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Tumbes-Chocó-MagdalenaInvestment Priorities Full Strategy Project Database for this Region View other hotspots
|  | Ecosystem Profile: Chocó-Manabí Corridor, Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena December 11, 2001 (Updated December 2005)Contents Introduction Background Biological Importance of the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot Synopsis of Threats Synopsis of Current Investments CEPF Niche for Investment in the Region CEPF Investment Strategy and Program Focus Sustainability Conclusion Introduction The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world's threatened biodiversity hotspots in developing countries. It is a joint initiative of Conservation International (CI), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. The CEPF provides financing to projects in biodiversity hotspots, the biologically richest and most endangered places on Earth. A fundamental purpose of the Fund is to ensure that civil society is engaged in efforts to conserve biodiversity in the hotspots. An additional purpose is to ensure that those efforts complement existing strategies and frameworks established by local, regional and national governments.The CEPF will promote working alliances among community groups, NGOs, government, academic institutions, and the private sector, combining unique capacities and eliminating duplication of efforts for a more comprehensive approach to conservation. The CEPF is unique among funding mechanisms in that it focuses on biological areas rather than political boundaries, and will examine conservation threats on a corridor-wide basis for maximum return on investment. It will also focus on transboundary cooperation when areas rich in biological value straddle national borders, or in areas where a regional approach will be more effective than a national approach. The CEPF aims to provide civil society with an agile and flexible funding mechanism complementing funding currently available to government agencies. In the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot1, the CEPF will support strategic initiatives that complement existing and proposed investments in conservation and thereby take advantage of the relatively strong presence of conservation NGOs in the region and government institutions and donors committed to the conservation and sustainable development of the corridor. The conservation corridor concept will lend synergy to efforts of narrow and broad geographic focus in an area of the highest biological importance. CEPF funding will be used to launch a comprehensive array of activities for implementation by civil society and to support some major existing initiatives. The CEPF's five-year, $5 million investment will leverage or influence the direction of $52 million in investments by donors. The CEPF will leverage $7 million for conservation in Colombia from the Cauca Valley Regional Autonomous Corporation and ECOFONDO, and help to integrate biodiversity concerns into a $45 million portfolio of environmental projects in Ecuador, supported through the GEF's Maquipucuna Project, the Carbon Trust's Jatun Sacha - CI Project, the IDB's Coastal Resources Management Project, and the country's Northern Border Development Project (UDENOR). To maximize the CEPF's conservation impact, priority conservation areas and activities in the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor (a key region of the hotspot) will be targeted for grantmaking.In summary, the CEPF offers an opportunity to promote the conservation of some of the most important ecosystems in the world - places of high biodiversity and great value. In the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor, the CEPF will promote the engagement and synergy of a wide range of public and private institutions to address conservation needs through coordinated regional efforts.1(December 2005 update: A hotspots reappraisal released in 2005 resulted in this hotspot being expanded to encompass new areas and to have a new name as the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena Hotspot. This profile and CEPF investments focus strictly on the hotspot as it was originally defined (then known as the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot) and select geographic areas as presented in this document.) The Ecosystem Profile The purpose of the ecosystem profile is to provide an overview of the causes of biodiversity loss in a particular region and to couple this assessment with an inventory of current conservation investments activities in order to identify the niche where CEPF investments can provide the greatest incremental value. The ecosystem profile is intended to recommend strategic funding directions that can be implemented by civil society to contribute to the conservation of biodiversity in the targeted region. Applicants propose specific projects consistent with these broad directions and criteria. The ecosystem profile does not define the specific activities that prospective implementers may propose in the region, but outlines the conservation strategy that will guide those activities. For this reason, it is not possible or appropriate for the ecosystem profile to be more specific about the site or scope of particular interventions or to identify appropriate benchmarks for those activities. Applicants will be required to prepare detailed proposals that specify performance indicators. The Corridor Approach to Conservation The corridor approach to biodiversity conservation seeks to provide a practical and effective solution to the universal difficulty of maintaining extensive areas of pristine habitat. It is recognized that large habitat parcels are essential for maintaining biodiversity and large-scale ecological processes, and that every opportunity to protect large bodies of habitat in perpetuity should be taken. Nevertheless, few such opportunities exist. Existing protected areas are often too small and isolated to maintain viable ecosystems and evolutionary processes; indeed, in many hotspots, even the remaining unprotected habitat fragments are acutely threatened. In such circumstances, conservation efforts must focus on linking major sites across wide geographic areas in order to sustain these large-scale processes and ensure the maintenance of a high level of biodiversity. Such networks of protected areas and landscape management systems are conservation corridors. The main function of the corridors is to connect biodiversity areas through