Projects in Ecuador

Strengthening an information and training network for producers working with the CAMARI - FEPP equitable marketing system — by admin — last modified 2006-09-01 12:10

CAMARI - FEPP markets agricultural products on the domestic and international level sustainably, on the basis of equitable trade to improve living conditions for small producers, with an orientation toward producing and marketing products. This project seeks to enable small indigenous and non-indigenous farmers to market their products, and guarantee increased sales volume by providing information on supply and demand, costs and pricing, and product quality in order to set marketing strategies. This will increase impact on the domestic market by leaving the intermediaries out, who erode farmers' livelihoods. The communications and information system grants greater access to the local, national and international markets. CAMARI-FEPP's fair trade system operates to facilitate business justice. The project seeks to consolidate an information and communication system that will also include the pilot project on E-Trade, Forming Regional equitable Marketing Systems (2002 -2004). The organizations that benefited from the project pilot are located in the provinces of Imbabura, Carchi, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and Bolívar. The goal is to include eight intermediary organizations representing 35 grassroots organizations and 4300 families.

Communication to manage sustainable production systems – Pests and diseases — by admin — last modified 2006-09-01 12:10

The Ecuadorian Agroecology Coordinating Office (CEA) heads a national network with diverse members, including grassroots community organizations, NGOs, universities, producers associations and cooperation agencies, among other stakeholders involved in natural resource management. In Ecuador, there is an array of diverse experiences by producers who have solved production problems by applying agroecology principles. The potential of these experiences is promising, to influence an ample universe of producers with similar farming and socio-economic characteristics, who have problems with pests and diseases. In this context, information and communication technologies will be useful tools - so far unexplored in rural communities - to enhance the dissemination of techniques and technologies that have been validated in small-farmer practice and others coming from academic circles. The project supports small farmers' plot management through systematization, information exchange, and on-line advisory support for agroecological management of the main pests and diseases, by implementing four infocenters in different provinces of Ecuador. The project promotes systematization and dissemination of agroecological practices, to manage the main pests and diseases in participants' cropping systems. For the first 18 months, infocenters will be implemented in four provinces: Loja, Azuay, Chimborazo, and Imbabura, and it is planned to expand later into one or two provinces on the Ecuadorian Coast.

ICT for the optimisation of production, marketing and social organisation of cacao growers in Ecuador — by admin — last modified 2006-09-01 12:11

The Maquita Cushunchic Comercializando como Hermanos (Marketing Like Brethren - MCCH) Foundation seeks to improve the living situation of rural organizations, through an alternative marketing model. In 2002, organizations in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Los Ríos, and some in Guayas - with MCCH coordination and international support for socio-productive projects - set up the CORPROCE movement: "Corporation of Cacao Growers of Ecuador", whose slogan is "Small farmers united in solidarity building livelihoods". This organization involves organizations' grassroots, working in gathering centers in their areas of influence, to guarantee product quality, acquire suitable infrastructure to generate the process of gathering, quality treatment, drying and transporting the cacao. The CACAO ICTs project will provide integrated support to implement community production systems using ICTs, including connection through short-wave links, Internet, and magnetic files for socio-production-commercial decision-making.

Conserving Mangroves with ICTs and Community Production — by admin — last modified 2005-12-19 11:09

Ecuador's economic policies are geared toward extracting natural resources to repay the foreign debt, which entails destruction of Amazon and other tropical forests, land suited to farming, and mangrove ecosystem areas along the Ecuadorian coast. Accordingly, the National Coordinating Corporation to Defend the Mangrove has created initiatives in provinces of the Ecuadorian Coastal Region, working with grassroots communities and organizations to recover, conserve, and defend the mangrove ecosystem, which is a natural heritage of the Coast, considered among the five most productive ecological units in the world. The MANGROVE ICTs project promotes community production initiatives currently underway on Ecuador's coast around the mangrove ecosystem, by publicizing the experiences carried out; complementing, processing and publicizing research; training communities; exchanging experiences; and promoting and disseminating the strengthened production initiatives. The first stage will be pursued in the province of Esmeraldas in the northern part of the Cayapas Mataje Mangrove Reserve, reinforcing the proposal to produce bio-aquatic species (shellfish and blue crabs), and in the southern part of the Muisne River Mangrove Ecosystem Wildlife Refuge, by supporting community ecotourism. Later, the proposal will extend to the provinces of El Oro, Manabí and Guayas where organizations from C-CONDEM are pursuing small-scale activities to produce shellfish and crustaceans and promote community tourism in the mangrove ecosystem.

Promotion, Dissemination and Marketing of Community Tourism in Ecuador — by admin — last modified 2005-12-19 10:35

Income from alternatives to agriculture, such as tourism or handicrafts production, is important to strengthen Ecuadorian communities. Therefore, it is vital to promote and strengthen community tourism initiatives in Ecuador to improve local population groups’ quality of life and guarantee adequate management of quality and sustainability in community tourism projects by Ecuador’s nationalities and peoples. The FEPTCE seeks to promote and strengthen these experiences. To foster these complementary economic options, this project will develop a system of connectivity, promotion and marketing to provide more efficient service through ICTs. The project will pilot at its Quito headquarters and in three regional sites: Central, Northern and Amazon Regional offices.

Design and implementation of the SERVIR regional credit evaluation service — by Admin — last modified 2007-10-29 12:38

In the Chimboraza and Tungurahua provinces of Ecuador, over 33 local financing bodies - or Estructuras Financieras Locales (EFLs) as they are known locally - currently serve around 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. To help these EFLs improve their services and become more efficient, IICD is working with three local organisations - the Fundación SEDAL, the cooperative Acción Rural and the Red Financiera Rural - to set up the SERVIR Regional Credit Evaluation Service. The goal is to boost the region’s economy by increasing the efficiency of the EFLs on the one hand while reducing the amount of debt incurred by individual smallholders on the other.

Impacts of free trade on agriculture — by admin — last modified 2007-07-04 15:53

The Round Table on producing and marketing sustainable products (June 2003, Ibarra) revealed that the group of organizations attending were unaware of the impacts that free trade agreements would cause. For this reason, Acción Ecológica has carried out this project to generate knowledge and awareness on this subject, using new technologies to distribute information, and joining forces to pursue communications strategies geared toward raising consciousness about public policies regarding free trade agreements, in order to protect domestic production and food security. The cross-cutting themes of this project have been the ecological debt, and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).