the country, in the geographical area known as the Amazon region. Its administrative capital is the city of Puyo, which is also its largest and most populated city. It occupies a territory of about 29,520 km², being the largest province of the country by extension. It limits the north with the provinces of Napo and Orellana, on the west with the province of Tungurahua, on the south with the province of Morona Santiago and on the east with the provinces of Datem del Marañón, Loreto and Maynas belonging to Peru.
In the Pastazen territory, 83,933 people live, according to the last national census, being the second least populated province of the country, behind the Galápagos. The Province of Pastaza is constituted by 4 cantons, with their respective urban and rural parishes. For administrative purposes, the province of Pastaza will belong to a region also comprised by the provinces of Chimborazo, Tungurahua and Cotopaxi, which is called Zone 3. It is one of the most important administrative, economic, financial and commercial centers of the Amazon. Its economy is based on trade, tourism, livestock and agriculture. The largest extraction industries in the province are made up of timber and agriculture. The provision of services as civil servants, public employees, small industry and manufacturing continue in importance.
The territory of Pastaza is the cradle of 7 indigenous nationalities of the Amazonian Region of Ecuador: the Kichwa of the Amazon, the Andwa, the Sapara, the Waodani, the Achuar, the Shiwiar and the Shuar. He had different migratory periods from other places, such as cinnamon trees. During the colonial era the maximum entity and precursor of the province would be the Government of Quíjos. After the independence war and the annexation of Ecuador to the Gran Colombia, the Province of Chimborazo was created on June 25,1824, in which within its limits was the present territory of Pastazense, later it would become part of the great Province of Oriente, later would become part of the Province of Napo Pastaza. On November 10,1959 the eighteenth province of the country, the Province of Pastaza, was created.