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APÉNDICE/APPENDIX 6
ranchers, concentrated around a few small towns. In 1993, the
regional population of people (2,441) was only slightly higher
than the regional population of cattle (2,000), resulting in a
human population density of roughly one and a half people per
square kilometer. Population has risen rapidly since then, partly
in response to the newly available land along the Interoceanic
Highway and partly in the form of increased Colombian
immigration due to Plan Colombia.
The data also draw a dark picture of a region where
basic amenities are often unavailable. Access to education,
health care, clean water, electricity, and telephone service is
uniformly poor, while the lack of adequate police and military
protection means that living conditions close to the Colombian
border and the nearby civil war are precarious. The majority of
the residents in the region live by subsistence agriculture and
dairy farming. Major crops in the higher elevations are corn and
potatoes; at lower elevations these are replaced by beans,
manioc, bananas, and other crops typical of the warm tropics.
Fuentes and Aguirre (2001) estimate the amount of forest
converted to date to these activities at roughly 15% of the
landscape but increasing rapidly due to the increased access of
the new highway.
An important contribution of the socioeconomic report
is an inventory of all past and current development projects in
the region, a profile of active governmental and non-governmental
groups, and a list of environmental impacts in the region. The
authors also present a catalog of land tenure and use that shows
what sort of colonization is taking place, and which land is
claimed by whom. It is this kind of patient accumulation of detail
on local political conditions that will lay the groundwork for a
successful extension of the Cayambe-Coca’s boundaries.
RECOMMENDATIONS
On the basis of the biological and socioeconomic data gathered
in the field, the authors recommend that the majority of the
area be afforded protected area status. They stress that doing so
successfully will require careful coordination with local inhabitants
and sensible management and zonification. Working from
their geographical database of vegetation, land tenure, and land
use, they suggest that 77% of the buffer zone be set aside as a
protected area to preserve a diversity of intact natural communities
and add to the effectiveness of the Cayambe-Coca Ecological
Reserve to the south.
The remaining 23% of the region’s territory, mostly in
the vicinity of La Sofía and La Bonita and along the Interoceanic
Highway, would be a buffer zone for the new (or newly extended)
protected area. Roughly half of this buffer zone corresponds to
areas already cleared for fields and pastures, while the other half
covers areas along the highway that are in the process of being
colonized or are very likely to be colonized in the near future. In
these areas residents would be free to continue small-scale agriculture
and ranching, though with some additional assistance to
improve quality of life and environmental sustainability.
Fuentes and Aguirre (2001) weigh a variety of
alternatives for the proposed protected area and conclude by
recommending the establishment of a “Bosque Protector.” Their
choice is framed by practical and political concerns. The authors
admit that a northwards extension of the Cayambe-Coca Ecological
Reserve would provide stronger legal protection to the region’s
natural communities, but worry that it would be unpopular
among the local residents and would further tax the reserve’s
already overworked administration. We believe that these
important concerns can be overcome. The first concern points to
the important caveat that any extension should not come as a
surprise to local inhabitants, but as part of a collaborative process
that respects their long-term occupation of the area. The second
is related to the first, in that the degree to which the new area
will burden the administration of the ecological reserve depends
on the degree to which local residents themselves can assume or
assist management of the new protected area. Fuentes and
Aguirre (2001) propose that a large part of the area be managed
by the municipality of La Bonita. We strongly agree that this sort
of local control—balanced by effective agreements with the
Ministry of the Environment—will be necessary for long-term
conservation success in the area.
RAPID BIOLOGICAL INVENTORIES INFORME/REPORT NO.3