REM - Results based payments

REM Program Ecuador (REDD for Early Movers) https:prem.fias.org.ec October 2022 Quito – Ecuador

This e-booklet was made possible thanks to the initiative of the Support and Monitoring Consultant (CAS) of the REDD Early Movers Program (REM) Ecuador – Results Based Payments from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation REDD+.

We are grateful for the collaboration of the REM Ecuador program team, whose specialists and coordinators accompanied the organization and execution of the field visits in the marineterrestrial landscapes in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas and Santa Elena.

The production of this digital booklet, as well as the audiovisual and photographic production, was under the responsibility of the external consulting team with the coordination of the REM Program communication specialist.

CONTENTS

Results based payments An effective model for reducing GHG emissions

Genesis

Climate change (CC) has altered the planet. Mitigation and adaptation to climate impacts to protect people, households, businesses, livelihoods, infrastructure and natural ecosystems are the only ways humanity can cope.

Countries have undertaken actions to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, seeking to keep the increase in the planet’s average annual temperature below 2°C, a commitment of the Paris Agreement, derived from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Twenty percent of global GHG emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation. In Ecuador, these represent 25% of the country’s total emissions, however, the country’s contribution to total global emissions is marginal at 0.15% (PA REDD+ 2016, 18).

The downward trend in forest clearing in recent years and the reduction of 3.66 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2008-2014, made Ecuador one of the first countries

in the region to receive a grant from the Green Climate Fund, through the “results based payments” scheme, for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) (MAATE, 2020)

In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), as part of its efforts to address climate change and fulfill international commitments, developed the “REDD+ Action Plan 2016-2025: Forests for Good Living” (REDD+ AP), to address the causes behind deforestation and its consequent emissions (PA REDD+, 2016, 16). This plan includes the implementation of the REM Ecuador (REDD for Early Movers) program, under the results based payments scheme for the reduction of emissions from deforestation.

The resources come from German cooperation, through KfW - State Development Bank of the Federal Republic of Germany - and the Norwegian contribution, through Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative - NICFI

The focus

Marine-terrestrial landscapes, because of their great biodiversity and their dynamic and complex relationships with humans, require priority attention. Their wealth is concentrated in mangrove ecosystems, estuaries, and marshes, as well as inland tropical and subtropical forests, which together are natural carbon sinks.

The ecosystemic functionality of these landscapes is key to climate change mitigation and adaptation, but, at the same time, they are fragile natural environments that require immediate, timely and effective intervention.

In Ecuador, the marine-coastal zone extends over 29 continental coastal cantons (Plan de Ordenamiento del Espacio Marino Costero 2020, 16).

Mangrove ecosystems cover about 161,000 hectares, and are found in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Guayas, Santa Elena and El Oro (MAATE 2019).

Within the framework of REDD+, MAATE, through the REM program, has identified opportunities for the implementation of policies, plans,

programs and initiatives that, under the approach of integrated management of marine-terrestrial landscapes, facilitate the ecological transition to a sustainable production model that balances the subsistence and growth needs of its inhabitants with the conservation and regeneration of nature.

With the joint action of the State, local governments, international organizations, communities, associations, syndicates, scientists and conservation funding, progress can be made towards the ecological transition. Here we present concrete cases that demonstrate that it is possible to conserve landscapes and thrive with a stable and sustainable economy.

Strategic intervention models such as forestry extension for the transition to sustainable production systems on farms1; applied research in mariculture for knowledge transfer; cultivation of endangered species; creation of sources of employment based on the modern paradigm of the blue bioeconomy with bioenterprises, bioindustry, and plant nurseries; competitive funds and more effective governance are some of these experiences.

1In this document, the term “farm” will be used as a synonym for “parcel of land” and will refer to an agricultural property.

The landscapes and their people

The Landscapes and their people

The way we think and see reality, the way we grow and develop in our daily lives, what we are individually and collectively is determined by the natural environment.

Landscapes are those natural environments, those ecosystems that become manifest in accord with the life forms inhabiting them and which participate in social, economic, and cultural interactions with their human inhabitants. Here a web of relationships is woven that is impacted by production, governance and territory.

The natural coupling of landscapes and their people is threatened by different factors, some of them historical, such as deforestation and forest degradation, a phenomenon which forces us to think of mechanisms for acheiving both conservation and growth.

Ecuador, one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world, concentrates much of its biodiversity in 91 vegetation ecosystems, of which 24 are in the coastal region (PA REDD+ 2016).

MAATE, through the REM program, within the framework of the results based payments system, intervenes in priority areas and their communities to promote the conservation, management and restoration of ecosystems, reestablishing harmony and balance between landscapes and their people.

Landscape management

An opportunity for conservation and sustainable development

This kind of landscape management involves promoting the conservation of ecosystems, especially fragile ones, by driving forward initiatives for sustainable management and use that allow inhabitants to have opportunities for economic growth and to improve their living conditions.

Sustainable forest management seeks the restoration and recovery of vegetative cover to preserve ecosystem functions over time, such as the provision of resources, goods and services, among the latter, carbon storage.

The REM landscapes

The REM program intervenes with actions for conservation, restoration and development of sustainable production in eight provinces of Ecuador, five of which are marine-terrestrial landscapes: Esmeraldas, Manabí, Guayas, Santa Elena and El Oro.

These geographic areas were prioritized in order to achieve a significant impact on the conservation, restoration and sustainability of forest ecosystems and are key for reducing Greenhouse Gase (GHG) emissions associated with deforestation and forest degradation. At the same time these areas also have potential for increasing social and environmental benefits for the local populations.

Areas of intervention in marine-terrestrial landscapes

The prioritization of marine-terrestrial landscapes

The prioritization of landscapes for intervention is based on criteria established in the REDD+ AP and the National Conservation and Restoration Plan.

• Areas of greater deforestation

The average annual rate of deforestation in Ecuador between 2016 and 2018 was 58,429 hectares. In the marine-coastal zone, Esmeraldas Province leads deforestation with 11,233 hectares annually, followed by the provinces of Manabí with 5,248 hectares, Guayas with 3,831 hectares, El Oro with 1,113 hectares and then Santa Elena with 1,055 hectares deforested per year.

