Incentive Agreement: Coastal Conservation in Ecuador

Location

Ecuador, South America

Description

This case study was presented in June 2008 at the workshop, A Private Sector Approach – Conservation Agreements in Support of Marine Protection. The information below is a short abstract of the case study. A complete case study will be posted on the toolkit prior to October 2008.

Conservation International has developed a programmatic approach to private conservation using incentive agreements. Conservation incentive agreements hold potential to protect a wide variety of terrestrial and marine habitats, ranging from vast tracts of Amazonian rain forest to coral reefs in the South Pacific. Under a conservation incentive agreement, national authorities, communities, or individual resource owners agree to protect natural ecosystems in exchange for a steady stream of structured compensation from conservationists or other investors. In its simplest form, a conservation incentive agreement might be modeled after a timber concession, whereby a logging company pays the government for the right to extract timber from an area of public forestland. Rather than log the concession area, the conservation investor would pay the government for the right to preserve the forest intact. A conservation incentive agreement thus presents an alternative opportunity for countries to capitalize on vast tracks of forest or other areas of high conservation value. With ultimate objectives that include long-term protection of biodiversity and economic development, this mechanism offers an alternative that conservationists, development agencies, governments, and local communities alike can support. This case study will illustrate how conservation agreements between institutions and fishing communities are being used along Ecuador’s northwestern coast to help establish marine reserves.1

Contact Information

Patricia Zurita, Senior Director Conservation Stewards Program
Conservation International
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22202
Tel: 703-341-2400
E-mail: p.zurita@conservation.org

See Also