On May 9, Ecuador launched a plan that would effectively wipe out the interest on part of its debt in exchange for its protection of the Galápagos Islands, one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world. The strategy will allow Ecuador to convert $1.6 billion of its existing commercial debt into a $656 million loan issued as a bond by the global investment bank Credit Suisse. Over the course of 18 years, Ecuador would repay this new loan, and also provide about $18 million each year for the conservation of the waters surrounding the Galápagos Islands.

Much of the funding would be focused on managing the newly established Hermandad Reserve and the existing Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR), as well as sustainable fishing and climate resilience efforts. The plan would also finance an endowment aimed to generate ongoing funding for marine conservation. Such transactions, known as debt-for-nature deals, have been completed in at least 16 other countries, but Ecuador’s deal is the largest to date. To read more click here

Giuseppe Di Carlo, director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, one of the groups involved in the deal, said the $12 million a year earmarked for conservation, plus another $5 million a year being put into a fund that should last decades, were an “extraordinary win”.

There will be regular monitoring of the protection work and of “purse seine” and “longline” fishing vessels by a newly formed body, with Hawaii’s Papahānaumokuākea marine park seen as a potential template.

Conservation funding there now protects a 200-mile (322-km) radius around the archipelago. It has helped revive local tuna and other fish stocks, but also increased catches further out where local fishing is still allowed.

The hope is for similar results from a new 11,500-square mile (30,000-sq km) reserve Ecuador set up last year between the Galapagos and Costa Rica’s maritime border used as a migratory corridor by sharks, whales, sea turtles and manta rays. click here