Private conservation agreements support climate action: Ecuador’s Socio Bosque programme

This policy brief describes Ecuador's Socio Bosque programme, a voluntary incentive-based scheme managed by the Ministry of Environment (MAE) that provides annual payments to private and communal landholders to maintain forest cover and alleviate rural poverty.

• The Socio Bosque programme provides annual per-hectare monetary payments to private and communal landholders, including indigenous groups, in exchange for maintaining forest cover. While not initially designed for climate mitigation, it has become a pillar of the Ministry of Environment's (MAE) national REDD+ strategy due to its potential to reduce deforestation.
• After three years of operation, the programme has signed 1,474 agreements with individuals and 92 with communities, covering 881,933 hectares and benefiting 90,255 people, with a total cumulative investment of US$14.4 million.
• The programme's design prioritizes areas based on three criteria: poverty levels, importance for biodiversity habitat, water provision services, and carbon storage, and the threat of deforestation. To ensure social equity, payment levels are determined solely by the size of the area under contract rather than the opportunity costs of alternative land uses.
• Conservation agreements last for 20 years and are automatically renewed unless the landholder opts out. A critical requirement for participation is that applicants must hold legal title to the land, a condition intended to prevent 'land grabs' by wealthy individuals, although it excludes many poor rural and indigenous people who lack formal titles.
• Participants must submit investment plans for their payments, with the programme encouraging spending on infrastructure, health care, and education. For individual participants with properties over 20 hectares, the payment scale starts at $30 per hectare per year for the first 50 hectares, decreasing to $20 for the next 50, and $10 for the following 400.
• The programme faces several challenges, including the high cost and difficulty of monitoring due to cloud interference in satellite imagery and the large number of small land areas. Additionally, critics argue that the lack of consultation with indigenous communities during design and the use of quantitative success metrics have led to some payments reaching wealthier landowners.
• Initially funded entirely by the Government of Ecuador, the programme is seeking to diversify its funding. Potential sources include international REDD+ payments, international cooperation funds, voluntary contributions from companies, new green taxes, and payments from industry as conditions for extractive licenses, which could eventually cover 40% of the budget.

APA

Fehse, J. (2012). Private conservation agreements support climate action: Ecuador’s Socio Bosque programme. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ecuador-InsideStory__WEB2.pdf

Chicago

Fehse, Jan. Private conservation agreements support climate action: Ecuador’s Socio Bosque programme. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2012. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ecuador-InsideStory__WEB2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Fehse |first1=Jan |title=Private conservation agreements support climate action: Ecuador’s Socio Bosque programme |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=September 2012 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ecuador-InsideStory__WEB2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fehse2012private, author = {Fehse, Jan}, title = {{Private conservation agreements support climate action: Ecuador’s Socio Bosque programme}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2012}, month = sep, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ecuador-InsideStory__WEB2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }