Action

Evaluating REDD+ alignment of private finance

  • Year

    2021 – 2022

  • Location

    Ecuador

  • Budget

    EUR 80 000

  • Funded by

    EU REDD Facility, PROAmazonia, Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition

  • Partners

    Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAAE), PROAmazonia, NDC Partnership

Introduction

Ecuador’s political will to combat climate change and reduce emissions from the forestry sector has positioned it as a pioneering country in the implementation of REDD+ measures and actions, in relation to both the forestry and non-forestry sectors. In fact, it is the second country in the world, after Brazil, to meet all the requirements for receiving results-based payments for REDD+, set out under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was also the first to present its national Forest Reference Emission Level for Deforestation. Furthermore, it is developing a public policy framework to mitigate and adapt to climate change:

  • The National Climate Change Strategy for 2012–2025
  • The REDD+ Action Plan (2016–2025)
  • Its first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), submitted to the UNFCCC in 2019

Funding from public and private national and international sources is crucial to meet the national climate and land-use mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement. In this regard, the Government of Ecuador recently formalised the National Climate Finance Strategy 2021–2030, which establishes targets, strategic guidelines, enabling conditions and lines of action that should be implemented to accelerate the mobilisation of climate finance (MAAE, 2021).

The objective

Ecuador is coordinating national efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation through its REDD+ Action Plan: Forests for Good Living (2016–2025). This plan outlines actions that are consistent with the National Climate Change Strategy and UNFCCC decisions. Understanding the current panorama of land-use finance and how different private finance flows positively or negatively impact forests is an opportunity for national and international actors to increase investment aligned with REDD+.

Thus, the main objective of the mapping carried out with the support of the EU REDD Facility is to identify and measure the impact and alignment of private finance with REDD+ objectives and the REDD+ National Action Plan.

Mapping private land-use finance in Ecuador will help to:

  • Provide a baseline for monitoring private finance that is aligned or non-aligned with REDD+ objectives
  • Measure flows of private investment that are potentially driving unsustainable actions and contributing to deforestation
  • Report on progress in forest and climate objectives by analysing the mobilisation of REDD+-aligned resources
  • Help identify opportunities to increase financial support for the implementation of actions

Cocoa plantation located in the Guayas Province, Ecuador.

The approach

Ecuador is carrying out a series of initiatives to map private climate finance, using the Private Sector Climate Expenditure and Institutional Review methodology.

To complement those initiatives, in 2021, the EU REDD Facility conducted, using its Land-use Finance Tool approach, an evaluation of the feasibility of mapping private land-use finance in Ecuador. The mapping covered the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector. This evaluation made it possible to define the scope of the finance mapping and generate an implementation plan. The plan includes the development of a methodology to collect information on private land-use finance, as well as a stakeholder engagement strategy to support the study and ensure access to the data (at the national level).

Mapping of land-use finance in Ecuador

  • Objective

    Identify and measure the impact of private finance for the implementation of REDD+ actions on progress in meeting national forest and climate objectives.

  • Key policy framework

    Ecuador’s REDD+ Action Plan ‘Bosques para el Buen Vivir’ (‘Forests for Good Living”)

  • Year

    2019 – 2021

  • Geographical scope

    National

  • Types of finance

    • Aligned (green) flows
    • Conditional (grey) flows
    • Unaligned (brown) flows
  • Sectors

    • Farming
    • Forestry
    • Mining
  • Main sources of data

    • National private actors
    • International private actors
  • Markets and instruments

    • Production market
    • Debt market
    • Land market

Next steps

The implementation phase of the methodology developed in 2021 is underway and the mapping is due to be completed in time for UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27). This phase is being co-financed and carried out in close collaboration with PROAmazonia and the  Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition.

Resources

Proposed Implementation Plan for the mapping of land-use finance in Ecuador