a patchwork of sustainable land uses, increasing mobility and genetic exchange among individuals of fauna and flora even in the absence of large extensions of continuous natural habitat. Such corridors not only promote the immediate goals of regional-scale conservation based on individual protected areas, but also help maintain the ecosystem processes needed in order to sustain biodiversity into the future. In this context, small habitat fragments within corridors perform several related functions - connecting or reconnecting larger areas, maintaining heterogeneity in the habitat matrix, and providing refuge for species that require the unique environments present in these fragments. Large-scale intervention through biodiversity corridors, ecoregional planning, and landscape conservation is therefore one of the highest conservation priorities at the regional level in many of the world's hotspots and wilderness areas. From an institutional perspective, the CEPF's adoption of the corridor approach aims to stimulate new levels of civil society empowerment and participation in practical and political processes as a way to underpin and to multiply the effect of government and corporate responses to conservation. The corridor approach relies on strategic partnerships with key stakeholders to build a support framework and to coordinate activities in the field. The active involvement of local stakeholders and the development of their planning and implementation skills are essential to the sustainability of the biodiversity corridor. Background In the summer of 2001, shortly after the World Wide Fund for Nature in Colombia held a workshop designed to build consensus on a conservation vision for the region, CI convened a strategic planning workshop in Cali that was attended by 80 representatives of the governments of Colombia and Ecuador, NGOs, and scientists to discuss the threats to biodiversity in the region and to articulate a common vision and strategy for the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor through 2010. The corridor would represent a regional planning framework within which to address urgent conservation issues to maintain the environmental, economic and social integrity of the region. The resulting 10-year strategy would catalyze interagency alliances to mobilize human and financial resources for an integrated effort to connect natural areas - e.g., by consolidating and upgrading existing protected areas, rehabilitating degraded areas, and promoting sustainable agriculture and other sources of livelihood which sustain biodiversity, such as shade-grown coffee and agroforestry. Workshop participants included, from Colombia, representatives of the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, the Valle del Cauca Autonomous Corporation, ECOFONDO, and the Fundación Natura; and from Ecuador, representatives of the Ministry of Environment, National Parks Programs, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Jatun Sacha, Fundación Maquipucuna, and EcoCiencia.The participants agreed on a 10-year strategy designed to improve conservation actions by maximizing investments and strengthening existing alliances between national, regional, and local stakeholders to protect biodiversity, while also improving the livelihood and quality of life of communities in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. Participants also agreed on a process for future decision-making and consensus-building. An action plan was prepared to address conservation, social, and economic priorities in the region; elements of the plan are reflected in commitments and targets for the five-year implementation phase of the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor as laid out in this ecosystem profile. Biological Importance of the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot The conservation priorities of Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot, and the Chocó-Manabí Corridor within it, must be viewed from the perspectives of the region's biological, cultural, and social characteristics - in other words, from the region's potential to foster sustainable development. Its residents include more than 250 communities of African descendants and indigenous and mestizo groups.The Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot reaches from the southeastern portion of Panamá, along the western portions of Colombia and Ecuador, as far as northwestern Perú. Within it, the Chocó biogeographic region ("the Chocó") is globally recognized as one of the world's most biologically and culturally diverse. The Chocó provides habitat to an extraordinary wealth of plant and animal species. The variety of ecosystems within the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot has given rise to high levels of diversity and endemism. Mountains trap humid air from the coast and contribute to the survival of tropical humid and very humid premontane forests. The Chocó supports an estimated 9,000 vascular plant species, approximately 25% (2,250) of them endemic. Some scientists believe the Colombian Chocó to be the most floristically diverse site in the Neotropics. The Ecuadorian Chocó is estimated to support 25% of the nation's flora, or approximately 6,300 species of plants, 13% to 20% of which are endemic. The region is also home to more palm species than any other part of the world. The montane forests of western Ecuador also support large numbers of species and high levels of endemism. Many of the endemics here have small ranges, rendering them especially vulnerable to extinction. For the endemic flora, forest fragmentation might actually have stimulated speciation and diversification. Many families, genera, and species seem to be naturally constrained to elevations below 2,300-2,500 meters, and many are extremely localized. The region exhibits a large number of vegetation types, such as thorny desert scrub in the dry and very dry parts of the coastal plains, to the coastal mountain ranges in which dry thorny scrub covers the lower zones, while a premontane vegetation takes over on the foothills and slopes. Humid and very humid vegetation covers the peaks. Such humid vegetation extends along the Colombia-Ecuador border. However, it is declining at elevations between 300-900 meters close to the Perú-Ecuador frontier. The Ecuadorian coastal zone in the northwest, however, constitutes an extension of the Colombian Chocó. It contains humid rainforests and correspondingly specialized flora.Bird species, including migrants, number