Including Communities in Managing Ecuador’s Protected Areas

In Ecuador, advocacy support and funding from RRI’s Strategic Response Mechanism enabled the A’i Kofan Indigenous Nationality, through the NOA’IKE organization, to secure rights to conserve, manage, and administer 20,000 hectares of ancestral territory inside the Cuyabeno Wildlife Production Reserve. A cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition established this recognition and set a national precedent for rights-based conservation within protected areas.

The agreement helped establish a new community, the Thesi T’sampi (“The Land of Jaguar”), that provides a safer living environment while strengthening Indigenous governance inside the reserve. This project shows how conservation frameworks can recognize and uphold Indigenous territorial rights while protecting both communities’ freedoms and the environment.