Main beneficiaries & outcomes
Direct beneficiaries: 15,000 families that have received financing for production and conservation projects through the respective management plans.
Indirect beneficiaries: Approximately 600,000 residents in the cities of Ambato, Pelileo, and Tisaleo who depend on the water produced in the paramos managed by the indigenous communities, with financing from the Fund.
Indigenous and peasant organizations, as constituent entities of the Fund, actively participate in decision-making, design, planning, implementation and evaluation of the different activities included in the PMPs and the respective socioeconomic-environmental projects of CCA. In addition, women's groups have had increased involvement and participation in the decision-making, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes of the PMPs promoted by the Fund. Thus, although women are not yet a majority, since men are not completely disengaged, each of the Fund's PMPs has a team of technicians and promoters, made up of 54 members, of which 33 are men and 21 are women. This is a great step forward in achieving gender representation and equality.
Planning and implementation
Local organizations: Movimiento Indígena de Tungurahua (MIT-FENOCIN), Movimiento de los Pueblos Kichwas y Campesinos de Tungurahua (MIT-CONAIE), and Asociación de Indígenas Evangélicos de Tungurahua (AIET), represent organizations of the different indigenous movements from the province as constituent members of the Fund and guarantee the participation and development vision of the indigenous communities.
Public institutions and local governments: The Honorable Provincial Government of Tungurahua (HGPT) together with the hydroelectric companies HIDROAGOYAN S.A. and HIDROPASTAZA S.A. (now known as CELEC E.P. Unidad de Negocio Hidroagoyán), the Municipal Water and Sewage Company of Ambato (EMAPA-A) and the Ambato Regional Centro Norte Electric Company (EEASA), are constituent members and financiers of the Fund. The HGPT also co-finances different projects as part of its functions in conjunction with the Fund.
Private institutions and NGOs: Association for Rural Cooperation in Africa and Latin America (ACRA), co-financing partner providing technical assistance, implementing and financing projects in the areas of organizational strengthening, citizen participation and the care of paramo ecosystems; Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregión Andina (CONDESAN), co-financing partner in charge of research, technical assistance, design and implementation of the PMPs of the Commonwealth of Decentralized Autonomous Municipal Governments of the South Western Front, and the grassroots organizations Corporación de Organizaciones Campesinas de Pilaguín (COCAP) and Corporación de Organizaciones Populares y Campesinas Cristóbal Pajuña (COCP); Central Ecuatoriana de Servicios Agrícolas (CESA), partner supporting the Fund in the implementation of the PMPs in Pasa and Kisapincha since 2009; European Union, partner for co-financing, technical assistance and research activities that has financed the monitoring of land use change in the period 2001-2019; Pastaza Foundation, partner for the implementation of the San Fernando Paramo Management Plan, in addition to management and conservation projects of the Federation of Communes of Canton Patate (FECOPA) and in San José de Poaló since 2013, as well as projects in the parishes of El Triunfo and Baquerizo Moreno since 2015; Instituto De Ecología Y Desarrollo De Las Comunidades Andinas (IEDECA), partner and part of the technical team for projects and activities designed to improve the living conditions of small agricultural and indigenous producers, which are channeled through COCAP and COCP; Fundación Minga para la Acción Rural y la Cooperación (MARCO), executing partner in the projects of the PMPs, in coordination with other local and sectoral actors; Fundación Manos Abiertas a la protección de los niños y la Conservación del medio Ambiente (FMA), partner that has implemented the FUTURAHUA Environmental Education program, which has been developed since 2012 with groups of children in the nine cantons of the province, specifically those located in the areas of influence of the PMPs promoted by the Unidad de los Movimientos Indígenas; and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), as a partner co-financing, providing technical assistance and promoting research on the conservation and restoration of paramos, especially in the water sources of the Tamboloma community, also offering direct financial support to the Fund and supporting its participation in various national and international exchange events. In addition, the National Financial Corporation is the fiduciary entity, legally representing the Trust, and managing the financial resources under the guidelines of the Fund's Technical Secretariat.
Finance
The Fund's financing mechanism consists of annual contributions from constituent members and other participants, known as ordinary contributions. Of these ordinary contributions, 60% are allocated to the capitalization of the Fund and constitute a growing capital. This in turn is invested in order to generate profits that will be used to finance the Fund's Management Plan, including its operating expenses and the programs and projects included in the plans. The remaining 40% of the annual contributions is a sinking fund, which together with the annual investment yields of the growing capital and the special contributions of other partners, are used to finance the implementation of PMPs' programs and projects focused on conservation and the fight against poverty.
The Growth Fund (funded by 60% of contributions and focused on making a profit) was valued at over USD 4.1 million as of 2019, while the sinking fund, invested in conservation and poverty reduction initiatives, was valued at around USD 2.7 million.
Since 2008, the Fund has mobilized nearly US$5.5 million in the conservation of paramos and in securing water supply for the Ambato and Pastaza river basins.
Innovation
Innovative public-private fund and grassroots indigenous organizations, with annual capitalization and growth through a commercial trust fund, which allows obtaining permanent financing to guarantee water supply through initiatives for the conservation and protection of moorlands and Andean forest remnants. It works jointly with productive, value-added, entrepreneurial and associative marketing initiatives to improve the life quality of the local populations that own and use paramos and Andean forest ecosystems.
Performance evaluation
Long term maintenance and sustainability
The economic sustainability of the fund is supported by the commercial trust and its management model, which designates part of its annual financing to the generation of returns, providing long-term capital flows. Annual contributions made by members reached a total of USD 6,929,945 as of 2019. As indicated above, 60% of these contributions are allocated to a growth fund to provide capitalization. The returns from this growth fund are then invested in the programs and projects of the PMPs that the Fund supports. As of October 31, 2020, the growth fund amounted to USD 4.1 million, while its yield was USD 1.7 million. The remaining 40% of the regular annual members' contributions, used to finance the 17 PMPs, total an investment of USD 5.5 million, with 15 agreements in place and an investment commitment of USD 600,000 as of October 2020. These contributions total more than USD 1.1 million. Other agreements for an estimated amount of USD 350,000 were also underway for the period 2019-2021.