Tropical Native Species Reforestation Information Clearinghouse (TRIC)
Resource Details
Fondo de Agua de Quito - Quito's Water Fund
Project: Project - Nonprofit Project - GovernmentAffiliations
The Nature Conservancy, Quito, Ecuador
Fondo de Agua - Quito, Ecuador
Link(s)
See related articles:
Wunder & Alban 2004, Benitez 2010, Goldmen-Brenner 2012, and Kauffman 2013.
Description
Many restoration projects in the tropical Andes are based on payments for watershed services, such as the water fund of Quito, Ecuador, FONAG. This program uses a city water tax in order to fund conservation and reforestation activities in the upstream areas such as Pifo, Papallacta, and Oyacachi, which supply drinking water to Quito.
The success of the Quito program has encouraged other programs in the region including Loja and Cuenca in Ecuador and Cali, Medellin, and Bogota of Colombia. The Quito program has been operating since 2000 and reports to have reforested approximately 2,000 ha of land, primarily in the last few years.
In Quito, as well as Cuenca, Ecuador and Bogota, Colombia, much of the target watershed areas lie in high altitude páramo ecosystem; much of the Quito program uses passive restoration and restores native vegetation by removing cattle grazing.
The Nature Conservancy is a key promoter of these water funds, often with collaboration of local government, NGOs, and water utilities. Other cities in the region have picked up on the success of the Quito program and began their own watershed funds in the past few years.
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