approximately 830, of which 85 (10.2%) are endemic. The southern portion of the hotspot is particularly important for birds, with more than 40 bird species and 140 subspecies endemic to the dry forest biome. BirdLife International recognizes four Endemic Bird Areas within the hotspot.Mammal diversity and endemism are also high, with 235 species, 60 (25.5%) of which are endemic. The location of the hotspot at the transition zone between Central and South America results in the occurrence of some largely Central American mammal species not found elsewhere on the South American continent. The Ecuadorian Chocó alone is home to 142 mammal species, of which 15 (10.6%) are endemic to the region.There are approximately 350 species of amphibians, including 210 endemics (60%), and 210 species of reptiles, 63 (30%) endemic. Several reptile and amphibian species are endangered or threatened. Within the Colombian portion of the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot, endemic reptiles include four turtles in danger of extinction, and 11 species of amphibians are similarly threatened, nine of them vulnerable and one critically endangered.Socio-Cultural Characteristics The Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot is home to a diverse range of distinct ethnic groups, including African descendants and indigenous and mestizo communities. Overall, the African descendant communities in Colombia and Ecuador occupy the coastal and riparian lowlands, while indigenous peoples have retreated to the lower hill slopes, leaving the higher slopes to the mestizo colonists. Even so, in Colombia, indigenous groups (Wounaan, Embera, Awa, Chachis, and Eperara-Siapidara) live in the lowland plains, and Afro-American communities live on the coast as well as in the sub-Andean hill complexes of Guarto, Santa Cecilia along the upper San Juan River. Afro-Colombian and Afro-Ecuadorian Communities Communities of African descendants in Colombia and Ecuador date back to the 16th century. They occupy diverse areas and ecoregions within the Chocó-Manabí Corridor, including the Pacific coast, low rainforest areas, terraces, hillsides, foothills, and sub-Andean slopes and páramos. Land use patterns of these communities include farming of crops (plantain, papaya, citrus, and sugarcane) on the banks of the rivers, and rice in the wetlands beyond. They also harvest timber, and hunt and fish in the rivers and along the coast. These practices are less ecologically invasive than the clearing of forest for pasture. Governments of both countries have adopted policies to improve the living conditions of their respective African descendant populations.Colombia's new constitution (Law 21/91) and the new African Descendant Rights Law (Law 70/93) recognize the collective territorial land rights of Afro-Colombians to the public lands they occupy. These lands are administered through Community Councils (Consejos Comunitarios). The law provides instruments by which the Afro-Colombian communities can reclaim and control the resources and lands they have occupied for centuries. The Colombian Land Reform Institute (INCORA) began the process of titling Afro-Colombian community lands in 1996 with funding from the World Bank. Since then, 36 collective titles have been issued for approximately 1 million hectares, benefiting some 15,700 families and 14 municipalities. In Ecuador, the Afro-Ecuadorian communities are concentrated in the Province of Esmeraldas, covering approximately 800,000 hectares, mostly along the region's rivers. Their history lies in the slave system, and often, economic and social discrimination still causes them to abandon their lands for the cities and towns, where many fall into a vicious cycle of poverty. Their poverty has been exacerbated as oil palm and forest extraction operations have resulted in their displacement. The national government is preparing legislation to recognize the collective land rights of the Afro-Ecuadorian communities, to provide them with autonomy to manage and control these territories and to determine their own development.Indigenous Communities In Colombia, indigenous rights to land, culture and languages have long been recognized in law (Law 160 and ILO 169). In Ecuador, legislation to acknowledge communal property rights has been recently drafted. Land use patterns of indigenous populations differ from those of the Afro-American communities - indigenous systems are less diverse, less dependent on fishing and coastal resources, and more reliant on hunting and gathering and on handicrafts for sale in regional towns and cities. In Colombia, many groups of the Embera, the largest indigenous tribe along the Pacific, live within the corridor, which holds 72 declared resguardos (reserves for indigenous groups) allocating ancestral and formal titles to 736,892 hectares. Some Paez people have recently migrated into the region from the Andean department of Cauca.In Ecuador, the Awá occupy approximately 3,500 square kilometers and, with the Chachis, are concentrated in the north along the Pacific coast in the municipalities of Carchi, San Lorenzo and Esmeraldas. The Awá are organized into 18 groups within an Awá Federation, and exert their communal property rights on the principle of communal ownership of "Ethnic Forest Reserves." They currently occupy around 76,000 hectares in the counties of San Lorenzo, Esmeraldas and Tulcan, Carchi. The Chachis and Cayapas live on the coast, while Afro-Ecuadorians occupy lands along the Santiago, Onzole and Canande rivers in Esmeraldas. In the 19th century, gold, rubber, and tagua and pita prospectors invaded their territories, as did banana plantations and loggers in the 20th century. Destruction of forests caused by the advancing agricultural frontier, colonists, and loggers has forced the Chachis from much of their ancestral land, which they have sold off to logging firms. Mestizo Communities Mestizo colonization is driven by poverty and lack of access to land. The rise of the minifundio (subsistence farming), in combination with population density in the highlands of both countries, has given rise to mestizo migration into relatively uninhabited forests and indigenous lands - causing, in turn, conflict between ethnic groups and mestizos over land and resources. Mestizos bring with them highland farming and cattle raising practices, many of which depend on clearing considerable tracts of forest. Roads built by municipalities and the national government have expanded access to once-pristine areas. Unlike Afro communities