ECUADOR

Despite its small size, Ecuador is the eighth most biodiverse country in the world. There are more than 20,000 species of plants, over 1,500 species of birds, more than 840 species of reptiles and 341 species of mammals. Nearly 40% of the land area is forested, 44% of which is primary forest.

Ecuador's ecosystems are under extreme pressure. The country has the highest deforestation rate (at nearly 2% annually and rising) and the worst environmental record in South America. Forest destruction has been caused mainly by oil exploration, logging and road building. In the west of the country, logging has resulted in the loss of 99% of the rainforest in the region. Historically, after an area has been selectively logged and abandoned, settlers move in along the logging road and burn the surrounding areas for agriculture and cattle grazing.

The impact of oil exploitation in eastern Ecuador is well documented as a result of a 15-year long $6 billion lawsuit filed against Texaco in the US on behalf of 30,000 forest dwellers. Texaco (now owned by Chevron) admitted dumping more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste water and crude oil into Ecuador's Amazon waterways between 1964 and 1990, causing serious environmental damage and major health problems for local communities. Amazon Watch estimates that Texaco damaged 2.5 million acres of rainforest. Chevron is potentially facing a $27 billion liability, and has unsuccessfully sought to have the case dismissed in the courts. The case is still (as of March 2009) ongoing. The story has been made into a film called Crude.

Illegal logging is a significant problem in Ecuador, and has resulted in fatal clashes between loggers and indigenous communities, even in areas that are supposedly under some form of protection. A lack of resources means that enforcement is patchy.

However, on a more positive note, Ecuador has very recently approved a new constitution which is being described as the worlds first 'eco-constitution'. It extends 'inalienable rights to nature' in a 'Nature's Bill of Rights' which includes 'the right to an integral restoration' and the right to be free from 'exploitation' and 'harmful environmental consequences'.

