3Ps Ecuador Pilot Project: Enhancing the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve and its Contributions to People

This project contributes to the long-term vision that natural capital approaches will become an integral part of Ecuador’s environmental governance, climate resilience, and sustainable development planning. At the heart of this transformation lies the recognition that healthy ecosystems are essential for sustaining livelihoods and well-being, enabling climate adaptation, regulating water, and conserving biodiversity, but that their values are often not reflected in policies and plans. This project provides a proof-of-concept on how detailed spatial information on the values of nature's contributions can inform concrete planning instruments, including the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), among others. Key collaborators: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ecuador Ministry of Environment and Energy, Ministry of Economy and Finance, National Institute of Biodiversity, and the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador, as well as ATUK Consultoría Estratégica and Natural Capital Insights.

The Challenge

Despite growing recognition of nature’s vital contributions to human well-being—from water supply and climate regulation to biodiversity conservation—these ecosystem services remain largely invisible in economic planning and policy decisions across Latin America and elsewhere. In Ecuador, the gap between ecosystems’ ecological and economic importance and their integration into public policy frameworks threatens sustainable development and climate resilience, particularly in critical areas like the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.

Our Approach

This pilot project brings together a collaborative partnership led by Stanford University’s Natural Capital Project, working with ATUK Consultoría Estratégica (Ecuador-based), Natural Capital Insights (USA-based), the Inter-American Development Bank, and key Ecuadorian stakeholders including the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Ministry of Economy and Finance, National Institute of Biodiversity, and the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE - Nacionalidad Waorani del Ecuador). The team will implement a rapid natural capital assessment of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, using state-of-the-art tools to map and model priority ecosystem services such as water availability, carbon storage, water quality, tourism, and biodiversity. Critically, the approach integrates Indigenous and local knowledge from Waorani communities with technical analysis, while building capacity through training sessions and ensuring results directly inform the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve Management Plan.

Expected Outcomes

The project will deliver a streamlined framework demonstrating how rapid natural capital assessments can transform policy and planning decisions in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. Specific outputs include spatial maps identifying priority areas for conservation and restoration, economic valuation of ecosystem services, actionable recommendations for integrating co-benefit criteria into management instruments, and an implementation roadmap for mainstreaming natural capital approaches into national decision-making. Beyond these technical deliverables, the project aims to build institutional capacity across government agencies, validate a methodology that can be scaled to other biosphere reserves through Ecuador’s National Biosphere Reserve Committee, and ultimately establish natural capital approaches as an integral component of Ecuador’s environmental governance and sustainable development planning.

Funding: Global Environment Facility