USAID CBJ FY 2002: Ecuador

Summary: Ecuador is unquestionably one of the world's most biodiverse countries, with 1,600 bird and 3,500 orchid species, both roughly 18% of the word's total; almost 10% of the planet's amphibian species; and 8% of its mammals. With exceptional endemism (species found nowhere else on earth), Ecuador sits in the middle of the Tropical Andes hotspot, "the richest and most diverse biodiversity hotspot on Earth." At the same time Ecuador's high population density, poverty, and widespread corruption place these resources at grave risk. The program goal is to help Ecuador to better manage its natural resources base by improving the policy and legal framework, and strengthening the institutional capacities of local groups and communities for biodiversity conservation. This also benefits poor indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities who depend on these resources for their survival.

Key Results: Program performance milestones are being met or exceeded. Analyses of aerial photography indicated that deforestation was cut in half in areas of project intervention. These results were achieved due to the effective involvement of local partners. In addition to playing increasingly visible roles in conservation, these indigenous partner NGOs attracted almost $2 million in non-USAID funds to support the program, with cumulative indicative funding levels nearly doubling the target ($6 million vs. $3.1 million). Program partners worked with 61 indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian, and other communities to develop and/or implement improved resource management practices; more than 1,313,000 hectares have been brought under participatory management plans. Development of policies, legal frameworks, and enforcement mechanisms exceeded their targets two-fold. USAID's support to the Charles Darwin Foundation provided the scientific basis for key management tools to protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve. These include the fishing calendar; regulations for catch limits for lobster and sea cucumber; a moratorium on new fishing permits; and a proposal for zoning the Reserve to regulate use.

Performance and Prospects: USAID funded organizations, including CARE, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Jatun Sacha, broke new ground in 2000 with the development of environmentally sound guidelines for farm-forest management. These guidelines are helping to conserve biological diversity in privately held forestlands adjacent to the Choco hotspot. The approach also offers promise for use in other parts of the country. USAID helped build a strong coalition of local and regional conservation groups dedicated to sound resource management, and the Community Forestry Network had its first timber sales, following approved environmental guidelines for harvesting and treatment. In the Condor Bioreserve area, field research data were used to define adequate habitat size for the endangered Andean spectacled bear. This information is being used to inform decisions on regional planning (e.g. road and water system development). With USAID-funding, the Nature Conservancy's (TNC) efforts also promoted conflict resolution and helped long-settled indigenous communities achieve legal recognition in the Bioreserve through development of environmentally sound resource management plans. USAID's regional Parks in Peril (PiP) program made important progress in consolidating Podocarpus National Park, and encouraging local decision-makers (e.g. mayors, church and army officials, civil society) to form a high-level park management committee to protect the Park's forest cover, thereby ensuring the city of Loja's water supply. PiP also made progress in developing a long-term financial plan and user fees for Machalilla National Park, important steps towards sustainability.

The USAID program continues to encourage inclusion of women on decision-making bodies, such as the Palenque Regional Council (Esmeraldas) and the Board of San Alfonso's (Condor Bioreserve) community development organization. Similarly, the Charles Darwin Foundation is collaborating with women in the Galapagos to develop economic alternatives to fishing. USAID support for ecotourism development and mangrove conservation on Isabela Island in the Galapagos is similarly oriented. To raise national consciousness of the serious challenges of managing this global patrimony, build political will for sound management, and underscore that the more aggressive fishermen are not the Galapagos' only stakeholder group, the program implemented an effective program to better educate the country's mass media. USAID also played a critical role in helping its partners mitigate the impacts of the Galapagos oil spill.

USAID will continue ongoing activities in the protected and buffer zone areas of the Cotacachi-Cayapas (RECC), Antisana (REA), and Cayambe-Coca (RECAY) ecological reserves to develop replicable models. Ecuadorian NGOs will carry out the types of activities currently being developed and tested in and around protected areas in additional communities. Key activities include forest management, land demarcation and titling, and the development of income-producing ventures based on non-timber forest products. Also, efforts will be made to strengthen forest dwellers' (including indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorians) claims to land and resources, and to prepare them to enter into productive partnerships with the commercial sector. Support will continue to the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos for the conservation and preservation of the Islands' marine reserves and their native and endemic species. Now that the Special Law for Galapagos has been passed, the Ministry of the Environment, in consultation with key groups from the Galapagos, is preparing guidelines for implementing the Special Law. Also, it is expected that stakeholders will implement the Galapagos Marine Reserve Management Plan.