and indigenous cultures, mestizo farming practices have historically had adverse environmental impact; and, for the same reason, it is more difficult to promote conservation principles in mestizo communities than among Afro-American and indigenous groups. Mestizos are also more dispersed, often without fixed land tenure, and lack government support for their needs and claims. Currently, mestizos are more numerous in Ecuador than in Colombia. Clearing of forests by mestizos has caused serious loss of biodiversity and degradation of habitat and soils. In Colombia, colonization of the corridor is relatively recent and concentrated in the department of Alto San Juan, municipality of San José del Palmar, and the middle and upper watersheds of the Calima, Garrapatas, Sanquini, Naya, upper Micauy, Guiza, and Mira rivers.Prioritization of Corridors within the Hotspot Based on stakeholder consultations, the CEPF selected the Chocó-Manabi Conservation Corridor, spanning the southern end of the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot, as the focal area for support. The Chocó region is globally recognized as one of the world's most important zones for the conservation of biological and cultural resources. The Chocó-Manabí Corridor spans more than 60,000 square kilometres. Within Colombia, the corridor encompasses a full range of Chocó and Andean ecosystems as it stretches from peaks of Colombia's western Andean cordillera west to the Pacific Ocean. Crossing the border into Ecuador, the corridor traverses numerous life zones as it spans coastal and sierra ecosystems in the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve and Mache-Chindul Ecological Reserve. Cotacachi-Cayapas is located in the western foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes and covers about 204,000 hectares of coastal and sierra zones, ranging in elevation from 100 to 4,400 meters.The Chocó-Manabi Conservation Corridor has an extremely high degree of endemism -- by some estimates, one of the highest in the world, possessing several important attributes from a conservation perspective:
Within the Corridor, Esmeraldas Province contains some of the oldest and yet most highly threatened humid forests and mangroves; only 18% of the lowland evergreen forests along the coast still intact. The Muisne River estuary has lost approximately 75% of its mangrove forests. Habitat in the Sanquianga, Cayapas, and Mataje River estuaries, currently sheltering around 15% of the country's remaining mangroves, is also heavily degraded. These areas remain under heavy pressure from shrimp farmers, and has led the Government of Ecuador to declare the Province of Esmeraldas as a "special attention region," as defined in the National Sustainable Development Strategy. In order to extend and maintain the ecoregional unit encompassing the higher regions of the Cotacahi Cayapas and El Angel Ecological Reserves, the Provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabi, Carchi, and Imbabura have been identified as priority areas. Within these provinces, the following six areas are especially important for corridor conservation:
Overall, the present levels of protection in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor are poor, particularly in coastal Ecuador. Here, the ecosystem is under the gravest threat, with only approximately 2% of the original forest cover remaining. In other regions, such as the northern Chocó, the ecosystem is still largely intact. Nevertheless, biodiversity in the Colombian side of the corridor requires significant protection. Much of the current protection is in the form of national parks, private protected areas and forests, and communally managed conservation areas. Approximately 24% of the corridor's original habitat is intact, much of it in the Colombian Chocó and parts of the Darién.Colombia The Colombian section of the corridor contains six national parks administered by the special administrative unit of the National Parks System (UAESPNN), covering 429,400 hectares; three protected national reserves covering 11,267 hectares; and 11 Natural Private Reserves covering 4,724 hectares (see Table 1). Furthermore, four areas are currently under analysis as potential Ramsar sites: umarado-Perancho, El Trueno, Delta de San Juan River and the Delta of Baudó river.Table 1: Selected Protected Areas in the Colombian Portion of the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor
The Ecuadorian portion of the Chocó region is the most endangered. The humid tropical forests are the least protected life zones in the existing reserves, and they are the most fragmented and deforested areas in the region. The reserves in the province of Esmeraldas, for example, do not include the humid and very humid tropical forests below 300 meters. These forests are nevertheless noteworthy, harboring biodiversity and concentrations of threatened endemic species.The last well-preserved fragments of coastal forests are in the northwestern buffer zone of the Awá Ethnic Reserve and in the upper watershed of the Onzole and Cayapas Rivers. Like the forests in northern Esmeraldas, those of the cordillera around Mache Chindul are the last reasonably extensive fragments of tropical humid pre-montane forests in western Ecuador. Collectively, these primary forests occupy no more than 189,000 hectares. The reserve itself has no management plan or corresponding conservation program. The Ministry of Environment (MAE) of Ecuador has directed conservation activities to focus on this region. However, even current efforts fall well short of the resources required to effectively protect the coastal moist forests. Overall, the government manages pproximately 1.7 million hectares of the Chocó region. Of this area, approximately 46% lies in protected forests, 28% in ecological reserves, and 22% in national forests. The rest is classified as national parks and as urban greenbelts around cities and other smaller communities (see Table 2). In addition, a number private and public protected forests exist.Table 2: Selected Protected Areas in the Ecuadorian Portion of the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor
Vision 2010 for the Chocó-Manabí Corridor, adopted at the Cali workshop, declares: "In ten years, the Choco ecoregion is managed as a biodiversity conservation corridor that functionally reconnects natural habitat, consolidates areas under protection, and maintains cultural integrity from Choco to Manabi by fostering and establishing sustainable development practices among stakeholders." This goal will be achieved through a variety of projects that target the following objectives over the next 10 years:
