Propuesta metodológica para la gestión de áreas protegidas en el Ecuador

Abstract

Is necessary to take actions towards sustainability, in order to maintain and even increase biodiversity. To fulfill the above, one of the strategies implemented by the Ecuadorian government is the establishment of the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP), covering approximately 20% of the national territory. However, there are various driving forces as (i) population growth, (ii) the development of extractive activities, (iii) climate change, etc., which are the main cause of the pressures affecting and even could jeopardize biodiversity and therefore protected areas (PAs) in the short, medium and long term. That is why globally, and in Ecuador, there are technical tools designed to improve PAs management, and continuous improvement thereof. The aim of the research is to contribute to the sustainable management of protected areas of Ecuador, by building a model to know the status of sustainability of territory based on the scheme Driving Force, Pressure, State, Impact and Response (DPSIR). It is expected that the proposed model will allow to identify, in a fast and simple way, the Forces Motrices (F), cause of the Pressures (P) that determine the state (E) of the main Biophysical, socioeconomic and management attributes of the area , of the Impacts originated (I) and take urgent actions or responses (R) aimed at a sustainable management of the protected area that ultimately maintain or increase the biodiversity and other resources of the area.