In FY 2001, $5,012,000 in environment program funds will be distributed as follows: $2,760,000 to support sustainable uses of biological resources, including through improved forest management and land titling in Esmeraldas; $875,000 to protect the Galapagos Marine Reserve by relieving pressures from over fishing through development of alternative economic activities and through research to inform better management; $700,000 to improve management and community participation in the Condor Bioreserve, one of Ecuador's most important protected areas and the principal watershed for the city of Quito; $300,000 to support biodiversity conservation with indigenous peoples groups in biologically critical areas; $167,000 for targeted research and assessments building on the recommendations from the recent evaluation, particularly an analysis of the feasibility of using biodiversity prospecting to generate financing for biodiversity conservation; $100,000 for continued technical assistance under USAID's Partnership for Biodiversity Conservation with the U.S. Department of the Interior; and $110,000 to support costs associated with program management.

In FY 2002, the $5,100,000 in DA environment program funds will be used as follows: $2,590,000 to build institutional capability and support development of sustainable financing mechanisms (including market-based) for some of the country's most important parks and protected areas; $1,000,000 for continued support for biodiversity conservation in the Galapagos; $500,000 to support sustainable uses of biological resources, including forest management activities; $500,000 for continued support to the Condor Bioreserve; $300,000 for biodiversity conservation activities with indigenous peoples groups in biologically critical areas; $100,000 for additional technical assistance through the U.S. Department of the Interior; and $110,000 to support costs associated with program management. In coordination with the Ecuador Country Team, the planned $4,000,000 in FY 2002 ESF environment resources would be used as follows: $2,000,000 to strengthen the Galapagos National Park's deficient monitoring and enforcement capabilities to protect the environmentally critical Galapagos Marine Reserve in the face of mounting pressures from illegal commercial and local fishing; $1,000,000 for additional land titling and development of environmentally sound economic activities in Esmeraldas, to help stabilize poor Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous populations living adjacent to the Choco biodiversity "hotspot" and border with Colombia; and $1,000,000 for land titling and development of environmentally sound economic activities in portions of Ecuador's isolated Amazon Basin, to help stabilize vulnerable indigenous populations living adjacent to the Yasuni Biological Reserve.

Possible Adjustments to Plans: A mid-term evaluation conducted in December 2000 challenges the program's assumption that buffer zone management is the best way to promote conservation. The evaluation recommended that greater emphasis be placed on increasing the value of protected areas themselves, through initiatives such as biodiversity prospecting, carbon offsets, and the provision of ecological services. To this end, the program will support an assessment of biodiversity prospecting. Ecuador's exceptionally high species endemism suggests the country may have comparative advantage in this area, and one local species of poison dart frog has already produced an analgesic (epidatibine) 200 times more powerful than morphine. Nevertheless, the legal, institutional, and social challenges of biodiversity prospecting are considerable and must be analyzed carefully before investing in this area. Similarly, carbon offsets may offer limited promise in the near-term, pending greater international consensus on the clean energy production mechanism.

However, increased emphasis on the biologically rich Condor Bioreserve and on ecological services could build on past efforts, though progress with Quito's Water Endowment Fund (FONAG) has been disappointing due to the continuing absence of field activities. If funds become available, the USAID program plans to explore further these opportunities in partnership with PiP 2000, working with TNC's Center for Innovative Conservation Finance. Additional emphasis should also be given to the Galapagos, working with communities to strengthen conservation-minded stakeholder associations; and at the local and national levels to generate increased political will to support sustainable management. Given Ecuador's heavy debt-burden, the Tropical Forestry Conservation Act is a possibility, though much would no doubt need to be done (e.g. improvements in the country's macroeconomic and investment climate) to be eligible for this program. Finally, the program is exploring opportunities for cross-border ecosystem conservation. This could include working with the Awa indigenous peoples (Ecuador/Colombia) and/or in the critically endangered coastal dry tropical forests along the border with Peru.