• Ecosystem connectivity

This is the potential to reconnect ecosystems that have been fragmented by anthropic land uses, connecting forest patches through the formation of vegetation bridges or corridors that can be comprised of agroforestry systems, conservation areas and vegetation protecting water resources.

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Ecosystem fragility

Marine-coastal landscapes, such as mangroves, are fragile ecosystems, especially due to anthropogenic actions (human

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activity). Nearly 5,000 hectares of mangroves were identified for restoration activities.

Prioritized areas for forest restoration

There are 2,584,905.38 hectares in national territory considered to have medium, high, and very high potentialities for viable forest restoration.

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Synergies

Synergies consider the opportunities for success in reducing deforestation in the intervention areas, due to the concurrence of several conservation initiatives that can be articulated and improve results.

• National Mangrove Conservation Plan

This plan proposes actions for the conservation, protection, recovery and sustainable use of the ecosystem, totalling some 161,000 hectares of mangroves, with the associated preservation of its ecosystemic services.

Source: REM Intervention Areas, 2020, 11.

Landscapes in numbers

The REM Ecuador program will intervene in:

Source: REM Intervention Areas, 2020, 11

Sálima, an example of landscape management

In the south of the province of Esmeraldas, stretching out over some 117 square kilometers, is Sálima, a parish with mangrove ecosystems, tropical rainforest and estuaries, whose resources and environmental services are used by 80% of its population. It is located within the Machi Chindul Ecological Reserve.

What makes Sálima so special is its youth mobilization into the Network of Ecological Clubs of Muisne Canton, which brings together 350 young people, 90% of whom are children or grandchildren of farm owners and of people who maintain mangrove use and stewardship agreements with MAATE. They carry out reforestation activities and community service work.

“The objective we have set for ourselves is conservation,” says Fausto Cruz, coordinator of the club, “Conciencia Juvenil” (“Youth Consciousness”). “With the REM program and other NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) we have been working on the issue of gardens (...), creating nurseries to grow plants and deliver them,” he says.

Nery Escobar coordinates the network and seeks to make young people part of the solution to address climate change.

This youth leader recognizes the importance of the REM program´s intervention, training them and creating opportunities for the youth to go to farms and reforest with the species grown in the nursery.

Faces in the community

Edita Cevallos

Roberto

Jordán

“Before, there was the mentality that we had to cut down all the trees to plant plantains and cacao, but through the trainings we have come to see that it is not necessary to cut everything down. Now, after having cut everything down, we are planting trees again that will be there for our children”.

At 58 years old, Edita Cevallos remembers her childhood on her parents’ farm in Chucaple, a community in the province of Esmeraldas. She recalls the two or three head of cattle they had and how they used to cut down the trees to grow crops and earn their daily sustenance.

With the trainings, her vision of farm management has changed and she recognizes that “it is possible to live conserving the forest and producing at the same time”.

“This work represents so much help for our family (...) What good is it to destroy the mangrove if that’s what we live off of, the resources that the mangrove provides”.

Since he was 16 years old, Roberto Jordán has worked harvesting fish, shellfish and crab. He travels in his own boat through this landscape composed of 90% water and mangroves. At 70 years old, he sends a message to the young people of his community to preserve the ecosystem that is a source of livelihood, especially in El Morro, a Wildlife Refuge, declared a protected area for its great biodiversity.

Don Roberto works in the DIPSIMAR project, financed by the REM program, in the macroalgae and mollusk polycultures.

Member Porteños Mangrove Cooperative

Member Chucaple Agro Artesanal Association

Sustainable landscapes: farms, cacao and toquilla straw

The Farm, integrated management for the sustainable use and care of forests

The landscape of Don Trifone Bone has no sea or mangrove, it is inland. Its wealth is in the tropical forests, trails, natural water sources and agroforestry species.

“There are many needs, perhaps more than before”, because the world is in a difficult global situation, in which small farmers “we have to produce”. This is an indisputable reality for Trifone Bone Quiñónez, a farmer who inherited from his parents the productive activity that has sustained him and his family for six decades.

However, since those times when, he recalls, trees were felled to harvest timber and make room for cattle, things have changed in Chucaple, a community of 2,000 inhabitants in the Quinindé canton, in the coastal province of Esmeraldas.

“Before, the environment was not taken into account; now we are looking for ways to improve the soil, which is life,” he says.

The intervention by MAATE, through REM Ecuador, has been decisive in changing the of vision of the 34 farmers unified in the Chucaple Agro Artisanal Association, which Bone now presides. He emphasizes that, through trainings and the delivery of 16,000 cacao plants and 3,000 plants of native species, the farmers were aided in understanding the importance of having an “integrated farm” that diversifies its crops and cares for the environment.

such as guayacán, Spanish cedar, plants that are becoming extinct in our area”.

What these farmers explain is the result of the integrated farm management plan, a tool for sustainable forest management that seeks to reduce deforestation and degradation of forest ecosystems and maintain forest remnants, through the incorporation of friendly practices that relieve pressure on ecosystems and, consequently, mitigate climate change.

Forest management

Sustainable forest management facilitates the administration, use and recovery of forest ecosystems. The incorporation of environmentally friendly practices promotes the restoration of degraded forest systems, because it involves reforestation and regeneration activities, under the principle of connectivity. Two strategic models of action are applied in this management: extension and competitive funds.

Forestry extension

Omar Luna is a forestry engineer and is part of a group of six extensionists in the REM program. His territory for forest management is Esmeraldas, a province considered a deforestation hotspot due to socio-historical conditions that made it the center of timber resource exploitation since the 1960s.

Edita Cevallos is a teacher and farm owner. She has participated in the trainings that the forestry technician from the REM program has been providing for the past 18 months. “Thanks to this, we are planting trees that we may never see, but our offspring (children) will,

This territory is home to fragile and highly fragmented ecosystems, both terra firme forests and mangroves, and is therefore a priority area for implementing conservation and restoration actions through extension. Esmeraldas Province has some 81,862.60 hectares considered high impact for forest recovery (REM 2020 intervention areas).

