Promoting the bioeconomy and protecting the environment

Context

Thanks to its species diversity and biodiversity, Ecuador is referred to as a megadiverse country. The country is increasingly relying on its biological diversity and nature reserves as a strategic economic factor with great potential. Based on this, the Governments of Ecuador and Germany have agreed to implement the Protection and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources programme to support Ecuador’s environmental policy.

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment lacks suitable instruments to make meaningful use of biodiversity products in the long term. This includes, for example, methods for determining fish stocks in protected areas so that effective fishing quotas can be defined. There is also insufficient social discourse on expanding the bioeconomy as an alternative to the way this issue has been handled up to now. The Ministry of Environment has not yet positioned itself sufficiently as a driver of environmentally-friendly and climate-friendly economic policy.

Objective

Ecuador’s national bioeconomic policy has been introduced.

Approach

The programme consists of four components:

1. Strengthening the administration of protected areas,
2. Establishing value chains for the bioeconomy,
3. Improving territorial and marine planning,
4. Supporting the Ministry of Environment in its role as driver of the bioeconomy.

The programme is being implemented in cooperation with GITEC (IGIP Consulting Group) and the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF Ecuador). Moreover, the project is financing further projects targeting, for example, environmental education, support for the bioeconomy, the protection of sea turtles and the monitoring of fish stocks. The aim here is primarily to support the local population in the protected areas and also in the surrounding regions.

The programme is being implemented in five provinces between the Amazon and the coast.

Last update: September 2021