Biodiversity in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor is threatened by a variety of human activities. The degree of threat varies considerably within the corridor, with some areas among the most threatened on the continent (coastal Ecuador) and others (northern Chocó) still largely intact. The northern Chocó region, for example, lacks major roads, ports and other infrastructure that would allow easy penetration of the forest. However, large-scale development is planned, with train routes, roads, a large canal, and hydroelectric dams being considered by the government and private interests. Direct threats include deforestation, regional integration projects, fishing and shrimp farming, mining, illegal crops, population growth, and social conflict. These threats are discussed below in the context of associated development projects, as well as the opportunities they offer to improve conservation practices in the corridor.Deforestation Deforestation is a principal threat to biodiversity in the region. The root cause of poor forest and timber management is disorderly settlement and expansion of the agricultural frontier driven by poverty, land scarcity, and population growth. The Ecuadorian portion of the corridor is most acutely threatened, with only 2% of the original lowland forest remaining.In coastal Ecuador, logging is taking place on approximately 50,000 hectares, including some land within national parks and other protected areas. Some 225,000 hectares have been deforested in the past ten years. Over the past 30 years, the northwestern forests of Esmeraldas Province have been the most significantly altered. A 1989 study by Fundación Natura and EcoCiencia cites rapid conversion, fragmentation, and consequent isolation of the forest as the primary threat to plant and animal species along the coast. The study revealed that, of the 6,300 species of vascular plants estimated in the region, some 20% are in danger of extinction. Fundación Natura's 1992 forest inventory and assessment in Esmeraldas identified five critically threatened forests: San Lorenzo, Borbón, Quininde I, Mache-Cube-Muisne and the Guayallabamba River basin. The study concludes that intense pressure on the forests originates from local Afro-Ecuadorian and indigenous communities, which are often driven by economic need and the demands of large and small logging companies operating in the area. It also points to the presence of corrupt officials as exacerbating the problem.In Colombia, coastal forests have experienced heavy logging for over 40 years, contributing 60% of the wood consumed in the country, with the Guandal and Sajal forests especially affected by logging.The following activities are factors that contribute to deforestation: Settlement Mestizo groups convert forested land near settlements for farming, livestock, and speculation. In the Baudó River region of Colombia, spontaneous colonization is a serious problem, as some 80% of the forests are converted to other uses - such as slash-and-burn agriculture - and high-value timber species are harvested. In many cases, settlers invaded national park areas before the parks had been declared or established, clearing forests, mining, and exploiting wildlife to the point of extinction, especially within the Tatamá, Farallones de Cali and Munchique national parks. Inappropriate timber extraction practices Unsustainable extraction is particularly serious along the western Andean slopes and terraces in mixed forests, the mangrove forests, and the Guandal and Naidi palm forests of the lowlands. In both countries, Afro-descendant and indigenous communities are poor. Many of their traditional low-impact extraction and production practices become more invasive in their efforts to make a meager living from these resources. In Colombia, antiquated sawmills waste up to 60% of the raw logs, limiting the potential impact of timber management there. The southwestern regions (Tumaco, Satinga, and lower San Juan Rivers and the lower Calima River) are the most affected.Illegal timber extraction Unlicensed logging has caused market failures in the region. Illegal logging is stimulated by short-term logging permits, often issued for periods of only one year, and by the practice of permitting the regional autonomous corporations to selectively extract high-value timber species. The timber sector is prone to exploitation by middlemen, who profit from the industry at the expense of the poor. While the poor carry out the logging, mainly as tree-cutters and haulers (some 70%live off or engage in logging in the Colombian Chocó), the benefits and returns to them are minimal.Cattle ranching Ranching can involve large-scale conversion of forests into pasture, causing extensive ecosystem degradation and loss of habitat. In Colombia, cattle ranching takes place mainly in the Andean and sub-Andean highlands and in the cloud forests, as in Alto Calima, southern Nariño, Tumaco-Ricaurte, and Cali-Buenaventura. The sub-Andean highlands of Nariño are the most affected. In Ecuador, cattle ranching contributes to large-scale forest conversion and destruction of wetlands in areas around Guayaquil.Intensive agriculture Forests, river flats, wetlands, and hillsides are being displaced by non-sustainable production of banana, plantain, cocoa, coffee and African palm, among other crops. This trend has been a major cause of habitat and species destruction - particularly in coastal Ecuador, where agricultural activities have doubled from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. These activities have attracted outside capital (foreign and domestic) and displaced Afro-American and indigenous populations from their traditional lands, forcing them to occupy national parks and protected areas. This has occurred in the Awá Ethnic Reserve and in the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve in Ecuador. The results include overexploitation of land, ecosystem fragmentation, and displacement of indigenous communities from their traditional lands. While African palm plantations represent the largest monoculture in Esmeraldas, it is ninth in ecological impact (behind substitution of pasture, which has altered more Chocoan landscape than any other activity). Coffee and cocoa plantations, among others, are also significant causes of conversion. So far, in Colombia, African palm is mainly grown in the municipality of