Other factors could compromise the program's ability to produce results, and deforestation for expanded African palm cultivation in USAID's area of field activities is a serious concern. Powerful special interests continue to press poor Afro-Ecuadorians to sell their forested lands, only to hire these landless people as day laborers for expanding the acreage under palm cultivation. Such special interests also lobby strongly against the enforcement of forestry regulations on deforestation activities and against passage of the forestry law. Another serious concern is enforcement of environmental regulations in the Galapagos. The Ministry of Environment attempted to enforce lobster harvest limits for the first time in 2000, and the resulting protests and vandalism attracted international attention. The offenders were denounced by the President of Ecuador, but supported by several local politicians promoting special interests. Similarly, when Galapagos National Park staff seized commercial tuna boats fishing illegally in the Reserve, the Park Director was threatened with reprisals. Enforcement of existing laws and regulations will be a continuing challenge, especially in a country where special interests are used to having their way. This program and the USAID Democracy program will coordinate more closely to stanch corruption, a serious deterrent to effective biodiversity conservation. Also, to assure that program goals are met the Mission will seek approval to extend the completion date of this activity by one year to FY 2004.

Other Donor Programs: The World Bank's Global Environmental Facility continues to implement an important $18 million program to combat invasive species in the Galapagos, and USAID coordinated with the Inter-American Development Bank on development of their $13 million program for the islands. Coordination with Spain's development assistance on regulations to the Galapagos Special Law has also been important, and the World Bank continues to train 160 paralegals in the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, an initiative that was started by USAID. Collaboration is also good with the Netherlands' development assistance program in Podocarpus, and the Italian Cooperation Service has taken over PiP's earlier successful efforts on park infrastructure development and maintenance in Machalilla.

Principal Contractors, Grantees or Agencies: USAID funding is provided principally to U.S. and Ecuadorian NGOs. Key partners include CARE, The Nature Conservancy, Galapagos National Park, and the Charles Darwin Foundation. Both CARE and TNC have developed strong working relationships with Ecuadorian partners. They include EcoCiencia, Jatun Sacha, Fundaci�n Antisana, Fundaci�n Ecol�gica Rumicocha, Fundaci�n Arco Iris, and Fundaci�n Natura, all of which work with community groups and indigenous organizations to carry out planned activities. In addition, specific activities are being undertaken in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Peace Corps.

Ecuador 518-001

U.S. Financing

(In thousands of dollars)

	Obligations		Expenditures		Unliquidated
Through September 30, 1999	7,788	DA	3,149	DA	4,639	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	0	ESF	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	SEED	0	SEED	0	SEED
	0	FSA	0	FSA	0	FSA
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA
Fiscal Year 2000	3,500	DA	3,927	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD
	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	SEED	0	SEED
	0	FSA	0	FSA
	0	DFA	0	DFA
Through September 30, 2000	11,288	DA	7,076	DA	4,212	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	0	ESF	0	ESF	0	ESF
	0	SEED	0	SEED	0	SEED
	0	FSA	0	FSA	0	FSA
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA
Prior Year Unobligated Funds	0	DA
	0	CSD
	0	ESF
	0	SEED
	0	FSA
	0	DFA
Planned Fiscal Year 2001 NOA	5,012	DA
	0	CSD
	0	ESF
	0	SEED
	0	FSA
	0	DFA
Total Planned Fiscal Year 2001	5,012	DA
	0	CSD
	0	ESF
	0	SEED
	0	FSA
	0	DFA
			Future Obligations		Est. Total Cost
Proposed Fiscal Year 2002 NOA	5,100	DA	5,900	DA	27,300	DA
	0	CSD	0	CSD	0	CSD
	4,000	ESF	5,000	ESF	9,000	ESF
	0	SEED	0	SEED	0	SEED
	0	FSA	0	FSA	0	FSA
	0	DFA	0	DFA	0	DFA

Ecuador

Activity Data Sheet

Ecuador 518-001

U.S. Financing