Article in Spanish

The Provincial Government of Azuay, in Ecuador, has launched a new pilot initiative under the Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP), in partnership with the Fundación Ecológica Rikcharina and with support from Regions4 and the Scottish Government. The project aims to strengthen the restoration and sustainable management of high-altitude wetlands in the province while supporting the rural communities that depend on them, through inclusive participation, community organisation, and locally led environmental stewardship. The Azuay pilot is among the first JRAP funded initiatives to move into implementation, marking a key step for the platform.

The Provincial Government of Azuay, in Ecuador, has launched a new pilot initiative under the Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP), in partnership with the Fundación Ecológica Rikcharina and with support from Regions4 and the Scottish Government. The project aims to strengthen the restoration and sustainable management of high-altitude wetlands in the province while supporting the rural communities that depend on them, through inclusive participation, community organisation, and locally led environmental stewardship. The Azuay pilot is among the first JRAP funded initiatives to move into implementation, marking a key step for the platform.

High in the Andes of Ecuador, the wetland lagoons of Azuay province do far more than store water. They regulate river flows, capture carbon, sustain biodiversity and the livelihoods of rural communities that have depended on them for generations. Yet these ecosystems are under pressure from land-use change, livestock expansion, and extractive activity, and the communities living alongside them are facing the consequences.

In this context, the Autonomous Decentralized Provincial Government of Azuay, in Ecuador, in partnership with Fundación Ecológica Rikcharina, has started implementing a pilot initiative under the Just Resilience Action Platform (JRAP), with support from Regions4 and the Scottish Government.

The pilot is part of a broader effort already underway in the province. The Provincial Government of Azuay is leading the Ecological and Participatory Restoration of Wetlands, an initiative working to recover the ecological integrity of the province’s high-altitude lagoons and strengthen the communities around it. The JRAP-funded component contribute specifically to the goals around inclusive participation, community organisation, and the sustainable use of natural resources.

The pilot: Building Resilience Where It Matters Most

The pilot focuses on two communities in Azuay’s high-altitude wetland zones: Chobshi–Narig in Canton Sigsig, and San Gerardo in Canton Girón. Both communities are directly connected to lacustrine ecosystems that provide essential services like clean water, carbon storage, and natural flood regulation, while also offering real potential for sustainable livelihoods.

The initiative is structured around three interconnected areas of work. The first is sustainable community tourism,helping residents develop the skills, governance structures, and community narratives needed to welcome visitors responsibly, generate income, and become active stewards of their landscapes. The second is the responsible use of native wetland plant species, particularly totora and carrizo (suro), for traditional crafts and bioinputs, reconnecting communities to knowledge systems and productive uses that have long supported local economies. The third is participatory wetland governance, including the development of co-management agreements that give communities formal roles in decisions that affect their ecosystems.

The project is designed to be intergenerational. Participants range from school-aged children to community elders, and the methodology actively integrates local identity, cultural knowledge, and community leadership as the foundation of the work.

Learning by Doing

One of the distinctive elements of the Azuay pilot is its emphasis on experiential learning. As part of the project, 30 selected participants will also travel to Lago San Pablo in Imbabura Province, an established example of community-based wetland tourism, to see firsthand what is possible when ecosystems and local economies are managed together. This kind of exchange is central to JRAP’s approach: learning does not only happen through training, but through connection.

The pilot also includes documentary audiovisual production, capturing the process, the people, and the landscapes involved. This material that will serve both as institutional memory and as a tool for visibility and replication.

What JRAP Makes Possible

The Azuay pilot is one of the first seed-funded initiatives to reach implementation under JRAP, making it a significant moment for the platform. JRAP, an initiative led by Regions4, was launched at COP30 in Belém and its supported bythe Scottish Government, CONGOPE, Nature4Climate, the Global Covenant of Mayors, and the Race to Resilience, precisely to address a persistent gap: subnational governments are responsible for the vast majority of climate adaptation action, yet receive less than 17% of international climate finance.

By providing seed funding, technical accompaniment, and access to a global network of peers and partners, JRAP aims to help initiatives like Azuay’s move from territorial vision to lasting impact, and to generate learning that can inform and inspire similar efforts elsewhere.

The Azuay pilot reflects a broader truth that JRAP is built around: resilience is territorial. It is built in specific places, by specific people, using knowledge, governance, and resources that are rooted in local reality. International support matters, but only when it is designed to strengthen, not substitute, that local leadership.

As the pilot moves forward, its results and lessons will be shared across the Regions4 network, contributing to a growing body of evidence on what just, people-centred resilience looks like in practice, and what it takes to make it happen.

For more information, please visit the Just Resilience Action Platform webpage.