ECUADOR’S CHOCO ANDEAN CORRIDOR: A LANDSCAPE APPROACH FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT by REBECA MARIA JUSTICIA (Under the Direction of C. Ronald Carroll) ABSTRACT This dissertation describes the history of establishment of the Chocó Andean Corridor of Northwest Ecuador, elaborates on a systematic process of prioritization of conservation areas, illustrates how ambitious plans are being implemented on the ground and, along the way, addresses such difficult issues as integrating research, conservation, funding, development and political agendas. The general aim is to advance the understanding of the key elements essential for successful Neotropical forest conservation; the specific goal is to provide baseline studies that can be used to formulate conservation and land-use management policy related to the development of the Chocó Andean corridor. To encompass the geographic magnitude and thematic complexity of my object of study, I use an embedded case study methodology. An ecoregional approach reconciles the protection of biodiversity beyond the boundaries of the established National System of Protected Areas (SNAP) with the human needs of community development and economic alternatives to deforestation and may well present the best future conservation scenario. Protected areas alone do not serve well the two main objectives of biodiversity conservation—representation and permanency. Economic pressure drives deforestation, and viable alternatives to deforestation must be implemented. Reforestation with the native bamboo (Guadua angustifolia) and management of wild stands of this bamboo are described as a novel tool to integrate biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and climate change mitigation. Other key findings are that well organized human communities are the best partners for conservation; land tenure security is essential for conservation; conservation projects that also invest in productive infrastructure are the most successful; novel policy tools, such as carbon trading that could provide economic incentives for conservation, should be pursued; economies of scale must be reached to successfully market and commercialize the products and services of conservation; and finally, monitoring of conservation success should be planned from the onset and should be scientifically sound and participatory. INDEX WORDS: Tropics, Conservation, Corridor, Biodiversity, Eco-regional conservation, Maquipucuna, Chocó Andean Corridor, Climate Change, Clean Development Mechanism, Carbon trading, Deforestation, Prioritization, Land use change, Bamboo, Guadua angustifolia, Ecuador, Ecotourism, Coffee, Cacao, Sustainable development, NGO ECUADOR’S CHOCO ANDEAN CORRIDOR: A LANDSCAPE APPROACH FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT by REBECA MARIA JUSTICIA B.S., University of California at Davis, 1988 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2007 © 2007 Rebeca Maria Justicia All Rights Reserved ECUADOR’S CHOCO ANDEAN CORRIDOR: A LANDSCAPE APPROACH FOR CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT by REBECA MARIA JUSTICIA Major Professor: C. Ronald Carroll Committee: David C. Coleman Laurie Fowler Ted Gragson Carl Jordan Catherine Pringle Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2007 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation the memory of my father, Fernando Justicia, and my children Isabel and David. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Nothing worthwhile is ever done quickly or without the help of many. I undertook the huge challenge of leading the establishment of a Conservation Corridor half the size of the country of Belgium as the basis for my dissertation. As the result of the work of these years, the Chocó Andean Corridor is in the international and national conservation agendas, but obviously, only a very small part of the process could be reflected in this dissertation. This has been a long and atypical Ph.D. journey that required especially strong internal strength and inspiration. For that, I thank my late father Fernando Justicia. He believed in my potential and always encouraged me to aim high. My mother Rebeca Carvajal instilled in me a special love and sense of responsibility for Ecuador and its rural people. That responsibility led me to discover the need for ecological research and its connections with conservation and improved livelihoods for rural people in Ecuador—and what is more important, to do something about it. To Isabel and David—two beautiful, intelligent, and understanding children who give meaning to everything I do— I hope this dissertation helps you make sense of and explains what has kept us so busy over the past years. I am very fortunate to have my husband Rodrigo as a partner in many facets of my life and thank him for all his support through the writing period and for his endless enthusiasm and optimism that led us to venture in rainforest conservation and which led me to a Ph.D. in Ecology. Balancing research, raising children, and managing a cross-cultural team and project