Clarification and Unification

Abstract

The Condor Bioreserve (CBR) in central Ecuador is a management construct of Fundación Antisana, The Nature Conservancy, and other participant organizations. CBR is a collection of four federally recognized, protected areas. Two of these, the Antisana and Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserves, are currently salient to major management initiatives of the CBR. The Ecological Reserves were established in the 1970s on the basic precepts of ecological and biological conservation. Since this time, economic and political factors have contributed to a shift in priority for the Reserves to one of water production. These extra local factors have also been complicit in fracturing the administrative structure of the CBR-the financial, legal and managerial authorities, for the Reserves are all separate and distinct. Recommendations for future management of the CBR are (1) continuation of cooperative work with internal and buffer zone communities, (2) augmentation of extension efforts in the eastern (Oriente) fringe of the Reserves, (3) formal recognition of water production as a priority, and its integration into CBR goals, (4) shift in focus from only the infrastructural aspect of providing water to the supply and demand aspects of the natural resource service, and (5) push toward unifying the major functional components of the CBR structure, which includes the promotion of better communication among Reserve participants.

Key Words:

• Condor Bioreserve
• watershed management
• decentralization
• protected area management