Forestry extension is a service model that facilitates the horizontal transfer of knowledge, with project informational sessions, training, advice and management, always considering climate change mitigation and adaptation. It fulfills a function of articulation in the territory, responding with practical solutions to the real needs of the stakeholders in the forest production chain, and which are the causes behind deforestation.

Omar Luna’s task is to create a bond with land owners to promote integrated management on their lands. He identifies the relevant stakeholders in the territory, carries out an assessment and informational sessions about the project, and jointly determines the real needs of the beneficiaries. Then comes the training, processing and elaboration of integrated management plans with long-term commitments and goals.

AreAs

of intervention 10.000 ha. Goal 50.000 ha.

The plans “seek a balance between ecological, social and environmental factors”. The conservation approach in his extension work does not mean “do not touch,” but “manage resources appropriately,” thus making possible the ecological transition to integrated landscape management, he says.

Competitive funds

Financial incentives through competitive funds for sustainable productive initiatives are another strategic line of action that contributes to integrated forest resources management.

Under the criterion of intervening in areas where the opportunities and initiatives generated have a greater probability of positive impact, the Paralelo Cero Sostenible consortium was awarded the coexecution of US$1,214,000 in 2021.

initiatives awarded

Toquilla straw handicraft producers’ associations

Toquilla straw is more than a fiber from a plant cultivated in Ecuador’s tropical areas. It has cultural, ancestral, environmental, economic and social value and toquilla straw weaving was declared an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.

When she was eight years old, Herlinda Gonzalez learned from her father how to plant the toquilla palm. “That´s when my dream of weaving awakened,” says the 63-year-old artisan, who transferred her knowledge to 16 single mothers and widows in the “Dos Mangas” community, in the coastal province of Santa Elena.

She says that the cost of a hat that takes four days to make, weaving eight hours a day, varies between 20 to 25 dollars. If the weaving is finer, the work takes up to a month.

In order to get a fair price for their products, especially justified by the effort required for making the hats, the artisans have needed their own hat blocking machine for many years. This equipment would allow them to deliver a finished product directly and command a better price, instead of sending it to Cuenca for blocking, which is what they have been doing to finish the process.

This need to improve and complete the production process led the Dos Mangas artisans to apply for the REM program’s competitive funds, which will allow them to fulfill their dream and help the artisan community access this service at lower costs.

“The greatest satisfaction they gave me is that I entered the second stage (...) having fought for so long to be able to get these machines,” she says, laughing with joy.

As a non-timber forest product, toquilla straw has allowed the inhabitants of Dos Mangas to become involved in conservation efforts. For this reason, they are part of the Forest Partner program, implemented by MAATE, which provides incentives to communities to maintain determined areas of vegetation as a conservation strategy.

Fine aroma cacao producers´association

In northern Ecuador, the Esmeraldas Union of Fine Aroma Cacao Producers’ Organizations (UOPROCAE) brings together five grassroots associations representing 453 families in the fine aroma cacao production chain.

With experience in cacao cultivation, processing, marketing and exporting, UOPROCAE has implemented agroforestry practices within the framework of sustainable resource management.

They are implementing “biological corridors” in the production areas, alternating cacao plots, bands of fruit trees and “a green belt,” explains Telmo Macías, administrator of the grassroots organization ECO CACAO. “The idea of having voluntary conservation areas has given us this plus of having sustainable cacao,” he adds.

Having obtained the competitive funds creates a greater development opportunity for the members, says Cristina Godoy, an accountant.

Guadúa bamboo producers’ association

Twelve years ago, in the community of Olón, in the northern part of Santa Elena Province, the Noble Guadúa producers’ association was created in response to the need to conserve the watersheds that provide water to Olón and other communities in the northern area.

“The bamboo (guadúa) is a sponge that enables water retention and strengthening of the watersheds. To plant bamboo is to plant water,” says Jacinto del Pezo, president of the Association.

Faced with the risk of the watersheds being affected by an increase in water demand due to the expansion of the population, the association, made up of farmers, builders and artisans, competed for the REM program funds that will be used to increase production of guadua bamboo stands by managing 46 hectares of guadúa that have not been adequately managed.

“The REM proposal has come at a decisive moment as a producers’ organization,” since the financing will improve postharvest capacity by 30% and technology will be implemented for georeferencing the producers’ farms, incorporating traceability, which will improve the value of their product in the market, concludes Godoy.

In addition, the production process will be improved with the construction of a drying chamber and a market positioning strategy for finished products will be implemented. Guadúa bamboo is used in the elaboration of handicrafts, and, because of its great strength, in construction.

The blue bioeconomy

Conservation and sustainable ocean economy

Ecuador´s megadiversity, which comprises up to 10% of the biodiversity of the entire planet, gives it great potential for the development of the blue bioeconomy, a sustainable productive alternative that values the sea’s resources.

This modern paradigm refers to all economic activity for the production of goods and services based on the sustainable use and management of the ocean’s biological resources.

The blue bioeconomy is key to the ecological transition and constitutes a strategic factor in the integrated management of coastal-marine landscapes.

Benefits of the blue bioeconomy

With the blue bioeconomy, the country opens the way to new production systems such as bioindustry and biotrade, which, in addition to providing goods and services to various economic sectors, generate sources of employment. As new value chains emerge, the blue bioeconomy satisfies other satisfies other demands and creates knowledge and innovation for a circular economy of responsible use and consumption.

The blue bioeconomy replicates the production processes that already exist in nature and uses the same biological resources that nature uses, including waste. It has the capacity for bioremediation of environmental pollution, useful in the recovery of degraded ecosystems and is a sustainable alternative for development and economic growth, free of forest emissions, thereby helping mitigate climate change.

DIPSIMAR Project: The potential of the blue bioeconomy

The project “Development and pilot implementation of mariculture systems that generate incentives for mangrove conservation - DIPSIMAR” was brought forth under the concept of the blue bioeconomy. This innovative model is promoted by MAATE, through REM Ecuador, as a tool to enhance the value of mangroves and their resources, supporting the conservation of coastal marine ecosystems and strengthening the sustainable use of their environmental goods and services.

This project consists of the development and implementation of culture systems for the production of native mollusks and macroalgae, applied in two scenarios. The first, in the open sea, with the algal species “acanthophora” (Pyropia / Prophyra), in association with two types of native oysters; and the second, with the algal species “ulva” (Ulvophyceae), in the estuary, where water conditions vary in luminosity, salinity and concentration of floating elements.