collaborators in various countries, required a lot of help, understanding, and patience from colleagues, family and friends. I would like to thank my advisor Ron Carroll and his wife Carol Hoffman for believing and making us feel that the conservation work we do at Maquipucuna is important, and for the endless insights, support, and friendship you have provided over these years. Over these years, the friendship of Mark Williams and Anne Shenk has been special. Also, working with Anne Shenk, the director of the environmental education components of both the World Bank grant and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, was a pleasure besides the fact that I have learnt so much from her. Anne’s support v facilitated the creation of two unique environmental education programs, the Young Naturalist in Ecuador, and the bi-national Our Shared Forest program between Ecuador and Georgia. I also like to thank each one of my committee members; from whom I learnt so much. From Carl Jordan, I learnt the principles of working with nature and carbon cycling in the tropical forest. I like to thank Ted Gragson for introducing me to Panarchy theory and providing important insights about stakeholder involvement and participation. Panarchy theory provides the right intellectual framework to research and understand human and ecological processes going on in the Chocó Andean Corridor at different spatial and temporal scales. Laurie Fowler, gave me great ideas about how to go about analyzing the “Trade of Use Agreements” that although I did not manage to incorporate into this dissertation, I will do further analysis into its feasibility as a policy instrument in the future. I am also grateful to Dave Coleman from whom I learnt about soil Ecology. Thanks to Cathy Pringle I understood how stream monitoring programs work in Costa Rica. I am thankful to Gabriela Arcos and Steve Maber, the task managers of the World Bank grant, for their open mind, respect and understanding of the work we were doing. Very special recognition deserves the great work that David Gornall, Guanglong Tian, Lindsay Hagamen, Juan Carlos Unda, and Kristen Ardani did in separate projects orientated to learn more about the carbon ecology of Guadua angustifolia. Your work was fundamental to build the database needed to define the feasibility of using the giant bamboo, Guadua, as a sustainable alternative in the Corridor. I would like to thank Niall O’Dea and Rua Stob for your bird research in support of the Corridor. I appreciate Bob Cooper’s help with statistics and his support for the bird-monitoring program. Thelma Richardson and Jeremy Sanderlin are appreciated for their computer help. Patsy Pittman also deserves my recognition, as she was always ready to help me. My gratitude is immense to my family and friends who helped me so much to balance my personal life, to have a life. My sister María de los Angeles home-schooled my children for more than half a year while we ventured into jumpstarting the GEF-World Bank grant for the Chocó Andean Corridor, and then to her and Omar for keeping them in their home in Isla Margarita during a summer. My brother Fernando always motivated me to move ahead. My mother-in-law, Melvita was both vi generous and supportive in every sense. My sister in law, Ana Lucia’s thoughtfulness and generosity freed me from my administration duties at Fundación Maquipucuna, and that enabled me to dedicate time to this dissertation. Ana Lucia and Maria Luisa talked Bea into volunteering at Maquipucuna, paid her airfare from Spain to Ecuador as well as a stipend for a year. Bea, my gratitude with you too is enormous as with great responsibility you undertook many of my administration duties at Maquipucuna while I wrote this dissertation. Ana Cecilia, Catalina, Diego, Guido y Julie were always there to help our family when we needed them. Ana Cristina and Eduardo deserve special gratitude for their friendship and concern for the well-being of our family. My colleagues at Fundación Maquipucuna were always ready to answer questions or to help with fieldwork. Special thanks to Bernardo, he helped with plant identification and provided any fieldwork support required, and Wilmer for his help with map production. Jose Antonio, Arcenio and Marquiño, and various other people from Yunguilla and Sta. Marianita helped in fieldwork. My gratitude is with Mariel for organizing successfully the Month of the Migrant. Thanks to Cristina and Rene for the information about NGOs. Very special credit deserves the generous help I received from Nate Nibbelink, from Forestry. I also like to thank Maggie Nettles from the River Basin Center for her support with editing. I would like to recognize the generosity of Dr. David Neill from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Dr. Renato Valencia from the Universidad Católica, and Dr. Robert Rhode for sharing the plant databases from Ecuador, endemic species and the plant lists of the Maquipucuna Reserve. I am grateful to Sandra Loor and Neill O’Dea for sharing bird data from the Chocó Andean Region.