III INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP NATURAL PROTECTED AREAS INFORMATION NETWORK ANDES AMAZON RANPA Topics: - Information inter-operability on protected areas - Regional cooperation in areas with international borders Date: MAY 12 th 15 th 2008 * Location: Quito, Ecuador BACKGROUND The Organization of American States (OEA), through its Sustainable Development Department (DSD), in collaboration with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), Ecuador s Environmental Ministry, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as well as the ACTO Programs (Biodiversity and Amazon), financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and GTZ, are performing actions to develop and disseminate information on conservation areas and biodiversity within the western hemisphere (such as the IABIN and GBIF 1 initiatives), while promoting efforts for the planning of actions between adjacent protected areas in the Amazon region border zone. As a pilot initiative in the Amazon region, some exercises to publish information on the region s protected areas have been done with value-added products, such as satellite images, early fire alerts and other information services. 1 IABIN (InterAmerican Biodiversity Information Network IABIN.net) ; GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GBIF.org)
In June 2005, in Gamboa, Panama 2, a first encounter, financed by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (FGBM), was carried out with the purpose of establishing an information system that will support the resources investment decisions and will promote the efficient Amazon Protected Areas management (1 st RANPA Workshop). The Workshop Resolution OAS/Natural Protected Areas of the Amazon Countries (OAS-DDS) event, meant to formalize a protected Amazon areas thematic network which will be a space for communication and harmonization of activities within which experiences will be shared to served the governments in the rationalization and improving of resources for the protected areas management 3. The second RANPA 4 Workshop was carried out with the ACTO support and financing, for a second time from the Moore Foundation (July 10 th 15 th, 2006, in the city of Leticia, Amacayacu Park, Colombia). The workshop s main objective was to give continuity, through protected Amazon areas state indicators, to the information system and the Amazon protected areas data base (AAPAD) strengthening process. At the event, emphasis was put on: 1) Strengthening Binational Projects and monitoring these processes, reinforced with the establishment of the regional information network containing data bases; 2) Importance of the Amazon information network organization, due to the considerably influence of the region on climate and in the conservation world scenario; 3) The relevance of the support given to the Amazon region, as well as the moral commitment on the community s multiple necessities; 4) The development of projects to establish agreements, use environmental information and manage environmental development monitoring topics, including indigenous communities; and 5) The importance of having research works linked to protected areas, recognizing the need for their inclusion in the information networks. The Amazon Protected Areas Thematic Network is part of the integration and cooperation proposals group in the Amazon region. The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) proposal stands out and contemplates a Regional Program formulation for the sustainable management in the Amazon Protected Areas in its Strategic Plan 2004-2012 5. It is important to emphasize the fact that the ACTO member countries already have the respective proposal developed in a participative manner and framed in the Biodiversity ACTO Program, having concluded its formulation at the Regional Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, in August 2007, with the Amazon countries authority s collaboration. This Regional Program (3) tends to contribute to the building of a view and management practice of protected areas in scale of the Amazon Basin, with certain emphasis on border zone s protected areas and in conservation corridors that can cover more than one country and that, among others, allows to: a) strengthen the protected area s national systems and b) facilitates fulfillment of Work Program on Protected Areas from the Biologic Diversity Agreement CDB. The initiatives previously mentioned are not only developed at a regional level, but they also have expressions in bilateral or trilateral border areas. Among others, we find: the management proposal within the Gueppi Reserve Zone, located in the State of Loreto, Peru; the Cuyabeno Fauna Production Zone, in the Sucumbios province in Ecuador, and La Paya National Natural Park, located in the State of Putumayo in Colombia; the Tabating planning axis Apaporis, 2 At the following link you will be able to find the memoirs from the event in Gamboa, Panama. http://www.iabin.net/spanish/meetings-workshops/workshops/protected_area_04_2006.shtml 3 Resolución Taller OAS/Países Amazónicos. Organización de los Estados Americanos. Red Interamericana de Información sobre Biodiversidad (IABIN) 4 Memoirs of the Leticia event, Colombia http://www.iabin.net/spanish/meetings-workshops/workshops/protected_area_07_2006.shtml 5 Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica Plan estratégico 2004-2012. Brasilia. Brasil. www.otca.info pág. 44
