The community reforestation program in Ecuador was setup in collabora­tion with the Ecuadorian government and farming communities. The objective of the project was to mitigate climate change and to provide natural resources to local communities and land owners, afforestation of degraded páramo grasslands. Since the start of the program in 1994 approximately 19.000 hectares has been planted up until 2006. The afforestation activities have proven to be succesful and form a future source of income for local communities and land-owners.

The landowners have a say in species selection and preferred planting of non-indigenous pine and eucalypt species. To help the program to comply with sustainability criteria and to explore the potential of indigenous species, in 1996 the research program Ecopar was initiated in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and local organisations. Ecopar has developed to become a leading research organisation active in the Andes. Since the end of the Ecopar program indigenous species have been planted under the program.

The project has obtained an FSC group certificate for sustain­able forest management. The current status of the program is that all planting activities are finalised and that the forests are currently being managed by the communities and land-owners. First rounds of pruning and thinning are taking place. Face the Future provides support to existing projects with beneficiaries in the Sierra. This focuses on the improvement of management proce­dures and the management of a large number of projects. As it is a participatory program, the land­owners and Indian communities do most of the field work themselves while Face the Future provides the planting material and technical assistance. Face the Future and PROFAFOR  also contribute with all the certification costs, they give training to land owners on the management of the plantations, it has setup a monitoring scheme to determine the performance of the plantations, and organize every six months meetings with all the landowners to provide them with technical, political and commercial information.

KEY FACTS:

Location: Sierra, Ecuadorean Andes
Project type: Afforestation
Biome:Grassland
Hecatares: 19.000
Total emission reductions: na
Status: Implemented
Standard: FSC
Verifier: SGS
Crediting period: na
Methodoligy: na
Developer: Profafor - Face the Future
Project participant: Ministry of Environment, Local communities & Land ownwers

Watch this video about one of the 150 project sites in Ecuador. Indigineous trees planted, not sequester carbon, but also provide a water supply function to the city of Ibarra.

More information on this project is provided on www.profafor.com.