Similar to the National Heritage Area concept here, where national resources are used, but local management is deeply involved.
September 2007
Volume 25 | Number 3
National Park Goes Local
By Tom Burnett
Cuenca is a city with a resumé. It is designated a World Heritage Site. Ecuadorans consider it their most beautiful city. Though hard for international visitors to fathom, it is the only city in Ecuador to treat its sewage before discharging it into the ocean or nearest river. But perhaps its most distinguishing claim is that it “owns” a national park insofar as it exercises considerable autonomy in financial controls, marketing, management, and enforcement. Even more strange, the city’s water and sewer department manages the park.
Cajas National Park, rich in scenery, biodiversity, and recreational opportunities, glitters above Cuenca, some 20 miles to the west. Stony peaks ascend to an altitude of 13,800 feet. It presents raw environmental beauty, yet is home to an extractive industry: water. Cajas’ mandate is multiple-use— preserving the area for its water potential, shepherding the unique flora and fauna, and providing delights for tourists. Like the tin roofs and rain barrels used by resourceful people around the world, ways to collect and channel water from roofs to inhabitants below are the gifts of Cajas.
Cuenca, the water-user and the city with a sewage treatment plant, was an easy choice when the Ministry of Environment was forced by a 1997 law to decentralize management of protected areas. The law specified that management of Ecuador’s 22 protected areas should fall to local municipalities. It seemed Ecuador was having trouble caring for its natural riches. The Ministry lacked funds, it was inefficient, and found itself distant from citizen participation and local support. Ministry orders went unheeded. Cuenca was chosen to pilot the hand-over.
Cajas, a little-known National Recreation Area, became Cajas National Park in 1996. Tourists and travelers discovered the park when a road was completed over the Andean divide to Guayaquil. As managed by the Ministry of the Environment, operations were sketchy. For example, about the only evidence that a park existed at all was that there were a couple of rangers in a hut arbitrarily collecting fees.
