Ecuador

In Ecuador roughly 20 % of the country's land is subject to nature conservation. Yet this protection is not always guaranteed as required because it sometimes conflicts with oil production. Valuable virgin forest is cleared and each year 1 % of the total forested area is lost. However, the country's new constitution includes the basic principle that nature shall be considered a separate subject with its own rights.

The government now wants to boost the protection of these parts of the country with a "Strategic Plan for the National System of Protected Areas" (SNAP: Spanish abbreviation). This is designed to help preserve biodiversity and natural resources. KfW Development Bank is supporting these plans of the government and is involved in funding both the protected areas and their infrastructure (such as refuges for example). Furthermore, it is funding compensation payments for forest owners whose areas have been placed under nature conservation. Most of these forest owners are indigenous people and use the money to implement development projects in their communities in relation to health care and education for example.

In Ecuador, the municipalities, local authorities and provincial governments are to receive more powers. KfW Development Bank is supporting the decentralisation of the country by strengthening municipal self-governance together with the state-owned development bank Banco del Estado. This means that communities are increasingly taking on the responsibility for providing citizens with the infrastructure and services they need on a sustainable basis in the areas of water supply as well as waste water and waste disposal. This project is being implemented in 18 medium-sized cities in Ecuador, which receive low-interest credit from the Banco del Estado if they can present a convincing investment plan. What is important is that such plans are developed democratically with the people who will be affected: this is the only way to ensure that what is actually needed will in fact be built.