Tumaco. Regional Integration Projects Regional integration projects have promoted modernization in the Chocó-Manabí Conservation Corridor, particularly in the Department of Chocó (Colombia), and in the Provinces of Esmeraldas and Manabí in coastal Ecuador. Modernization has largely involved large-scale development projects (roads, canals, dams, ports, and other infrastructure) to connect the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador with the interior. These projects have stimulated ecosystem degradation and thus threatened biodiversity. Colombia's Plan Pacifico has generated considerable attention within the environmental and indigenous rights communities. The Plan, conceived in 1974, is an ambitious development program that aims to grow the Choco's economy through the construction of infrastructure and exploitation of the region's natural wealth. Infrastructure projects include roads, hydroelectric and energy plants, and telecommunications networks. This infrastructure is designed to boost forestry, fishing, agriculture, and mining. Environmentalists and indigenous rights groups are concerned about the impacts of such a large project on traditional social and economic structures and on the environment, expressing concern that the large-scale development will severely damage the region's biological diversity. Within these regional integration projects, five aspects are of particular concern from a conservation perspective:Road construction In Colombia, the most significant road projects include the road to the San Juan River estuary, the coastal road connecting Colombia and Ecuador's coastal zone, and the road connecting Pasto-Tumaco, Las Animas-Nuqui, Popayan-López de Micay, Bahía Solano-El Valle, Pereira-Tado-Quibdo, and Aguila, Valle-Siqui. In Ecuador, the native forests of Esmeraldas were cleared by the second half of the 20th century when the first access roads from Quito and Guayaquil were built in the region. The rate of road construction increased between 1960 and 1980, as did the destruction of native forests, especially along the coasts of the Provinces of Guayas and Manabí.Canal construction Canals affect Colombia and Ecuador as mangrove ecosystems have been altered and natural water flow redirected. Examples include the Hidrovía del Sur in Colombia, which has connected wetlands and natural channels between mangroves to shorten travel distances between Tumaco and Buenaventura. Around Guayaquil, large flood control works have resulted in the destruction of mangroves and other fragile habitat.Hydroelectric dams In Colombia, dam construction sites include the Alto San Juan River; Garrapatas-Sanquiní River; Calima III (from Cauca to Calima rivers); Arrieros del Micay; Mira and Telembí rivers; and Microcentral along the Micay River. Port construction Free trade policies have encouraged construction of ports in order to connect isolated regions with the rest of the world via the Pacific. These initiatives have attracted colonists who, in turn, have negative ecological and social impact on the region. For example, Tribugá Port has created problems in Utría National Park. The Free Trade Area in Buenaventura Port also has the potential to affect a large area. Oil Pipeline construction Major pipeline construction, ongoing and proposed, threatens several ecologically sensitive terrestrial and coastal areas. The imminent construction of the Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline will bisect the Chocó-Manabi Conservation Corridor. While the direct impact of the pipeline is likely to be minimal, the long-term impacts could be significant, particularly on ecotourism in such areas as Mindo. In fact, pollution along the pipeline is already occurring. In 2001, five pipeline ruptures released over 100,000 gallons of heavy crude oil, contaminating watersheds in the corridor.Overfishing and Shrimp Farming Overfishing and shrimp farming have been major factors behind the destruction of mangroves throughout Ecuador, causing very serious social and environmental impacts as shellfish, mollusks, and timber have become scarce and as local residents have been displaced off their traditional land. Water quality as a result of poor shrimp farming practices has plummeted. Many residents have been forced to resettle in other areas or move into towns and cities, contributing further to urban growth. In Colombia, shrimp farming has caused serious changes in the trophic chain as mangroves have been removed and replaced with shrimp ponds. Such activities are concentrated in the departments of Nariño, in the wetlands of Agua Clara, and around Tumaco and Cape Manglares.In Ecuador, the northern Guandal forests have been removed, and construction of dikes for shrimp ponds downstream has caused rivers to back up and alter their flows, with environmental impact yet to be fully assessed. From 1969 to 1995, approximately 54,000 hectares (27%) of mangroves disappeared in Ecuador, concentrating along the estuaries of the Chone, Muisne, Guayas, and Cojimies. Two of these estuaries are in Esmeraldas, between the Mataje, Santiago and Cayapas rivers, where settlers depend on the mangroves for fish and lumber. Along the coast in the corridor, shrimp ponds are concentrated in the Muisne estuary, where they cover approximately 490 hectares.Mining Mining was historically the mainstay of the regional economy. The presence of Afro-American communities is the result of importation of African labor mainly for mining. Destruction of riverbanks, siltation, and contamination of rivers and streams usually accompany mining. In Colombia, mining for gold by means of dredges, drags, and backhoes in main channels and along banks has damaged rivers and displaced whole communities. This type of mining is especially concentrated along the San Juan, Tado, Ismina, Telembi, Barbacos, and Iscuande rivers, and along the banks of the Yurumangui, Cajambre, Raposo and Mayorquin. In Ecuador, the government has issued mining concessions in approximately 136,000 hectares for exploration and approximately 19,600 hectares for production. Gold concessions are concentrated in the Playa de Oro and along the Mira and Mataje rivers in Esmeraldas. Marble and other nonmetallic minerals are also extracted. Illegal Crops It is not known how extensively coca and opium poppy are grown in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. When these crops are grown, forests are converted and habitat is lost. Moreover, policing these activities is dangerous and, with the near-withdrawal of most state services