The selection of these species has to do with their market value attributable to the capacity to make use of their extracts containing bioactive components. Thus, DIPSIMAR is also oriented towards diversification with high value products, such as algae extracts to improve the germination of mangrove seeds and to combat diseases in cacao plants; and, lesser value products, such as the remaining biomass that can be used as a soil conditioner to absorb cadmium (toxic chemical element) in the cacao crop.

To make the project operational, a co-execution agreement was signed in 2020 with the Escuela Politécnica Nacional del Litoral (ESPOL/Coastal National Polytechnic School), the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) and the Sustainable Environmental Investment Fund (FIAS), for USD 1,000,000.

“The DIPSIMAR project consists of implementing cultivations on the open sea and in mangroves to find the best way to help communities have a new way to sustain themselves and, at the same time, conserve perennial organisms in the mangrove that are of commercial interest.”

The cultivation of mangrove cockle (Anadara tuberculosa), oysters (Ostrea) and macroalgae will allow “planting them, growing them and no longer depending on nature (...), they are cultivated organisms and we are not damaging the environment, we are not hunting“.

Franklin Jara Marine Biologist DIPSIMAR

DIPSIMAR, applied research for community benefi

Julia Nieto is Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at ESPOL and heads the DIPSIMAR project. Her vision, she says, is long-term mangrove conservation, “integrating the community” in the productive activities that are being developed, without affecting the ecosystem.

The impact of mariculture as a sustainable production system

Environmental benefits

• This system does not compete with the biodiversity for physical space.

• Reduces overexploitation by providing alternative production of biological resources for commercialization

• Acts as a bioremediator because it filters pollutants that come from city drainage and go to the mangroves

• Mollusks and macroalgae capture CO2 contributing to climate change mitigation.

• Facilitates recirculation and utilization of nutrients

• Bioproducts developed based on macroalgae will improve tree growth and pest control for agricultural export commodities.

Social benefits

• Generates an alternative food

• Generates new sources of employment

• Generates new income, reducing pressure on mangrove forests

• Generates knowledge in new production and industrialization processes that are shared with the communities

Economic benefits

• Contributes to the transformation of Ecuador’s productive matrix, supplying new items for export.

• Diversifies the productive sector with new products for export

Sustainable blue resources: shell and macroalgae farming

At ESPOL’s National Aquaculture and Marine Research Center (CENAIM), in the El Palmar area of Santa Elena Province, the DIPSIMAR project’s scientific research processes are being developed.

In the pools you can see the adult cockles and oysters, whose polyculture is coordinated by the specialist Carol Sangolquí. She considers that they are “noble species”, because they do not need to be given formulated feeds, rather they grow utilizing the nutrients and microalgae produced in the water. The biologist emphasizes that the cockles have the capacity to absorb nutrients and carbon, thus fulfilling environmental functions of remediation and cleaning of the water.

Meanwhile, macroalgae are a strategic blue product for food security and nutrition, due to their high content of nutrients such as iron, calcium, iodine, potassium and vitamins. In addition, their future in bioindustry in pharmaceuticals, fertilizers and cosmetics is projected to be significant. According to FAO, in 2016, 31 million tons were harvested globally (FAO 2018, 58).

Scientific research for sustainable mariculture.

Stanislaus Sonnenholzner, director of CENAIM, highlights the potential of scientific research processes for prospecting aquatic resources and their properties, something that has been little explored in Ecuador due to lack of resources. This is why REM funding for CENAIM is so important. “REM provides the financing for the diversity of resources needed for the research and we contribute with our technical contingent for the production of these organisms that will be offered to the communities”, he says.

Bioproducts, bioindustry, biocommerce

Both bioindustry and biocommerce are strategic in the transformation of Ecuador’s productive matrix. DIPSIMAR works in scientific research to produce bioproducts, identifying the bioactive properties of mangrove resources such as macroalgae.

“We are trying to evaluate the potential of these extracts in cacao to see if they produce growth enhancement in cacao plants, if they help in the germination of mangrove seeds and in the activity against cacao pathogens,” explains Paúl Guillén, DIPSIMAR Project chemical analysis researcher

Julio Bonilla, a researcher in the area of molecular biology at ESPOL, clarifies that bioproducts, being of biological origin, have a low impact on nature, unlike an ordinary fertilizer. They are also being used to improve the propagation of mangrove species, which are in danger of extinction.

Blue reactivation for communities

Shapers of the Future

In Puerto El Morro, located within the protected area of the El Morro Mangrove Wildlife Refuge, Julio Morales works as part of the DIPSIMAR project.

After the COVID-19 pandemic left him without his source of employment, the legal representative of the Artisanal Fishermen’s Association “Shapers of the Future”, learned about the job opportunity that the project was offering to community members.

The job would be to monitor the shells being cultivated in the estuary, which is located inside the refuge, to maintain the baskets, clean the sediment and measure the shells every 15 days to verify their growth.

“We had gone through a pandemic, we had no work and it was an opportunity to have an economic resource (...) With the experience I have in terms of tides (...) I was favored,” he says.

“We were unaware of this system (of shell cultivation) and it has produced results, and the community of Puerto El Morro now knows that there is a project here and in the future it will be implemented with all the organizations”, he says.

Together, members of the association visit the shells when they go out to monitor the area as part of their obligations in the use and custody agreement they have with MAATE on 1,838 hectares of mangrove. Their association unites 35 families that benefit from community participation in the conservation and sustainable use of the blue resources.

Conservation of marine-terrestrial ecosystems

There is a natural spectacle that unfolds along the estuaries, where fresh water from the rivers and salt water from the sea meet to give way to the protagonists of the landscape: the mangroves.

Like long-legged dancers, the aerial roots of the mangrove tree entangle and grasp the swampy sediment and then rise majestically upwards.

Mangroves constitute ecological systems rich in biodiversity, with very important environmental, social, economic and cultural value, which makes this type of forest a strategic resource recognized by the State. However, despite efforts, mangroves are fragile and threatened ecosystems.

