Sangay National Park

Poaching, illegal livestock grazing, encroachment along the park's perimeter, unplanned road construction.

As requested by the Committee at its 28th session (Suzhou, 2004), IUCN undertook a mission to the property from 20 February until 2 March 2005. The mission reviewed the implementation of the recommendations from the 1999 mission to the property, and reports significant improvements since the last monitoring mission. The report notes that sections of the park experiencing any sort of human intervention (hunting, mountain climbing, livestock) are less than 2 or 3% of the entire area and that all the factors that led to inscription of the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger have either been addressed or affect only a very small percentage of the total World Heritage property or the park’s buffer zone. It needs to be noted that at the time of inscription, the park covered a total area of 271,925 ha. In 1992 the park boundaries were extended to the south to encompass a total of 502,065, but the World Heritage property was not extended. Thus, the World Heritage property now encompasses about 54% of the park.

On the different threats, the monitoring mission came to the following conclusions:

a) The construction of the 117 km Guamote-Macas Road, 8 km of which pass through the park, is now being carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers following rigorous international environmental standards (ISO 9001 and 14001), including mitigation and restoration measures;

b) While there are still low levels of hunting and livestock grazing around certain areas at the park border, these are insignificant and are not threatening the values for which the property was listed;

c) While illegal timber harvest continues at low levels in a few sections of the park buffer zone, none is taking place within the property itself;

d) Relations between the park administration and other stakeholders are increasingly positive, and no threats were detected from new colonization, oil/mineral exploration or extraction.

It is therefore recommended that future interventions should focus on management effectiveness and sustainable financing, as a follow up to the IUCN/UNESCO/UNF “Enhancing our Heritage” project that aims to improve management effectiveness in World Heritage properties. The mission noted that this project has shifted park management focus to a more strategic level and contributed to significant success in terms of raising public awareness. The positive change in environmental concern and management, specific mitigation measures, and regular evaluations of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Ministry of Public Works was reported as highly impressive and exceeding Ministry of the Environment requirements. The mission further found that the administration of Sangay National Park had in recent years suffered severe budget and personal cuts but states that at the same time a more coordinated response to conservation and the management of the property had developed in provinces and municipalities, the Army Corps of Engineers and a number of other stakeholders.

The 2004 report of the Enhancing Our Heritage Project notes further improvements in the management of the property, including revision of how the conservation of the values for which the property was inscribed on the World Heritage List are better addressed by the park’s management objectives, using a broadly inclusive process involving government, NGOs, scientists, indigenous and local communities. A new management strategy has been prepared for the park, involving the management agency, NGOs and the National Environmental Fund (FAN). This plan has been presented to the Ministry for approval and includes a funding strategy, which identifies the financial needs to implement the three year strategy.