from certain regions (Darién and lower Atrato River in Colombia), enforcement is not even attempted. The cultivation of these crops displaces people out of the areas where they are grown, as in the departments of Nariño, the municipality of Olaya Herrera, and along the Chaguí River, and to lesser extent in the Andean forests.Drug eradication and associated violence has displaces more than a million people in Colombia. The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) may indeed grow as Plan Colombia, the $7.5 billion coca eradication and alternative development program, is implemented. Some IDP absorption programs may be situated in municipalities in the Chocó. If not properly planned, new infrastructure and facilities may open up new habitat to colonization.Population Growth Population density and growth in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor is greater in Ecuador than in Colombia. The population of Ecuador increased from 4.4 million in 1960 to 11.5 million in 1995. Human settlements in and around Guayaquil have destroyed large tracts of wetlands. Both in Colombia and Ecuador, population growth has forced mestizos to settle protected areas, resulting in loss of biodiversity and habitat.Social Conflict Threats to biodiversity posed by social conflict are more pronounced in Colombia than in Ecuador, and involve armed groups seeking to assume political power and usurp land and other resources- including the lands supporting or buffering ethnic communities. These factions are concentrated in the areas of Tumaco, the frontier roads between Colombia and Ecuador, upper San Juan River, the territories of Eperara Siapidara, and along the rivers Saija and Satinga.These conflicts seriously affect biodiversity protection. Most state regulatory efforts are impeded, including enforcement efforts by guards and wardens, some of whom have been killed, prompting the national parks system to halt park protection services. Civilian visitors are barred from many Colombian reserves, including Katios, Paramillo, Tatamá, Farallones de Cali, and Munchique. Civil unrest has greatly affected work in the region and is a significant problem that will be a key factor in determining the pace and progress of conservation activities.Synopsis of Current Investments International donors in Colombia and Ecuador have provided a large portion of the resources directed toward conservation of the Chocó. This support has stimulated a positive response from the national governments in the form of counterpart funding and complementary actions. Certainly, without the financial and technical support of international organizations, the Governments of Colombia and Ecuador would not be in a position to address the broad range of urgent social development problems and environmental threats in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor.In Colombia, there are more than 50 conservation and resource management projects financed by donors, government, NGOs and civil society. Some of these projects have a regional scope and some are locally oriented, emphasizing participatory management of river basins, mangroves, parks, ecotourism, indigenous communities, coastal wetlands, and forests. In Ecuador, the environment has also attracted significant funding from many donors, particularly from the multilaterals and bilaterals, as well as from official, private, and NGO sources. These initiatives are focusing on coastal zone management, protected areas, sustainable development, institutional strengthening, carbon offsets, community development, and forest management. Multilateral and bilateral donors have funded a diverse range of conservation projects in the Chocó biogeographic region. Tables 3 and 4 present a selection of major multilateral and bilateral projects in the Chocó region of Colombia and Ecuador.Table 3: Multilateral and Bilateral Donors in the Chocó Biogeographic Region, Colombia
Table 5: GEF Projects in the Chocó Biogeographic Region, Ecuador
Colombia The Government of Colombia funds some 48% of environmental investments in the country, often in partnership with national and international donors and NGOs, through a number of channels, including the National Resources and National Environmental Fund; Ministry of the Environment (MMA); Special Administrative Unit of the National Parks System (UAESPNN); Regional Autonomous Corporations of Cauca, Nariño, Risaralda, and Valle del Cauca; municipalities; Environmental Research Institute of the Pacific; and universities (Cauca, Chocó Technological, Nariño, Pereira Technological, and Valle). At a national level, UAESPNN plays an important role in conservation as an agency of the MMA. Its mandate is to manage all areas protected under the national parks system (designated natural reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, flora sanctuaries, and unique natural areas). UAESPNN is responsible for coordinating environmental authorities and community organizations to develop strategies and programs that contribute to the sustainable management of resources in protected areas. At a regional level, the regional autonomous corporations play a crucial role. They enforce laws and regulations and issue permits, concessions, authorizations, and environmental licenses. The Valle del Cauca Regional Autonomous Corporation and CI - Colombia signed a five-year agreement in March 2001 to implement a joint set of conservation actions. One promising innovative financing options supports coffee farmers who integrate conservation of protected areas and habitat along the slopes of the eastern cordillera in the departments of Chocó, Risaralda, Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Nariño from Tatamá National Park to the border with Ecuador. At a local level, the mayors of municipalities represent the political and administrative authority to make environmental decisions affecting their jurisdictions. They promote and implement environmental and resource management policies. In addition, at local and regional levels, the Environmental Research Institute of the Pacific is an important actor in conservation in the Chocó. Linked to the MMA, the institute carries out scientific research and disseminates data on biological, social, and ecological conditions on the Pacific coast.Table 6: Colombian Government Projects in the Chocó Biogeographic Region
