Good practice

Ecuador Socio Bosque Conservation Programme

Ecuador · Quito · See the Ecuador profile

Ecuador's national PES since 2008 pays landowners and indigenous communities US$30–60/ha/yr to conserve 1.6M+ ha of native forest and páramo, cutting annual deforestation from 77,000 to 44,000 ha and benefiting 175,000 people.

US$30-60 /ha/yr

Tasa de pago

1.6M+ ha

Bosque nativo y páramo conservados

77,000 to 44,000 ha

Deforestación anual

175,000

Personas beneficiadas

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAAE)
Period: 2008-present
Keywords: Forest, carbon, biodiversity, watershed

Context

El programa nacional Socio Bosque de Ecuador paga, desde 2008, a propietarios y comunidades indígenas US$30-60/ha/año para conservar bosque nativo y páramo.

Results

Conserva más de 1,6M ha, redujo la deforestación anual de 77.000 a 44.000 ha y beneficia a 175.000 personas.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-20
Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAAE) — accessed 2026-06-20
UNDP: Ecuador receives USD 18.5M for deforestation reduction — accessed 2026-06-20
Cambridge study: Forest conservation incentives and deforestation in Ecuador — accessed 2026-06-20

Quality score: 60/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 16% in this catalogue (335 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Carbon — sequestration / storage, evidenced2/3

Deforestation fell from 77,000 to 44,000 ha/yr 2008–2016 per UNDP data, implying substantial avoided emissions, but the programme is not independently MRV'd to a certified tCO2e figure.

Biodiversity — conservation / improvement, evidenced2/3

Protects Chocó cloud forest, Amazon and páramo — Ecuador's most biodiverse ecosystems — documented by UNDP and Conservation International, but species-level monitoring data are not published.

Water & soil — retention, infiltration, erosion control2/3

Andean watershed headwater protection is an explicit programme co-benefit cited by UNDP and MAAE, but quantified hydrological outputs have not been independently measured.

Fire resilience — risk reduction, evidenced1/3

Maintained canopy cover reduces ignition risk in formerly at-risk areas, but fire-risk reduction is not a primary objective or monitored outcome of Socio Bosque.

Governance, certification & transferability2/3

20-year contracts under national legislation, administered by MAAE with satellite monitoring; Ecuador received GCF payment for verified deforestation results, but no independent carbon registry exists.

Cite this

Evidoria. Ecuador Socio Bosque Conservation Programme. Persistent ID: 32d3037c-8941-4ecd-bc35-c7b8ec9179e7.

Export as decision brief (PDF)

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