The value of mangroves: ecosystem goods and services

• Their roots are home to species of crustaceans, fish, mollusks and multitudinous microscopic organisms. They are a refuge for aquatic fauna and a resting place for birds such as frigate birds and pelicans that nest in their canopies.

• Their great productive value can only be measured by the local inhabitants, whose source of livelihood is the use of resources with a high commercial value such as crabs, oysters, shrimp and mangrove cockle.

• They act as a protective barrier for coastal areas, reducing the impact of natural phenomena such as waves and the change of tides.

•SThey are purifiers and improve water quality because they retain metals and contaminants.

• They act against climate change because of their potential to capture CO2 and store it in their trunks, branches and roots.

The mangrove, an arboreal species

The mangrove is a coastal marine ecosystem in which six species of mangrove trees stand out; all are considered arboreal, woody and bushy plants, with high tolerance to salinity. Their height varies between 3 and 12 meters, although in the northern zone, in Esmeraldas, it exceeds 25 meters in height and can reach 50 and 60 meters (MAATE 2012, 64).

In Ecuador, mangroves are found in the estuaries and mouths of rivers in the coastal provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Guayas, Santa Elena and El Oro.

Mangroves cover a surface area of 161,835 hectares along the Ecuadorian shoreline (MAATE, 2020).

Teodoro Reyes

”I am a crab collector, with the product that our mangrove gives us, I have been able to bring home my daily bread. Now, we don’t allow anyone to cut down the mangrove, we try to take care of it.

We don’t mind, because we are already advanced (in age), but our children are coming, a new generation is coming and they can have a livelihood in the same mangrove

That is what we are doing, taking care of the mangrove, because it is our source of work”.

Nueva Esperanza Association of Artisanal Fishermen and Crab Collectors Sabana Grande

The threatened mangrove. Red alerts

The mangrove is a fragile ecosystem because of intensive human use; however, its greatest threat has been the expansion of shrimp farms. Its forests are cut down over large areas in order to set up shrimp ponds.

Mangrove deforestation has been taking place for a long time. MAATE data quantify the loss of mangrove forest, between 1969 and 2006, at 56,117 hectares, or 28% of the total (MAATE 2017, 14).

Although other red alerts that put this ecosystem at risk are urban, touristic, port and livestock activities, there are alternatives for these sectors to implement sustainable management without affecting resources and optimizing sources of income.

Olmedo Zamora

Crab collector-Sabana Grande

Covered from head to toe, perhaps to avoid the cloud of mosquitoes characteristic of the area or to avoid contact between his skin and the mangrove sediment, Olmedo Zamora appears among the trees. He exhales, puts his hands on his hips, leaves the 12 crabs he collected on the ground and gives us his attention.

All we can see is his tired face, with its skin cracked by the sun and more than 60 years in the elements. He says that since he was 14, he has been catching crab, because it is the activity he learned from his family, there, in Sabana Grande, a fishing port in the coastal province of Guayas.

We asked him about mangrove protection and he affirms: “We have to conserve the mangrove, of course we do, if there is no mangrove there is no crab”. Then he tells us that “the mangrove is being damaged all over” because “the shrimp farms have affected it a lot”. The chemicals they use reach the shore and the fish die, he says.

The mangrove: Priority management for a fragile ecosystem

Ecuador’s mangrove ecosystems are located in two regions: Equatorial Chocó Mangrove, in the northern region, occupying areas in the provinces of Esmeraldas and northern Manabí; and Jama-Zapotillo Mangrove, in the southern region, occuring in the provinces of Guayas, southern Manabí and El Oro.

Among these two regions, 7,440 hectares have been identified for forest restoration actions. Of these, 2,990 hectares have a high and very high priority, which makes them significant on the map of coastal marine landscapes, where the REM Ecuador program intervenes.

Chocó Mangroves 22,961 hectares of mangrove forest 102,055 inhabitants 0.49 hectares per person suitable for forest restoration Jama - Zapotillo Mangroves: 134,133.21 hectares of mangrove forest 2,614 hectares suitable for forest restoration Source: REM Intervention Areas, 2020

Equatorial

Biodiversity is a strategic resource of the Ecuadorian State, within which the mangrove, according to domestic legislation, is a good that cannot be traded, nor is it susceptible to possession or appropriation. Its only form of exploitation is through concession.

began in 2000 as the only legal instrument

concessions for the sustainable use and exploitation of mangrove resources. An agreement lasts 10 years and can be renewed. It is granted to communities and productive associations that then become custodians under a commitment to use and protect this ecosystem. Among the custodian´s obligations are the presentation of a management plan, which must be approved by the environmental authority, the submission of semi annual reports on the progress of their management plan and compliance with the closed seasons and catch sizes of the resources.

Mangrove custody in the hands of the community

REM’s contribution to the effectiveness of Mangrove Use and Custody Agreements

We feel supported by the authorities, we feel that they are helping us”.For Gary Espinoza it has not been easy to lead the 140 members of the Nueva Esperanza Association of Artisanal Fishermen and Crab Collectors, in Sabana Grande, Guayas Province. Despite this, he feels satisfied contributing to the community with his work. “Tomorrow there will be another generation, we must show the way for the youth more than anything else”.

The association has a use and custody agreement for 2,560 hectares of mangrove forest in Sabana Grande. They were also able to access the Mangrove Partner program, and as part of the integrated management of their landscapes, they have put in operation a mangrove seedling nursery to contribute to the regeneration process.

“We are motivated by mangrove conservation, it is a beautiful experience, because we did not know about the mangrove seed, but they are teaching us how to harvest the seed (...) the protection of the mangrove is vital for the association,” says Espinoza and he thanks the collaboration of MAATE and the REM program.

Xavier Carchi is an extensionist for coastal marine areas. His career as a biologist has allowed him to support the community of Sabana Grande with advice for mangrove cultivation and in the elaboration of reports for submission to the environmental authority.

“That is what extension is focused on, capacity building (...) for the benefit of the social organizations”. He says that the objectives of

the bioenterprise are “to restore degraded areas of the mangrove ecosystem (...) and to have a productive alternative since it is possible, through green trade, to sell green mangrove propagule seedlings to shrimp companies that have a social responsibility program”.

