标题：Evaluating Safeguards in a Conservation Incentive Program: Participation, Consent, and Benefit Sharing in Indigenous Communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon
摘要：Critics suggest that Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) may not generateimprovements in well-being for participating stakeholders, and may in fact undermine indigenous rights. To ensure positivesocial benefits from REDD+ projects, the United Nations REDD Programme has proposed core safeguards, including localstakeholder participation; free, prior, and informed consent; and equitable distribution of benefits. However, there is littleexperience to date in implementing and evaluating these safeguards. We apply these core safeguards as a framework to studyhow people in indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon perceive and benefit from Programa Socio Bosque, aconservation incentive program in Ecuador's national REDD+ Programme portfolio. We interviewed 101 individuals in fivecommunities that had participated in the Programa Socio Bosque for at least 18 months. Close to 80% of respondents reportedthat the decision to join Socio Bosque was made democratically, that they were familiar with the conservation goals of SocioBosque, and that they were aware which area their community had selected for conservation. However, only 17% were familiarwith the overall terms of the conservation agreement, implying that they were either not fully informed of or did not fullyunderstand what they were consenting to in joining the program. Although the terms of the program require a communityinvestment plan to be democratically developed by community members, less than half of respondents were aware of the existenceof the investment plan, and fewer than 20% had participated in its development. The majority of respondents (61%) reportedthat they did not know the amount of incentives that their community currently receives, and only 44% stated that incentiveswere managed democratically in communal assemblies. Moreover, although a slight majority (53%) said they had noticedbenefits to the community from participating in Socio Bosque, the majority (57%) said their family had not received any benefits.These results demonstrate a need to strengthen inclusive participation, better inform participants about program design, andimprove the management of incentives within communities if incentive-based conservation programs are to achieve their socialdevelopment and environmental goals
关键词：benefit distribution; deforestation; Ecuador; forest governance; Payment for Ecosystem Services; Programa Socio;Bosque; REDD+; safeguards
