Indigenous territories in Ecuador Amazon can maintain forest conditions as effectively as formally protected areas, even without government conservation contracts, according to a new study that highlights the importance of local governance in protecting tropical forests.
Researchers compared forests governed under three different systems in Ecuador government protected areas, community managed forests operating under formal conservation agreements, and Indigenous territories without formal conservation contracts. Using satellite data, they assessed long term changes in vegetation, sudden disturbances linked to activities such as roads, settlements and agriculture, and forest responses to the severe 2015–16 El Niño drought.
The study found that community protected forests performed particularly well in several measures, including their ability to recover from drought. These forests are covered by formal arrangements such as Payment for Ecosystem Services programmes, which provide financial incentives to communities for avoiding activities that damage natural forests.
However, Indigenous territories without such agreements also showed forest conditions comparable to the other governance systems. They recorded the largest proportion of areas with positive long term trends in vegetation greenness, suggesting that forests in these territories were showing signs of sustained ecological health.
The findings challenge the assumption that formal conservation designations are always necessary to maintain healthy forests. Indigenous communities in the region can use natural resources for subsistence and cultural purposes while maintaining forest landscapes over the long term.
“Conservation is not only about drawing lines on a map,” lead author Fernando Troya told Mongabay. He said effective conservation also depends on governance, local participation and systems that enable communities to manage forests sustainably over time.
The study also identified significant differences within government protected forests. These areas had the highest proportion of negative long term vegetation trends, indicating possible degradation. In northern Ecuador, 78.6% of analysed pixels showed declining vegetation greenness, compared with 57.1% in the south.
Researchers suggested that the difference may be linked to greater pressure from roads, population growth and oil development in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon. Although forests in these areas remain standing, decades of extractive activities and landscape fragmentation may be placing continuous pressure on their ecological condition.
The researchers said the results demonstrate that forest protection needs to consider what happens on the ground rather than relying solely on formal conservation boundaries.
Indigenous territories can play an important role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate, protecting water resources and supporting local livelihoods. The findings also suggest that strengthening Indigenous governance and participation could be an important component of wider conservation strategies in the Amazon.
The study adds to growing evidence that effective forest conservation depends not only on whether an area has protected status, but also on how forests are governed, who participates in decisions and whether local communities have the capacity and incentives to manage natural resources sustainably.