Twenty-five years ago, Roque Sevilla (Quito, 78), an economist with a passion for nature, went in search of the last remaining forest in the Andean Chocó, in Ecuador. At the time, he sought to "conserve life" in one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. It was there, when he visited aged 53, that the Mashpi-Tayra Reserve was born, now a habitat for unique animals, insects, and birds. His combination of forest protection through technology, species protection, and community work was an essential reason for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to award Sevilla the Kenton Miller Award for Innovation in Protected Areas.
"We're creating a legacy for future generations because ours has been completely aggressive toward nature, and in some way, we have to restore that before we leave this world," he reflects. Sevilla recalls that, in 2000, when he bought those 1,200 hectares of land to protect it, "I knew it was something very valuable from a conservation standpoint." Although "the residents thought I was buying it for the gold," the former metropolitan mayor of Quito says with a laugh.
Sevilla has dedicated almost his entire life to defending nature and developing sustainable alternatives to major environmental threats. In 1987, Sevilla, then leading an Ecuadorian NGO and working with WWF and The Nature Conservancy, achieved the first debt-for-nature swap in Ecuador: $10 million was allocated to the protection of National Parks. Since then, his work has continued. Today, he is focused on protecting the Andean Chocó, declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.
The Mashpi-Tayra Reserve is an island of biodiversity, located just minutes from Quito, the Ecuadorian capital. Its subtropical cloud forests are home to 410 species of birds, 97 types of mammals, 49 amphibians, and 69 reptiles. One of their most recent discoveries was a new tree species, which can reach up to 50 meters in height. Sevilla excitedly recounts that in one of their latest investigations, together with the University of Guelph in Canada, they set up a trap for flying insects and found more than 7,000 species of these invertebrates endemic to the area. "When I said this at the awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi, they were amazed; they couldn't believe it," he says.
The unique characteristics of this refuge, owned by the Futuro Foundation -- an organization that promotes environmental and sustainable development initiatives -- led to its inclusion in 2019 as part of Ecuador's National System of Protected Areas. This mechanism guarantees the conservation and protection of wildlife and all the biodiversity of terrestrial, marine, and coastal ecosystems of great natural value.
That same year, collaboration began with the Guayabillas Indigenous community, neighboring the Mashpi-Tayra reserve. Thanks to this work, the Guayabillas Ecuador Association of Women Entrepreneurs (Asomeg) was created, a project in which local women transform native fruits such as arazá, borojó, and salak into artisanal jams.
Irma Napa, president of Asomeg, fondly recalls the first time she and her colleagues saw their finished products: "We felt proud when we saw the little jar of jam. When we branded it La Guapa, it was truly surprising," she says. Napa acknowledges that ventures like this have allowed them to strengthen their economic independence. "We can contribute and empower ourselves. It allows us to let go and not depend solely on our husbands."
The Mashpi-Tayra Reserve protects 5,820 hectares of forest, of which 3,237 are under the direct management of the organization and 2,583 through conservation agreements. Carolina Proaño, director of the Futuro Foundation, explains that one of the main innovations is its conservation financing mechanism, based on the purchase of tokens linked to areas within the reserve. This has been possible thanks to the tokenization (code generation) of the maps, which contain information on the biodiversity of each area and even allow the geolocation of the acquired token.
Proaño explains that the conserved areas are protected by members of the Guayabillas community. "We signed an agreement and [they] committed to take care of a specific area in exchange for a financial incentive. We provided the resources to those involved in the conservation action. For the community, this has represented a paradigm shift. "Before, we had to clear trees to earn an income and plant corn, rice, and pastures. Now we can conserve and maintain water, and sustainably produce what we plant," Napa acknowledges.
Caring for the Andean Chocó is a conservation umbrella; it goes beyond protecting cloud forests. Each hectare captures carbon, captures the water consumed in Quito, and even acts as a shield against climate change. These forests act like sponges: during the dry season, they capture water from the clouds and support thousands of families in the rural parishes northwest of the capital. Without this ecosystem, 116,000 families could face extreme droughts lasting up to three months.
The next goal is even more ambitious: to expand the reserve to protect the largest swathe of forest in the Andean Chocó. Thanks to an alliance with other organizations, says Proaño, they are seeking to preserve 500,000 hectares, connecting different reserves in the area. "The idea is to protect the forests from the Colombian border to the Ecuadorian Andes. If we achieve this, it would be fabulous," concludes Sevilla.