Abstract
Ecuador belongs to the group of 17 megadiverse countries on the planet, and the Ecuadorian national system of protected areas covers around 20% of the country’s territory. Despite some initiatives for protected areas management effectiveness evaluation, the information on this matter is scarce and a general overview is missing. In this context, this study aims at investigating problems faced by National Parks in Ecuador and developing a base level management effectiveness evaluation for possible comparative assessments in the future. Focusing on all 12 legally established National Parks, this study used the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT), an internationally consecrated methodology based on a scorecard questionnaire that includes six elements of management cycle: context, planning, inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. The questionnaire was applied to Ecuadorian National Parks management teams through face-to-face interviews. The resulted overall management effectiveness indices are between 40.6% and 99.0%. The general condition of biodiversity value was considered as good in line with the legal status and National Parks design but topics related to budget allocation, tourism arrangements, communities and indigenous people received lower scores. The low enforcement emphasis is not necessarily the best way to improve management effectiveness; the identified issues should be addressed by including communities and indigenous people in the decision making and benefits sharing as well as strategic allocation of budgetary resources, with proper adaptation to Natural Parks’ specific conditions.
Highlights
It has been widely recognized that protected area (PA) establishment and management constitute the backbone of biodiversity conservation [1]
The assessments were implemented by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), but, in the last decade, increasingly, the assessments have been implemented by local PAs agencies and authorities [25] as a consequence of increasing authority preoccupation and reflecting the requirements for countries to report to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on Aichi
This research provides a baseline for evaluating the management effectiveness of the Ecuadorian National Parks (NPs) network
Summary
It has been widely recognized that protected area (PA) establishment and management constitute the backbone of biodiversity conservation [1]. Increasing efforts and resources have been invested in establishing PAs, the most widely implemented conservation action [2]. PA establishment is not sufficient for addressing the complex direct and indirect anthropogenic threats to biodiversity [4]. PAs need to be effectively managed for achieving the intended biodiversity conservation objectives, it being recognized that management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) is essential [5]. Understood as the assessment of how well a PA is being managed—primarily the extent to which it is protecting values and achieving goals and objectives [6]—MEE has been a continuous preoccupation for both scientists and practitioners.
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