Business Case Initiative

Business Case in Sucumbios and Orellana, Ecuador

As a consortium partner, Conservation International (CI) Ecuador, leads the Business Case activities in Sucumbios and Orellana (Northern Amazon landscape), to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable development in areas with high biodiversity through a joint work with the private sector, governments, indigenous communities, and local stakeholders.

About Sucumbios and Orellana

Geography

The Sucumbios and Orellana provinces in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon extend across more than 3.1M ha.

In this target landscape, there are several protected natural environments: (1) nationally protected areas (234,809.17 ha), (2) protected forests (55,040.96 ha), and (3) private properties that have conservation agreements through Socio Bosque (64,757.83 ha).

Diversity

The Sucumbios and Orellana landscape is rich in biodiversity. It is home to jaguars (Panthera onca) and includes the buffer zones of the Limoncocha Biological Reserve, Sumaco Napo-Galeras National Park, Yasuní National Park, and Cuyabeno Fauna Production Reserve.

Indigenous lands in this landscape have extensive forest cover and have been guarded for generations by the Kichwa, Siona, Secoya, Shuar, Waorani, and Cofán Indigenous peoples.

The Business Case

Within this region, the Business Case is working within a direct intervention area of 848,067 ha in four municipalities, Joya de Los Sachas, Shushufindi, Orellana, and Cuyabeno, including 23 parishes.

Other areas include natural environments without conservation mechanisms (261,418.5 ha) and multiple-use landscapes covering an area of 240,149.25 ha (towns, agricultural and livestock production areas), including oil palm crops (33,891.52 ha). 

Irrecoverable Carbon Areas

The landscape also has significant carbon stocks, including areas of “irrecoverable carbon” mainly in the Yasuni Natural Park and Cuyabeno Fauna Production Reserve.

Irrecoverable carbon areas are those which, if lost, could not be recovered on a timescale fast enough to address the climate emergency.

Activities

ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

The Business Case has taken significant steps strengthening the national multi-stakeholder platform for sustainable and deforestation free production, hosting the first two provincial deforestation-free dialogues, advancing in creating a palm oil working group and promoting a deforestation free value chain. As a result,  producers are receiving a price premium for forest conservation and for adopting good productive practices. Additionally, the initiative has leveraged growing engagement of palm producers in the vision of a future where palm and conservation go hand in hand. 

Management Plan

o A mapping of high conservation values in the area, establishes a vision and management objectives, and proposes a zoning for this area.
o A management model envisioning a collaborative governance model between GAD Shushufindi, DANEC, with the support of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE); as outlined in the Ordinance that conforms the conservation area. CI will have an advisory role and the civil sector is to be involved and support the long-term management of the area.
o An Interpretative Plan for the educational area that proposes an area for the sensibilization of the importance and impact of the preservation of this area and a cultural rescue of local, native palms of the area.
o LandScale baseline assessment, for evaluating the landscape’s sustainability, was validated with local stakeholders, providing the landscape diagnosis and proposed indicators. The baseline responds to the four pillars of sustainable landscapes: ecosystems, human well-being, governance, and production in the North Amazon landscape.
o Financial mechanism under design for transferring funds to the North Amazon landscape, to promote sustainable production and forest conservation.
o CI developed a review of the Jurisdictional Approach Stepwise Approach Progress Assessment for Ecuador for submission to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for revision and approval as the initial step toward certification.
o CI supported the approval of the Sustainable and Deforestation-Free Palm Oil Production Action Plan, elaborated by the national multi-stakeholder table, of the Inter-institutional Committee for Sustainable Palm Oil (CISPS), a multi-stakeholder platform in Ecuador led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE).

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