Progress on coastal management in ecuador (2007–2017)
Section snippets
Introduction and background
Ecuador is a country in the north-western part of South America, bordering the Pacific Ocean. It is composed of the continental territory, an insular region, the Galápagos Islands and the aquatic spaces of national jurisdiction. It has a land area of 256,370 km2 (Atlas IGM, 2013). While the surface of the aquatic spaces, the continental shelf and the submarine bed reach 1367.188 km2 (Senplades, 2017b).
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (2017), the population of
Aims, assumptions and methodology
The general aim of this study is to better understand the management situation of the coast of Ecuador over the past decade. The hypothesis adopted for this investigation is the following: The large political shifts in Ecuador between 2007 and 2017 have resulted in significant consequences for coastal management on the mainland coast (the case of the Galapagos Islands is a very particular case and is not included in this study). The emergent model for coastal management is not the result of a
Description of the study area
The Andes mountain range means that the mainland territory is split into three large natural regions: Coast (plains of fertile land) Mountain Range and Amazonian. The coastal region is defined as a continental strip, which extends up to 1300 m. above sea level at the Western Range of the Andes (Sierra 1999), the width of which varies between 20 and 180 km. (Fig. 1). This country boasts 2860 km of coastline: 45% of which are open coastlines and the remaining 55% are made up of semi-closed bodies
Policies and general strategies
The decade preceding this study was one of enormous political instability, 1996 - 2006. During this time Ecuador had a succession of seven presidents. In 2007 a new political period began when Rafael Correa was named as President of the Government. This period lasted little more than a decade and resulted in profound changes in the lives of the Ecuadorian people. The Constitution of 2008 embodied the intention of building a new model of society and State. The focus was to be people-centered as
Discussion
In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) there are interesting examples of national studies on ICZM policy and programs: Mexico (Rivera-Arriaga and Villalobos, 2001; Nava et al., 2017), Uruguay (Martínez and Fournier, 1999; Pérez and Chica, 2015), Brazil (Barragán Muñoz, 2001; Jablonski and Filet, 2008), Argentina (Barragán Muñoz et al., 2003), Chile (Barragán Muñoz et al., 2005), Dominican Republic (Jorge, 1997), Barragán y Lazo (2018). Another reference that can be cited to gain insight into
Conclusions
The changes produced in the general policy of Ecuador between 2007 and 2017 resulted in significant consequences in coastal management. One of the most important is the abolishment of the PCRM. The findings found in policy, regulations, institutions and ICZM instruments allow us to obtain the following conclusions:
It is the first time that Ecuador has a specific policy for marine coastal zones. However elementary aspects have not been implemented. Other social and economic issues of the
Acknowledgements
This publication and research has been partially granted by INDESS (Research Universitary Institute for Sustainable Social Development), Universidad de Cádiz, Spain.
Lcdo. Emilio Ochoa Moreno, Director de la Fundación Ecocostas, Ex Subsecretario de Construcción Social de la Secretaria Nacional de Riesgos y Gestor del Programa de Manejo de Recursos Costeros Primera Fase. (6 entrevistas).
MSc. Víctor Osorio Cevallos, Ex Director Ejecutivo del Programa de Manejo De Recursos Costeros PMRC período
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