Ecuador is also a member of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) which has developed criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management and a platform for dialogue between national forestry authorities, and is examining the potential for digital surveying of the regions vegetation cover. ACTO believes that the REDD mechanism provides an opportunity for Amazon countries to design policies to rectify environmental degradation.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
01/12/2012	Atlas of Pressures and Threats to Indigenous Lands in the Brazilian Amazon This report presents a complementary and integrated view of different forms of intervention in the Amazon ...	Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG)
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01/10/2012	Annual Report Card 2011 Making the Forest Sector Transparent is a four-year programme supporting civil society groups in forest-rich ...	Global Witness
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01/12/2010	Chainsaw Milling: Supplier to Local Markets Chainsaw milling, the on-site conversion of logs into lumber using chainsaws, is supplying a large proportion ...	ETFRN (European Tropical Forest Research Network)
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25/05/2006	Status of Tropical Forest Management 2005 Is forest management improving in the tropics? This report sets out to answer that question. It provides ...	ITTO
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10/04/2006	Guidelines for formulating and implementing national action plans to combat illegal logging and other forest crime Many of the governments and stakeholders involved with the ENA FLEG process have indicated that they ...	World Bank
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01/12/2005	Best Practices for Improving Law Compliance in the Forestry Sector: FAO Forestry Paper 145 This report looks at some of the innovative approaches being used by governments to combat illegal logging. ...	FAO
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
29/01/2013	NASA data registers strong deforestation signals in Sumatra, Borneo, Brazil, Gabon NASA satellites picked up signals of extensive potential deforestation in Sumatra, Borneo, Central Africa, ...	Mongabay.com
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31/12/2012	The year in rainforests 2012 was another year of mixed news for the world's tropical forests. This is a look at some of ...	Mongabay.com
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06/12/2012	Deforestation rate falls across Amazon rainforest countries The average annual rate of deforestation across Amazon rainforest countries dropped sharply in the second ...	Mongabay.com
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22/10/2012	Ecuador says companies join novel Amazon protection fund About a dozen companies are contributing to a novel conservation plan that pays Ecuador to protect part ...	Planet Ark (Reuters)
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06/09/2012	Guess who's chopping down the Amazon now? Though Brazil's Amazon has been the focus of environmental groups for decades, the deforestation ...	NPR (National Public Radio), Washington, US
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31/08/2012	Amazon forest threat is greater outside Brazil In Ascencion, Bolivia — On a scorching afternoon in the Amazon, all Agustin Villa and his partner ...	The Washington Post, US
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14/05/2012	Representatives of the Amazon countries participate in the Monitoring Project Steering Committee The first meeting of Steering Committee of Project “Monitoring Deforestation, Land Use and Land ...	ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation)
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17/03/2012	Drilling for oil in Eden: initiative to save Amazon rainforest in Ecuador is uncertain Quito, Ecuador— The most biologically diverse habitat in the western hemisphere, the Yasuní ...	Scientific American blog
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16/02/2012	ACTO countries explore possible cooperation to combat illegal timber harvesting The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) held a workshop on the control of illegal harvesting ...	IISD Biodiversity Update
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09/01/2012	Peruvian gangs traffic timber from Brazil Peruvian groups carry out illegal logging in Brazil before transporting the wood along tributaries of ...	InSight Crime, US / Colombia
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27/11/2011	8 Amazon countries pledge more coordination in rainforest conservation Eight Amazon countries pledged greater cooperation in efforts to protect the world's largest rainforest ...	Mongabay.com
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22/11/2011	Amazon countries vow to enhance conservation efforts Manaus, Brazil — Eight South American countries pledged Tuesday to boost cooperation to protect ...	AFP
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02/10/2011	Ecuador has one of Latin America’s highest deforestation rates Quito – Ecuador has one of the highest deforestation rates in Latin America, with an annual loss ...	Latin American Herald Tribune
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15/07/2011	Indigenous conservation strategy stops Amazon deforestation The Fundación para la Sobrevivencia del Pueblo Cofán (FSC) and its US-based branch The ...	PRWeb
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31/03/2011	GEF is greening the cocoa industry in Ecuador Washington, DC - Cocoa producers in Ecuador will be able to improve their production while contributing ...	GEF
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16/02/2011	Chevron's dirty fight in Ecuador The giant oil corporation has been fined $8.6bn for an environmental disaster that has been called 'the ...	The Independent, UK
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19/04/2010	Ross Kemp: Reluctant eco-warrior Ross Kemp is not an environmentalist. He says so right at the start of his new documentary Ross Kemp: ...	Guardian, UK
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02/11/2009	Five nations sign up to UN initiative to tackle deforestation Five countries today joined the United Nations initiative aimed at combating climate change by creating ...	UN News Centre
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16/10/2009	S. American bishops take stand in rain forest crunch Lima, Peru - Ever since the Spanish conquistadors set off across the Andes in search of El Dorado, outsiders ...	Western Catholic Reporter, Canada
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11/08/2009	10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world Hopefully it comes as no great surprise to you that deforestation is a major problem in many areas of ...	Tree Hugger
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17/07/2009	Ecuador battling illegal loggers from neighboring Peru Qiuto - The Ecuadorian Environment Ministry announced Thursday that officials, troops and police dismantled ...	Latin American Herald Tribune
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13/07/2009	Loggers arrested after invading uncontacted tribes' land Eighteen illegal loggers have been arrested on land inhabited by uncontacted Indians in Ecuador, according ...	Survival International
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22/04/2009	Indigenous people serve as guardians of forest carbon, must be involved in climate solutions Efforts to create an international climate framework - including a carbon financing mechanism for forest ...	Mongabay.com
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19/02/2009	Amazon rainforest in big trouble, says UN Economic development could doom the Amazon warns a comprehensive new report from the United Nations Environment ...	Mongabay.com
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12/02/2009	Payments for eco services could save the Amazon Paying for the ecological services provided by the Amazon rainforest could be the key to saving it, reports ...	Mongabay.com
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05/05/2008	Spearing, Beheadings Reported in Ecuador National Park Ecuador - An illegal logger has been speared to death by Amazon natives in Ecuador's Yasun National ...	National Geographic (USA)
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15/02/2008	Ecuador probes 'attack on tribe' ...	BBC News
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25/07/2007	Ecuador: Indigenous peoples close to extinction because of illegal logging On 27 April 2007, following a visit to the Amazon region, the President of the Republic, Mr. Rafael Correa ...	World Rainforest Movement (Uruguay)
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12/01/2007	Ecuador bars oil extraction, logging from indigenous zone Quito - To protect indigenous groups who voluntarily isolate themselves from the modern world, the Ecuadorian ...	Environmental News Service
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20/11/2003	Ecuador Maps 20-Year Plan to Slow Deforestation Ecuador, which lost more of its forest cover than any other nation in South America in the 1990s, is ...	Planet Ark
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
28/01/2011	Critical issues in Ecuador's forest sector and implications for the national REDD+ strategy	Sigrid Vásconez, Grupo Faro
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27/01/2011	FLEGTability: catalysing initiatives to control and verify the origin of timber in support of the FLEGT Action Plan in South American countries	Ulrich Malessa, TRAFFIC South America / Martha Lucy Mondragon, WWF Colombia
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18/11/2010	Ecuador's approach to governance for implementing a REDD+ mechanism	Daniela Carrión, Ministry of Environment of Ecuador
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17/01/2008	Forest Law Application Initiative - ALFA	Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (Carlos Aragon)
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21/07/2006	VERIFOR Update: Phase One Review and VERIFOR in Latin America	ODI (David Brown and Hans Thiel)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Wednesday 20th June 2012	ACTO Member Countries Vision of Amazon Forests. Monitoring Deforestation This official Rio+20 side event is organised by ACTO (Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation). ACTO ...
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LINKS

TITLE	DESCRIPTION	REPORT
RainFor - the Amazon Forest Inventory Network	The Amazon Forest Inventory Network is an international network that has been established to understand the biomass and dynamics of Amazonian forests. Since 2000 we have established a systematic framework for long-term monitoring of this region, which holds more biodiversity, water, and vegetation carbon, than any other region of the planet. RAINFOR has worked step-by-step, including partners across the nations of Amazon, taking account of the potentially strong modulating role of environmental variables like soil nutrition, and the need to help develop a new generation of Amazon ecologists. RAINFOR is curently supported by the Andes and Amazon Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.	Broken link
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