Co-manejo en la RPF Cuyabeno
Luis Borbor
Co-Management Between Indigenous Communities and the Government
RPF Cuyabeno
Luis Borbor
Mapa de la RPF Cuyabeno
Luis Borbor
One of the great challenges for the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve was the consolidation of its boundaries and securing management agreements with the local populations and indigenous organizations. Under the previous logic of integrating cultural variables in the national preservation process, the project “Delimitation of the lower region, conflict resolution, and awareness of the communities about the resource management and use in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve” was successfully created.
The project main goal was to preserve the biological and cultural integrity of the Reserve under a strong alliance between the MAE and the indigenous communities that inhabit and coexisted in the territory: Siona, Secoya, Cofán, Kicwa, and Shuar.
As a result, in 1995 began the process of establishing Natural Resources Use and Management Agreements with most of the communities in these five indigenous nations. Such efforts promoted local participation and the recognition of the Protected Area for shared management.
The agreements became formal documents that legitimized the communities’ right to live in the Reserve and use the natural resources within under special conditions.
- Empowering the indigenous organizations to actively participate in the protected area.
- Negotiation strategies between the indigenous organizations and the Government, in order to establish the Use and Management Agreements.
- MAE’s openness to participatory planning processes.
- Promotion of the sustainable use of natural resources within the protected area.
- Acknowledgment by the local communities of the protected area’s relevance: environmental, cultural, social, and economic importance.
The Use and Management Agreements include the following: Community Management Plans, Operational Plans and a Compliance Monitoring System. The Community Management Plans are valid for ten years and can be renewed.
The Community Management Plans were built as internal agreements by and for the community in accordance with: The regulations for natural resources use in communal spaces issued by the Reserve; The current status of use of such resources; and the rights of the indigenous communities. As a result of the previous, the boundaries of the Protected Area and the communities territories were consolidated.
Furthermore, spaces for discussion have been created in order to deal with convergent and divergent points of view that include the indigenous and governmental visions about the territory, its conservation, and sustainable management.
The co-management of the area between the MAE and indigenous organizations, achieved an important result: The ending of new settler’s arrivals to indigenous territories as well as the colonization/expansion of the local communities into the Reserve.