between Brazil and Colombia; or the agreements framed in the Borders Affairs Presidential Committee COPIAF between Venezuela and Colombia. Based on the 2 nd Latin-American Congress on Protected Areas in Bariloche, Argentina (October 2007), the Ecuador s Environment Ministry and Protected Areas offer is ratified as they are the hosts of the 3 rd International Amazon Protected Areas Workshop (third RANPA Workshop). GTZ and ACTO, equally support the making of the event to consolidate the information interchange processes and the collaborative management in areas with international borders. GTZ also requests the presence in this event of the region s indigenous communities, benefiting from the information management, as well as the training within the horizontal cooperation frame. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES Give continuity to the information system strengthening process and the Amazon Protected Areas data base (AAPAD) with status indicators of the Andes Amazon protected areas. Serve as a training zone for information systems, oriented to decision making in the region. Discuss information requirements so that the protected areas and buffer zones would apply successfully to payment for ecosystem services. Provide a space where technicians and partners define priorities, necessities and recommendations about information, training and sustainability in the Amazon region. Secure projects in cross-border sub-regions which will allow for the implementation of information inter-operability tools, that may, at the same time, turn into pilot projects demonstrating integration potential and regional cooperation. JUSTIFICATION In spite of all the efforts made by the countries sharing the Amazon region, the Amazon is currently undergoing a serious and systematic deterioration due to threats, such as logging, infrastructure building, forest fires, agricultural border expansion, single-crop farming, mining, oil exploitation and cattle farming. In this scenario, those border protected areas are facing a special vulnerability situation due to the far distance from the national decision or federals centers and because they confront specific dynamics of exploitation and wildlife trafficking. Before these circumstances, there is a need for the consolidation of the existent Amazon protected areas through follow up mechanisms, evaluation and monitoring implementation, in order to increase effectiveness of its management. Furthermore, a mechanism to make compatible the protected areas national systems data bases and interoperate them is considered to be a key factor for the planning process. The information system will provide supplies for identification of gaps in the protected areas national systems, for declaration of new protected areas and the creation and conservation corridors consolidation, integrating protected areas in several countries. It will support also the different evaluation processes for environmental impacts, associated to the infrastructure projects linked to axis development planned at the national and continental level, as well as confront the current threats. In relation to the efforts for the development of regional initiatives around the Amazon protected areas, it is important to point out Bariloche s Declaration which acknowledges and celebrates the progress and implementation of regional and sub-regional policies, around the biodiversity conservation topic, as is the case for the Regional Program Proposal for Sustainable Management of the Amazon Protected Areas (ACTO). The document informs that Those are
instruments to indicate the country s good will for dealing with environmental topics. It also points out that the expectations for the plans to be converted into policies of action at the national, regional and local level be concreted. PARTICIPANTS WORK For the Workshop success, each of the countries delegations will present a pre-workshop preparation work, which will contain the following: - Fill out the data base (online or the one given for each local entry) with the fields agreed at the Leticia meeting (2006) (http://ranpa.net Services/Data Bases/Quito Workshop 2008) - Present priorities and international cooperation programs, as well as their harmonization perspectives with other integration initiatives. - Preparation of national and sub- regional projects profiles, as well as concrete bi-national or tri-national cooperation acts in the region. - Presentation showing the condition of information systems in each country, strengthens and weaknesses. A next message will give instructions on how to use single format for presentation, as well as on how to evaluate the data base version 2, including corrections made at the Amacayacu (2006) Workshop. In this version you will be able to enter data online. We are hoping to collect all presentations to elaborate an online publication. PRELIMINARY AGENDA The event will start Monday, May 12 th 2008 in Quito (Ecuador), with the logistic support and hosting of Ecuador s Environmental Ministry- Biodiversity and Natural Protected Areas Direction. The exact location and logistic details for the event will be announced in the next communication. Summary of the Agenda: Day 1 Introduction and National Protected Areas Presentations Day 2 Protected Areas and cooperation initiatives in the International Borders Day 3 Information Systems and Data Bases
