Over the past five years, the project partners have worked with the people of Cristobal Colón, a community in northwestern Ecuador, to established wood processing facilities and sell higher-value finished products. With such a system in place, landowners can get higher prices for sustainably produced wood; woodworkers and the community can retain a greater share of economic value. Ultimately, the communities are provided with the tools to earn higher income cutting fewer trees, and with the power to manage their forests sustainably.

We are in the process of expanding the Ecomadera project to include three additional communities, which own a total of over 150,000 hectares of primary forest in the region. The project will focus on helping farmers gain full legal title to their land, and helping community businesses gain access to capital so they can grow their enterprises and create a local sustainable economy. The Institute is working to partner with Conservation International and the European development aid organization GTZ to create a conservation corridor linking the Awa and Cristobol Colón communities with the Cotacachi Reserve, through a combination of community reserves, reforestation, and working forests.

With the provided education, community-owned businesses in Cristobal Colon are now creating products such as, doors, flooring, windows, and a guitar company has raised interest in purchasing the high quality Ecomadera wood. The next step in the project is to build a showroom to display the beautiful, high-end, wood products of the area, which will be erected in Quito, Ecuador, one of the most prominent locations in the country for both Equadorians and international tourists. The Institute will be traveling to Quito in the summer of 2007 to place brochures and photo albums of our work on display, have contact sheets available for those interested, and hold periodic open houses.

Project Photos July 2005 (Powerpoint)

Project Photos July 2006 (Powerpoint)