La Quela, an experience in mangrove sustainability

In the coastal province of El Oro, in the canton of Huaquillas, the “15 de Enero” Crab Collectors Association has a Mangrove Use and Custody Agreement and is one of the winners of the REM Ecuador program’s competitive funds.

The financing will enable one of its grassroots organizations, “La Quela,” which extracts and markets crab meat, to build a largerscale processing plant that will bring together the family units that operate separately and enable them to obtain certification from the national health authority. This will allow more partners to join the value chain for the benefit of the families and the community.

Mangrove Partner Program, a commitment to conservation

In addition to

and custody agreements promoted as part of public environmental management policies, there is an

program implemented by MAATE, called Mangrove Partner. It consists of paying the communities for the conservation of a certain number of hectares in these wetlands. The mechanism is part of the larger Forest Partner program, a forest governance policy. To

Blue Carbon, mangrove restoration and measurement of its carbon pools

Mangroves and blue carbon

An effective model for conservation and restoration against climate change.

When looking at the impressive landscape displayed by mangroves in an endless number of cinematographic frames combining the magnificence of the sea with the spectacular nature of mangrove structures, few will know that these very roots, trunks, canopies and soil constitute a sink for the most critical greenhouse gas (GHG) for climate change: carbon dioxide or CO2.

This storage capacity makes mangroves blue carbon ecosystems.

Their carbon stocks could remain intact for hundreds and thousands of years, experts say, but if their forests are lost or degraded, CO2 will return to the environment.

Global alert on GHG emissions

The United Nations notes that GHGs in the Earth’s atmosphere have increased to levels not seen in three million years.

Carbon dioxide or CO2 is the most prevalent, accounting for two thirds of all GHGs in the atmosphere. Its accumulation is responsible, among other things, for the increase in global temperature and the rise in sea level, phenomena that cannot be reversed.

20% of global GHG emissions come from deforestation and forest degradation.

Ecuador is marginal in the generation of total emissions to the atmosphere, nonetheless, it has demonstrated its willingness to fight against global climate change, reduce GHGs and conserve and increase carbon stocks.

Recovering blue carbon ecosystems

More than 13,000 hectares of mangrove forest have been recovered in Ecuador (MAATE 2017, 14).

“All forests are characterized by sequestering carbon in their tissues, but in mangrove systems, a very beneficial ecosystem for the planet, it has been proven that carbon sequestration is more prolific than in other types of forests,” says Fabián Gálvez, research technician for the DIPSIMAR project.

In his laboratory, the scientist conducts trials with bioprocessed formulas that could enhance the growth of mangrove seeds, which have been collected from the estuaries, with the aim of promoting propagation of the species.

The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), by being a tree that grows in the midst of salinity, emits low levels of methane in its soil, which enhances its ability to capture carbon (El Comercio 2015). In addition to this ecosystemic function of the mangrove, there is the rich biodiversity of species such as mollusks and algae that generate the same environmental benefits.

All this potential makes mangrove forests an effective ally in the fight against climate change.

Blue carbon mapping in mangroves

It is estimated that each hectare of mangrove forest in Ecuador stores 86.63 tons of carbon.

This measurement was obtained through the results of MAATE´s First National Forest Assessment 2009 - 2013.

The carbon pools measured and comprising this figure include aboveground biomass, roots, litter and fallen wood; however, the carbon contained in the soil was not taken into account. Satellite images and strata maps were used, with georeferencing technology.

The preparation of the carbon map was an important achievement and paved the way for Ecuador to be able to enter the REDD+ strategy´s payment for results scheme.

It is time for restoration

An active community for the blue carbon ecosystem

“In workshops we have had, it was heard that these mangrove plants also help in the retention of these Greenhouse Gases, as they call them”, that was a point in favor of reforesting.”

This motivated Victor Morocho, administrator of the Porteños Mangrove Fishermen’s Cooperative, and 42 members of the organization, to implement a nursery for the reproduction of mangrove plants and thereby assist the recovery of the ecosystem from which they sustain themselves.

On Puna Island, in the coastal province of Guayas, they maintain 807 hectares of forest that they manage under a Use and Custody Agreement and that they also conserve as part of the Mangrove Partner program. There, they reforested one hectare with the first 1,000 mangrove plants that they produced.

“We got involved in the process of acquiring the Use and Custody Agreement for two reasons: firstly, it was the shrimp farms that were cutting down the ecosystem, the mangrove and the pollution, and secondly, because they were taking the the mangrove cockle too small; collectors came from Machala, Peru and took it, whether it was big or small”.

Aware that it is time to restore, they work in the nursery that today has 5,000 red and white mangrove plants. This bioenterprise allows them to sell plants to shrimp companies that need their products in order to fulfill obligatory reforestation activities. Morocho assures that, with this income, they will build their headquarters.

The Porteños Mangrove Cooperative is also participating in the DIPSIMAR project to develop cockle and macroalgae polyculture systems, as well as bioproducts, that will benefit the community.

Mapa elaborado por el MAATE.

Forest governance in marine-terrestrial landscapes

“Take it up to 60 meters!

Look down at the bar in the altitude control (…) Bring it down a meter!

No fear, no fear! You already know.”

These are the instructions that Juan Carlos Vargas is heard giving during a practical field training on flying drones to a group of park rangers from the El Morro Mangrove Wildlife Refuge. He has also provided trainings in other protected areas.

As a specialist in the REM deforestation monitoring program for Guayaquil, Santa Elena and El Oro, Vargas tries to provide security to the park rangers, who, together with the custodians from the Porteños Mangrove Cooperative, are learning how to use this equipment, which will improve their capacity to monitor and control use of the ecosystem.

Juan Romero, a park ranger at the refuge, says that the work they carry out controlling use of the area has improved thanks to these trainings, both from learning how to make maps as well as from the use of drones. “I think it is a super important tool, because it allows us to reach places that sometimes we, because of the dense vegetation, cannot reach or places where there is a bit of conflict, because it tends to be a somewhat dangerous area,” he says.

Training in the use of technology such as drones, navigation equipment (GPS), geographic information systems, updating of forestry regulations and public policies, and the generation of information, among other aspects, are some of the actions with which the REM program contributes

to strengthening MAATE’s institutional framework for its task of forest governance.