Monday, MAY 12 th 2008 INTRODUCTION 9:00 9:30 Key notes and introduction to the workshop 9:30 10:00 The IABIN initiative: The Protected Areas Thematic Network. 10:00 10:30 International initiatives for biodiversity information 10:30 10:45 The Regional Program for Sustainable Management of Amazon Protected Areas. 10:45 11:00 Supporting cooperation in protected areas in the international borders Ministry of the Environment- Directorate of Biodiversity and Protected Areas of Ecuador- Wilson Rojas, Antonio Matamoros (Focal Point of IABIN), Edgar Rivera (Workshop Coordinator) Organization of American States (OAS)- The Protected Areas Thematic Network.- RTAP Consortium Helena Pavese WCMC Jorge Elbers- IUCN sur Carlos Salinas, Program OTCA Biodiversity Günter Simon GTZ German International Cooperation 11:00 11:30 Data Base Project on Conservation Areas in Andes Amazonas. 11:30 12:00 1. Ecuador 12:00 12:30 2. Bolivia 12:30 14:00 Lunch 14:00 14:30 3. Brazil 14:30 15:30 4. Colombia 15:30 16:00 5. Guyana 16:00 16:15 Break 16:15 16:45 6. Peru 16:45 17:15 7. Surinam 17:15 17:45 8. Venezuela 17:45 18:30. Comments in plenary Álvaro Espinel, Sustainable Development Department. OAS- Moore Foundation PROTECTED AREAS STATUS Tuesday MAY 13 th 2008 COOPERATION IN INTERNATIONAL BORDERS PROTECTED AREAS 8:30 Colombia- Ecuador Perú Initiative (La Paya- Cuyabeno- Gueppi) 9:15 9:15 10:00 Tuparro Commission Amazonas State (Colombia and Venezuela) 10:00 10:15 Break 10:15 11:00 Axis Tabatinga - Apaporis Planning Project (Colombia Brazil) 11:00 11:45 Amazon trapecium y low Putumayo (Brazil-Colombia-Peru) 11:45 12:30 El Divisor Reserved Zone National Park Serra do Divisor (Peru Brasil) 12:30 14:00 Lunch 14:00 16:00 Working Group 1: Proposal for concrete actions Colombia Ecuador Peru Working Group 2: Proposal for concrete actions Colombia Venezuela Working Group 3: Proposal for concrete actions Colombia Brazil Working Group 4: Proposal for concrete actions Brazil Colombia Peru
Working Group 5: Proposal for concrete actions Peru Ecuador 16:00 16:15 Break 16:15 16:30 Group 1 presentation 16:30 16:45 Group 2 presentation 16:45 17:00 Group 3 presentation 17:00 17:15 Group 4 presentation 17:15 17:30 Group 5 presentation 17:30 18:30 Contributions and Comments in plenary 18:30 20:00 Cocktail Wednesday, MAY 14 th 2008 INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND DATA BASES 8:30 9:00 Inter operability with the Protected Areas Thematic Network IABIN- services offered and how they interact with RANPA 9:00 9:30 The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization s information system on Protected Areas 9:30 10:15 SIG- SNAP Geo-Referenced System from 9 protected Ecuador areas- CIAM and CDDC- Fundación Jatun Sacha 10:15 10:30 Break 10:30 11:45 Brazil s information system development and its contribution to the AAPAD project. Brazil s Technology offers for the protected areas report and deforestation evaluation. 11:45 12:30 Adjustments to the data model and commitments of data suppliers. 12:30 14:00 Lunch INFORMATION FOR MONITORING PROTECTED AREAS 14:00 16:00 Indigenous Protected Area management. Rapid assessments Gueppi Debby (Field Museum Chicago) Control and Surveillance system Cofan Reserve. 16:00 16:15 Break 16:15 17:00 Explanations, contributions and comments in plenary about information. 17:00 18:30 Summary: Evaluation and conclusions from the event Álvaro Espinel, OAS Carlos Salinas, Program ACTO Biodiversity Milton Arsiniegas CIAM- MinAmbiente Ecuador Fabio França Ministério do Meio Ambiente do Brasil Countries comments Indigenous representatives and Field Museum Chicago Participant s comments Thursday MAY 15 th, 2008 Trip to the Cayambe Coca protected area. This trip is optional. Presentation on Park Management Strategies Indigenous communities and AP management Sunday, May 4 th 2008: Returning to the countries References 1 At the following link you will be able to find the memoirs from the event in Gamboa, Panama. http://www.iabin.net/spanish/meetings-workshops/workshops/protected_area_06_2005.shtml
2 www.iabin.net http://www.ranpa.net 3 Resolución Taller OAS/Países Amazónicos. Organización de los Estados Americanos. Red Interamericana de Información sobre Biodiversidad (IABIN) 4-5 Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica Plan estratégico 2004-2012. Brasilia. Brasil. www.otca.info pág. 44 6 _/ Declaración de Congreso de Bariloche, Argentina. Ver página 4. http://www.sur.iucn.org/boletinparques/pdf/declaracionbariloche.pdf