The Government of Ecuador funds environmental investment in the country through various organizations and institutions, including the MAE, Coastal Zone Management Program, Development Unit of the Northern Border Initiative (UDENOR), and municipalities and provincial councils. At the national level, the MAE is responsible for implementing environmental policies. In the last year, the MAE has gone through a major decentralization process involving the establishment of regional offices, which are organized by provinces, to play a key role in implementing regional activities. The MAE also recently prepared the Environmental and Biodiversity Strategy and, with World Bank support, implemented the Biodiversity Protection Project with resources directed to protected areas in the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. The Coastal Zone Management Program operates at the national level with IDB funding and is coordinated by the central government. Its mission is to conserve, restore, and protect coastal resources and promote sustainable resource use through participatory processes. The program operates in six "special management zones" working through local committees and seven conservation and enforcement units coordinated through the port authorities. The five-year, $266 million UDENOR project focuses social development, environmental protection, and sanitary infrastructure. The province of Esmeraldas will receive $93 million, while the province of Carchi will receive $40 million. Of the investments slated for the Chocó-Manabí Corridor, an estimated $10 million will be committed to protecting habitat.Five other programs are considered as priorities by the Government of Ecuador on the coast: Guayaquil Gulf Bioregion: Under the PATRA project in the Gilf of Guayaquil, the government promoted local control over environmental management in four sites in the provinces of Guayas, Los Rios, and El Oro.Center for Marine Biodiversity: Also funded under the PATRA project, the Center supports a database on the Gulf of Guayaquil's marine biodiversity. Institute of Urban and Regional Planning, Catholic University of Guayaquil: The institute supports the introduction of a local environmental management system in the province of Guayas and establishment of local environmental management units. National Fisheries Institute: The Fisheries Institute conducts applied research and extension on all facets of shrimp aquaculture, including the education of fish farmers on the importance of sustainable shrimp farming and capture, assistance to government authorities on setting regulations and quotas for wild shrimp harvesting, and monitoring wild shrimp stocks. Portoviejo Declaration on the Sustainable Development of Manabí: In response to concern about declining environmental quality and forest degradation, the 22 counties of Manabí signed the Portoviejo Declaration on the Sustainable Development of Manabí. Most counties are currently implementing small projects in solid waste management, assessment and mitigation of environmental impacts from industrial activities, information systems and environmental education, and forest management.In addition, the Government of Ecuador has secured GEF funds to implement its Biodiversity Strategy. Currently, a $17.1 million portfolio in GEF project is either in implementation or in negotiation. Of this amount, $3.1 million will be invested in the Chocó-Manabí corridor. These GEF investments provide an excellent opportunity for the CEPF to integrate such initiatives as dry forest conservation and Mache Chindul Forest Reserve project into the scope of this profile. At regional and local levels, municipalities and provincial councils, which were created under the country's new decentralization policies, are assuming responsibility for environmental and natural resources management, including waste management, public education, regulation of environmental quality, and preparation of environmental agendas. This decentralization process has the potential to provide local NGOs with an unprecedented opportunity to become more meaningfully engaged in the local management of their environment and natural resources.NGOs and Civil Society National and international NGOs are implementing many environmental projects in the Chocó. Their role as future partners in conservation is essential. Members of civil society who own private reserves in the corridor or who belong to private NGOs are important stakeholders who have contributed to the success of environmental initiatives (e.g., the Network of Private Forest Reserves).Colombia More than 10 years of development and conservation effort is reflected in many small- and medium-scale projects supported by national and international NGOs. Some of the most active national NGOs and civil society organizations include ECOFONDO; FES; Fundación Inguede; Fundación Natura; Fundación Proselva; Fundación Yubarta; Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos; Federación de Organizaciones de Comunidades Negras; OREWA; Organización Regional Embera; Federación Nacional de Cafeteros. International NGOs include Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.Table 7 presents a selection of major projects carried out by NGOs. Table 7: NGO Projects in the Chocó Biogeographic Region, Colombia
Some of the most active national NGOs and civil society organizations include Alianza Jatun Sacha-CDC; Centro de Investigaciones de la Biodiversidad Tropical; Coordinadora Ecuatoriana de Agroecología; Corporación de Bosques Privados del Ecuador; Corporación Río Manduriaco; EcoCiencia; Fundación Altropico; Awa Federation; Fundación Golondrinas; Fundación Maquipucuna; Fundación Natura; Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio; and the Instituto de Ecología Aplicada de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito. International NGOs include the Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Populi, Conservation International, the Nature Conservancy, World Conservation Union, BirdLife International, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Table 8 presents a selection of projects carried out by NGOs in Ecuador.Table 8: NGO Projects in the Chocó Biogeographic Region, Ecuador
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. CEPF Investment Strategy and Program Focus Over a five-year period, the CEPF investment strategy will facilitate the initial implementation phase of Vision 2010, supporting effective participation by NGOs and civil society in the conservation of biodiversity within the Chocó-Manabí Corridor. Three principles, identified during the consultation process, will guide CEPF grantmaking:
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