Over a five-year period, the CEPF will facilitate the initial implementation phase of Vision 2010, supporting effective participation by NGOs and civil society organizations in the conservation of biodiversity within the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot. The strategy will emphasize priority areas within the Chocó-Manabí Corridor, where many opportunities exist to develop local and regional mechanisms to foster corridor-level conservation efforts among stakeholders, improve management of protected areas, and promote sustainable development practices in communities located near protected areas.
In both countries, achievement of such conservation goals depends on a large number of stakeholders and institutional alliances that endorse a common vision for the corridor. Fortunately, several developments in recent years provide a promising setting for the CEPF to achieve meaningful results.
Many institutions have expressed strong interest in addressing the Chocó's environmental problems, including such regional actors as the Cauca Valley Regional Autonomous Corporation and ECOFONDO in Colombia, and the Fundación Maquipucuna, EcoCiencia, Jatun Sacha, and regional MAE offices in Esmeraldas, Manabí, Carchi-Imbabura in Ecuador. In addition, the results and priorities determined through WWF's Ecoregional Planning Process held in Colombia followed by results of the CI led Cali planning workshop provide a strong foundation for work in participatory ecoregional planning, conservation, and sustainable development in this region. Furthermore, the IUCN, the Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, and other international NGOs are contributors, as is support from such international organizations as the World Bank, GEF, Inter-American Development Bank, USAID and European bilateral agencies.
The CEPF will pay particular attention to several existing projects and will aim to influence their direction with a view toward leveraging new resources for conservation and forming partnerships with donors, governments, and the private sector to ensure that diverse programs work together in synergy. The CEPF has already identified $52 million available over the short to medium term that provide promising opportunities to integrate biodiversity conservation efforts in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. In Colombia, CI has secured commitments from the Cauca Valley Regional Autonomous Corporation and ECOFONDO to channel an additional $7 million to conservation activities. In Ecuador, CEPF priorities can be integrated into a $45 million portfolio of projects in the corridor: the Maquipucuna Project ($3.1 million) supported by the GEF; the Carbon Trust's Jatun Sacha - CI Project ($2 million); the IDB's Coastal Resources Management Project ($30 million); and the Northern Border Development Project ($10 million).
The opportunity to work closely with the IDB is particularly noteworthy. The forthcoming Coastal Resources Management Project will emphasize the integration of biodiversity conservation into national coastal resource management. The project, scheduled for approval in mid-2002, will contain five components: national policy, best practices for coastal management, municipal-level zoning, investment projects for coastal communities, and special studies and monitoring. The investment component presents a particularly interesting opportunity for the CEPF and its partners because several anticipated activities - including community management of mangroves, improved shrimp farming practices, and infrastructure development - could have considerable benefits for biodiversity if designed with conservation goals in mind.
In addition to these leveraging opportunities, several other developments bode well for promoting conservation in the Chocó-Manabí. For example, CI entered into a five-year agreement with the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment in October 2001 to help implement the country's National Biodiversity Strategy, with a particular focus on strengthening its national parks system. To implement the agreement, CI will work with the Environment Ministry and its regional offices to strengthen the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve, located in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. The new partnership between CI and the MAE provides an auspicious step toward real conservation results in the corridor.
Efforts and experiences to date in the corridor have highlighted the need for self-directed, coordinated, and sustainable participation of local residents and organizations in scoping, planning, designing, implementing, managing, monitoring, and evaluating conservation programs. Lessons learned over the last ten years under USAID's SUBIR project in Ecuador point to the importance of ensuring that community-based organizations assume responsibility for implementing conservation and resource management projects for the sake of sustainability. Furthermore, gender considerations must be integrated into all aspects of conservation to achieve sustainability. Strengthening these institutions, alliances and processes represents a major investment opportunity and niche for inclusion in the CEPF investment strategy and program.
In Colombia, recently improved policies and regulatory frameworks, improved capacity of public institutions, and increased political strength of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities provide a strong foundation for conserving biodiversity. Furthermore, local NGOs have strong technical capacity and a firm understanding of the negative impact of inappropriate resource use.
In Ecuador, the foundation for success in conservation is aided by recent improvement in environmental legislation and policy trends toward decentralization; increased acceptance of privately managed parks, community reserves and municipal protected areas; and a trend toward ecologically sound agriculture and alternatives to monoculture production systems. The recent Special Law for the Decentralization of the State and Public Participation transfers responsibility for management of natural resources from the central government to counties and municipalities, opening possibilities for participatory land use planning at the local level. This decentralization presents an unprecedented opportunity for the conservation community in Ecuador.
In 1996, Ecuador passed its first national environmental law and created the Ministry of Environment. The law presented new openings for local initiatives - especially those originating in the private sector. Promoting biodiversity-friendly enterprises, carbon sequestration and other climate change investments, and privately funded ecotrusts could provide opportunities for the CEPF, in partnership with other partners and private businesses. Finally, the National Biodiversity Policy and Strategy and the sustainable development policy and strategy allow conversion of public commitments into biodiversity-friendly endeavors such as ecotourism, sustainable agriculture and fisheries programs, and marketing of genetic resources and agricultural biodiversity.
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