Project/activity information

This project envisages to strengthen and promote sustainable forest management (SFM) in Ecuador to meet ITTO’s Objective 2000 so as to ensure that all timber and timber products from Ecuador entering international trade come from sustainably managed forests.

Specifically, it intends to test, provide training in, and apply the ITTO Criteria and Indicators for the Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests at the forest management unit (FMU) level in specific natural forest areas, and implement a permanent computerized monitoring system for Criteria and Indicators (C&I) in order to assess progress towards the sustainability of management activities in selected Ecuadorian forests over time.

The project’s expected outputs can be described as follows:
- Application of ITTO’s C&I at the FMU level in 13,830 ha of Ecuadorian coastal production forests;
- 100 people from both public and private sectors trained in the application and monitoring of C&I at the FMU level and in sustainable forest management techniques;
- A C&I database developed to monitor field progress in SFM over time at selected sites; and
- The publication and wide dissemination of pamphlets and technical sheets promoting the application of C&I and SFM in Ecuador.

The Project will be implemented by the Fundacion Forestal Juan Manuel Durini with the participation of forest industries, environmental NGO’s (PROBONA), Chachi indigenous communities, central and local governments, and other technical cooperation projects in the area.