Silvopastoral Practices and the Condor Bioreserve,Ecuador

Abstract

The Condor Bioreserve initiative has the potential to serve as a model of integrated watershed management for developing countries. Within the region, landowners and settlers, government agencies and multiple non-governmental organizations face the challenge to modify land uses to best serve the tripartite goals of managing water resources, preserving critical habitat for biological conservation, and maintaining livelihoods. Livestock, especially cattle, are a valued commodity for people in the region. At the same time, increased tree cover on private land can provide many benefits such as increased income diversity, soil retention, and improved conditions for biological conservation. Silvopastoral systems can accommodate the desires of local landowners for livestock while addressing conservation goals of increased tree cover. A review of such systems and related conditions in the Bioreserve region and Ecuador is followed by reviews of other examples from the Andes region and other mountainous parts of the world. Suggestions include promoting forestry systems with fuller canopies through a rating system in park connector areas and buffer zones, local value-added timber processing, consideration of timber certification, and continuing current successes, such as extensionists promoting tree-related projects, markets for forestry products derived from private lands, community tree nurseries, and improved pastures incorporating trees.