Ecuador : Indicators

Ecuador has signed a number of international agreements relating to environmental matters, including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the International Tropical Timber Agreement. In addition, the MERCOSUR countries and the countries of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), including Ecuador, have a number of agreements: bilateral, renegotiation, preferences awarded, economic complementation and multilateral (sectoral trade agreements). The same is true for the member countries of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Within MERCOSUR there is a forum on wood and furniture to facilitate an exchange between the regional players and thereby articulate actions and strategies to benefit the chain as a whole and each of its parts.

However, Ecuador has not signed international agreements which include specific clauses or annexes stipulating requirements for trade in forest products. On this point, it has not followed the example of the negotiation process for the Free Trade Treaty between the European Unión and Peru (2009), which included an “Annexe on management of the Forest sector” specifying minimum standards to contribute to transparency, the fight against corruption and the governance of the forest sector.

Ecuador, Peru and Colombia began negotiations in 2009 with the European Union (EU) on a Trade Agreement, but at the end of that year, Ecuador withdrew from the round of talks. Peru and Colombia signed a final agreement with the EU on 26 July 2012, which refers in Article 273 on trade in forest products, to a series of practices for improving the application of laws and good governance. Meanwhile, Ecuador resumed talks and hoped to reach a Trade Agreement for Development in 2012. The draft document prepared by the government explicitly mentions a commitment to sustainable development.

In addition to these trade agreements, Ecuador has embarked on other forest-related agreements. In the framework of the United Nations Conference for Sustainable Development at Rio +20, it signed a cooperation agreement with Korea on forest management, rehabilitation of forests and ecosystems. At the Río +20 summit Ecuador proposed a Universal Declaration for the Rights of Nature, and presented the Yasuní ITT initiative as a mechanism for changing development paradigms. This initiative is the country’s commitment to protecting the Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region and maintaining indefinitely untouched the reserves of 846 million barrels of crude oil in the ITT field, on the condition that the international community contributes financially (more information available at http://yasuni-itt.gob.ec/Inicio.aspx).