These contributions make the situation operable so that the authority can exercise governance of the National Forest Heritage, with efficiency and quality, giving it legitimacy and sustainability.

El Morro, effective governance for biodiversity protection

In El Morro, located in the province of Guayas, 3,500 hectares of mangrove spread out within the total land area of 35,373 hectares that make up the protected refuge. It is home to four types of mangrove trees, 120 species of birds and six species of mammals such as the bottlenose dolphin, an emblematic species and one of the main tourist attractions of the place.

This refuge underwent intensive deforestation in past decades, due to the massive installation of shrimp farms in the surrounding area.

With the declaration as a protected area and the regulation of shrimp farms, this mangrove zone is in the process of recovery.

Enforcement of legal use, monitoring, surveillance, follow-up and investigation are essential for the conservation of this ecosystem and its biodiversity.

Lines of action for forest governance

The three lines of action in which the REM program contributes in order to strengthen MAATE´s management of forest governance are: the National Forest Monitoring System, enforcement of forest regulations and follow up on deforestation.

National Forest Monitoring System

Área alterada 18 95 ha

The National Forest Monitoring System provides important information on the status of the country´s forests for decisionmaking about their conservation and sustainable forest management.

Through its three components: geographic, biophysical and information analysis, the National Forest Monitoring System identifies changes in vegetation cover through satellite monitoring of deforestation and early warnings that detect illegal forest cutting in almost real time

The REM program supports the operability of this system by providing supplies and technical knowledge to the MAATE forest monitoring team in order to improve and optimize its processes for generating geographic information. This contributes to the fulfillment of the commitments taken on by Ecuador in the results based payments scheme.

National Forest Assessment

The National Forest Assessment is carried out every five years, through a monitoring that inventories and records vegetative cover, with information and statistics obtained in the field. This information is analyzed with databases to establish the amount of forested area in the country.

Unidades de muestreo forestal ENF II Forest sample plots

Species, in number and type, dimensions, physiognomic characteristics and carbon pools are determined, as well as these forest´s ecosystem services in relation to maintaining water sources, soil functions and protecting biodiversity.

Forest Monitoring, Follow up and Investigation of Deforestation

In the Guayas Zonal Directorate, REM program specialist Juan Carlos Vargas works with the MAATE team in the collection and monitoring of information on deforestation events. His knowledge in the management and use of technology complements the regulatory actions of the environmental authority.

Jorge Pesántez, ministry specialist in marine-coastal management, is the delegate to accompany the REM technician in the follow up work, after the complaints or alerts are received and prioritized. Their work “strengthens what the Ministry of Environment does on a daily basis”, says Pesántez and clarifies that “what we take advantage of with this project is that we make tree cutting visible”, through satellite alerts and the use of the drone.

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ESCALA

Red Hídrica Cantón Guayaqui Bosque Natura

SIMBOLOGÍA

The official explains that reports of deforestation can come from the ministry, through the review of satellite alerts by the Forestry Directorate, or can be received through the office, physically or verbally, “by the users of either the mangrove or dry forest”.

For Dolores Soto, a MAATE official in Guayas, the contribution of the REM specialist is of “vital importance”. She says that with the drone it is possible to “deal with complaints with greater agility”, have more accessibility to the areas where the offenses are observed and improve the quality of the reports so that “they have a better argument when identifying an offender and can lead to a sanctioning process”.

In this way, the participation of the REM program technician strengthens the ministry’s management, making deforestation control and monitoring processes more efficient and saving resources, time, physical effort and conflict.

The community, an ally in participatory governance

The Porteños Mangrove Association’s surveillance and control of the use of the mangrove forest in the area concessioned for the group´s use and custody has been participatory and collaborative with the authorities, says its president, Jorge Tircio.

“We carry out a surveillance check up every week and two check ups during the closed season. There are 56 check ups that we have to carry out annually”, as part of their commitments in the Mangrove Use and Custody Agreement and the Mangrove Partner program, confirms the leader. His association receives USD 12,226 as an incentive for conserving this ecosystem, funds which must be applied to fulfilling the management plan.

In addition, the association must submit a report to MAATE every six months, which is prepared with the information obtained during the preventive surveillance trips. “One person goes as a pilot, another taking coordinates, another taking notes” and with that information the day’s logbook gets filled out, comments Tircio. If any anomaly is identified, the fishermen report it to the local environmental authority.

Juan Romero is a park ranger for the El Morro Mangrove Wildlife Refuge and confirms that the “community is an important pillar in enforcement (...), because they work inside the mangrove and they are like our eyes”. “When they see any type of infraction they inform us immediately, they give us the location of where the infraction is being committed and then we go to the point and begin proceedings”.

Óscar Vásconez

El Morro Mangrove Wildlife Refuge Administrator

As a local authority, he recognizes the socioeconomic importance of the protected area as a source of income for the inhabitants involved in fisheries, especially for crab, cockles, mussels, oysters, and white fishing.

The monitoring they carry out is participatory and horizontal, emphasizes Vásconez. “We try to talk with the associations so that they comply with the bans on size and seasonal closures, the issue of catching specimens correctly, and not using illegal methods such traps or bottom gillnets,” he says.

They also carry out “participatory monitoring”. After harvesting, the fishermen come to the offices where the product is checked and measured to verify if it complies with legal parameters.

Vásconez admits that in his management it is important to be “always in contact, always in synergy” with the community, because that way we conserve the mangrove ecosystem and the resources, he says.

The Vision: Ecological transition towards integrated landscape management

The vision

When we refer to a vision, we inevitably establish a distance, a time and a path to reach that end which we have in our sights.

Arriving to the year 2050 with a zero-emissions sustainable development model in Ecuador is an ambitious, challenging, but necessary goal.

The journey down Ecuador’s road to ecological transition, led by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, has begun with a firm step, but there is undoubtedly a long way to go.

Through the REM program, MAATE’s vision is to drive forward initiatives that seek to reduce forest emissions, maintain and increase carbon stocks, with sustainable management of the National Forest Heritage, within the framework of the fight against climate change.

