FY14 Semi-Annual Progress Report: USAID Sustainable Forests and Coasts Project

The project focused on reducing loss and/or alteration of critical habitats, climate change, lack of economic alternatives, and insufficient institutional capacity for biodiversity conservation. To achieve this, the project built local capacity to manage Protected Areas, implemented climate change adaptation measures, and managed integrated farms. The project's implementation strategy continued to focus on four main threats to biodiversity conservation in four priority sites along the coast of Ecuador. The project trained 4,838 people, promoted 22 new commercial linkages, and helped communities and families access over $11.6M in cash-for-conservation payments for protecting 51,978 hectares. As a result of project technical assistance, over 16,225 people are benefiting economically and over 744,000 hectares of critical habitats are under improved management. The project strengthened five conservation coalitions that serve as platforms for coordinating natural resource management with local public and private sector, and has leveraged over $17.9 million. Notable achievements this reporting period include the participation of USAID Sustainable Forests and Coasts Protected Area Expert, Richard Vaca, in the VI National Protected Area Conference in Montevideo, where he shared the project's experiences developing operational plans for 12 protected areas throughout Ecuador. The project also supported developing the Annual Operational Plan for the Protected Area Unit of the Ministry of Environment's National Biodiversity Office, as well as proposals for a new institutional structure, a plan for adapting their current structure, and a protocol for planning, monitoring, and evaluation within their unit. Based on the Manual for Protected Area Operational Management, the project developed 13 more operational plans for various protected areas in Ecuador. The project's work plan for FY14 was focused on achieving the following intermediate results: improving management of critical terrestrial and coastal marine habitats, establishing and implementing climate change response and adaptation measures, promoting developing productive activities and economic incentives linked to conserving critical habitats, and strengthening protected area management. The project's performance against its FY14 targets established in the Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP) has met or exceeded in all cases. The project's implementation strategy has been successful in building local capacity to manage Protected Areas, implementing climate change adaptation measures, and managing integrated farms. The project has also promoted market access for products that support conservation, improved livelihoods, and worked in close partnership with the Ministry of Environment (MAE) to provide technical inputs for managing protected forests and developing related policies.