The Province of Napo is one of the 24 provinces that make up the Republic of Ecuador, located in the northern center of the country, in the geographical area known as the Amazon region, mainly on the outer flanks of the western mountain range in the north and west and the extensive Amazonian plain to the south. Its administrative capital is the city of Tena, which is also its largest and most populated city. It occupies a territory of about 13,271 km², being the eighth province of the country by extension. It borders to the north with Sucumbíos, to the south with Pastaza, to the west with Pichincha, Cotopaxi and Tungurahua and to the east with Orellana.
In the Napense territory there are 103,697 people, according to the last national census, being the fourth least populated province in the country, behind Zamora Chinchipe, Pastaza and Galápagos. The Province of Napo is made up of 5 cantons, from which 5 urban parishes and 20 rural parishes are derived. According to the latest territorial order, the province of Napo will belong to a region also comprised by the provinces of Orellana and Pichincha, with the exception of the Metropolitan District of Quito, although it is not officially formed, called the Central North Region. 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 Napenses forests are cradle of 2 indigenous nationalities of the Amazonian Region of Ecuador: the Kichwas of the Amazon, and the Huoranis. The Spanish colonization occurred with the arrival of Gonzalo Díaz de Pineda, in his expedition by the sectors of Canelos and Quijos in 1538. During this period 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 Pichincha was created on June 25,1824, in which within its limits was the present Napense territory, then 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 Napo, was created.