In this vision of transition, integrated landscape management is present, because it is an effective model that addresses the causes of deforestation, implements productive conservation, enables the restoration of ecosystems and the maintenance of carbon stocks, and actively integrates communities in the responsible management of landscape resources.

MAATE, through the REM program and other actions, contributes to the country’s strategy of moving towards sustainable production systems to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and their associated emissions, impacting on the root cause of this critical environmental phenomenon.

Integrated management, a process

Applying this approach involves prioritizing areas of intervention in accordance with their potential for positive impact; identifying stakeholders and their importance in territorial management, creating bonds with communities and their coming together on common objectives, promoting associativity.

The process continues with the identification of the real needs or underlying conflicts that drive deforestation, which are addressed jointly and in a timely manner, either through training or institutional management.

Another significant factor is the articulation of stakeholders, establishing the functions and roles they will fulfill, and providing training to enhance their technical knowledge.

Thus, the road to integrated resource management is traveled in a collaborative manner and in pursuit of the collective good.

Integrated management of forest resources and its impact

Mitigation and adaptation to climate change demand creative strategies with an integrated approach. The progress made in the blue bioeconomy, for example, is a step in the right direction, because it has yielded concrete results in the cultivation of cockles, oysters and macroalgae, and because the community is involved in the pilot phase and will benefit in the following stages.

These are deforestation-free, sustainable production systems, which allow the recovery of coastal ecosystems, relieve pressure on marine resources and mangrove ecosystems, and provide populations with new sources of food and livelihoods.

The farm integrated management plan is another example of mitigation and adaptation to climate change where plantations such as cocoa, which have

historically driven the expansion of the agricultural frontier, are no longer monocultures, but have diversified. The road to integrated farm management includes training agricultural producers who acquire new knowledge about sustainable practices, while at the same time exchanging their skills and ancestral knowledge.

Conservation of tropical forest areas through the Forest Partner program, implementation of agroforestry practices and processing that add value to products for commercialization and export, demonstrate that the communities and associations have a long-term visión, creating businesses for a new productive matrix that not only allows them to subsist but also to grow and flourish.

The farmers’ and artisans’ organizations that, through the use, management and processing of guadúa bamboo and toquilla straw, seek to conserve water sources and forest remnants, reflect the change in the thought matrix that is fundamental for progress in the transitioning. They also show a clear vision of the opportunities for collective growth that they have through organizing.

In this way, integrated landscape management impacts the associative capacity of the communities and places attention on the presence of women and youth as key elements for productive conservation.

The opportunity that the rainforest custodians have seen in mangrove conservation, not only for guaranteeing the provision of fish resources and other species, but also for starting mangrove nursery business lines as an economic alternative, is an example of this new thought matrix.

Follow-up, monitoring and assessment are part of participatory governance and cannot be extracted from the integrated approach.

As has been seen in the examples, the sum of the wills of the states, international organizations, cooperating partners, civil society and academia-scientists, to exercise concrete collective actions such as financing and management, is vital to achieve the transition with an integrated vision and an effective governance of forests and conservation of the country’s heritage.

Rafael Chiadó Head of Natural Resources of the Santa Elena Prefecture

“The result of working in conservation as a prefecture and together with the Ministry of Environment has been the approval of the Provincial System of Conservation and Sustainable Use Areas, with 30,000 hectares and the goal is to reach 112,400 hectares.

The concurrence of all training initiatives within the framework of conservation serves to strengthen it (...).

Human society has needs (...) that have to do with the forest, so using this resource without causing a negative impact but rather tending to improve it, giving it an economic type outlet is a challenge and training has this objective.

The funds (from the REM program) fit perfectly with the ACUS strategy (Conservation and Sustainable Use Areas), impact the goals that we have (...) and help so that the ecosystem we are intervening in can conserve its environmental values and biodiversity and utility values”.

List of references

El Comercio. 2015. Los manglares son un pilar en la lucha contra el CO2. Accedido el 8 de septiembre: https://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/manglares-co2cambioclimatico-ecuador-deforestacion.html

FAO. 2018. El estado mundial de la pesca y acuacultura 2018. Cumplir los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible. Roma.

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2020. Ecuador consigue 185 millones de dólares para el cuidado de sus bosques. Accedido 10 de septiembre: https://www.ambiente.gob.ec/ecuador-consigue-185-millones-de-dolares-para-el-cuidado-de-sus-bosques/

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2021. 2900 hectáreas de manglar se suman al programa Socio Bosque. Accedido 8 de septiembre: https:// www.ambiente.gob.ec/2-900-hectareas-de-manglar-se-suman-al-programa-socio-bosque/

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2019. Ecuador presenta Plan de Acción para conservar 161 mil hectáreas de manglar. Accedido 10 de julio: https://www.ambiente.gob.ec/ecuador-presenta-plan-de-accion-para-conservar-161-mil-hectareas-de-manglar/

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2017. Guía de derechos y deberes de las organizaciones custodias del manglar. Guayaquil, Ecuador.

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2016. Bosques para el Buen Vivir Plan de Acción REDD+ Ecuador 2016-2025. Quito, Ecuador.

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2013. Proyecto Evaluación Nacional Forestal (ENF) – Sistematización de la experiencia. Quito, Ecuador.

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). 2012. Proyecto Evaluación Nacional Forestal - Manual de Campo Manglares y Moretales. Quito, Ecuador.

MAATE (Ministerio de Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica). Evaluación Nacional Forestal 2009-2013. Accedido 9 de septiembre: http://enf.ambiente.gob.ec/web_ enf/?page_id=696

Organización de las Naciones Unidas. Cambio Climático. S. f. https://www.un.org/es/global-issues/climate-change

Secretaría Técnica Planifica Ecuador. 2020. Plan de Ordenamiento del Espacio Marino Costero 2017-2030. Versión Resumida. Quito, Ecuador.

Programa REM Ecuador REDD FOR EARLY MOVERS. 2021. https://issuu.com/gestionagency/docs/remecuador_brochure-vale

Programa REM (REDD for Early Movers) Ecuador. 2021. Informe de Gestión.

Programa REM (REDD for Early Movers) Ecuador. 2020. Áreas Potenciales de Intervención del Programa REM a Nivel Nacional.

External consulting team

Gabriela Molina

Fernando Cabrera