Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Citibank and Goldman Sachs would be interested in the debt-for-conservation swap proposed when creating a new protected area in Galapagos

The Minister of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, Gustavo Manrique, describes Ecuador’s participation in COP26, which is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, as an “extraordinary” success. He states that the country has made headlines in the international press by announcing the creation of a new protected area of ​​60,000 square kilometers in Galapagos: “We have given a concrete example of conservation right now and not for 2030, 2050.”

He adds that the debt-for-conservation swap mechanism from which the resources will be obtained to protect this new area and the entire archipelago has had an echo in the main financial institutions worldwide. President Guillermo Lasso, due to his banking expertise, will evaluate the best option, says Manrique.

We know that the COP26 It will take place until next November 12 and that Ecuador maintains negotiators in Glasgow to finalize agreements, but so far what is the general balance of this summit for the country?

Without a doubt we have a very positive balance, really extraordinary to say it in a more categorical way. It was demonstrated that political will is the determining factor so that despite being a small country we can shine among any world power.

Ecuador went to Glasgow and demonstrated that the government of the meeting has a defined, clear, concise, concrete policy. Many of the announcements (environmental of the summit) are given for 2025, 2030, 2050, 2070, but Ecuador went and said it created the new Galapagos marine reserve to protect migratory species and, in addition, I connect with three more countries (Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama) creating an ecosystem of four countries.

Ecuador was and is the prima donna (lead female singer in opera, but the word is used colloquially to indicate that someone is the main thing in something) all over the world with concrete responses and actions running now, this year, not even next.

India at COP26 promised to be zero carbon only by 2070, this was highly questioned because it is one of the countries that pollutes the most. World powers are also redefining their strategies, as it appears that they will not meet their environmental goals. In this scenario, Ecuador appears, which pollutes relatively little and is in the process of development, and communicates the creation of this reserve. Don’t you think that in the end the greatest commitment to conservation is falling on countries like ours?

I think there is also a bit of sensationalism on the subject, in the headlines they put in the press. We were in big meetings. Norway pledged a non-reimbursable aid of $ 24 million for Ecuador. Perhaps this country is not a power like the United States, but it is an overdeveloped country that has all its main needs satisfied.

The latest report I have tells us that at COP26 at least $ 450 million has been mobilized for initiatives and programs for adaptation to climate change. The campaign for zero emissions in different countries of the world has channeled two trillion dollars.

So, there are many people who make headlines that we are not making progress and this COP, unlike others where it was discussed whether humans were responsible or not for climate change, whether or not we have to contribute to public policy, has been discussed how much It is going to be given, how it is going to be given, to whom it is going to be given and through which organizations the resources are channeled.

For this reason, I am very optimistic about the results that can be announced next week, since as the last day of the summit approaches, these announcements will be specified and known.

The fishing sector, last year, had said that it was not clear if the creation of a new protected area in Galapagos would be done for the conservation of species or to obtain international funds and that each of these figures carry different commitments. Finally, was it done for conservation or for funds?

It is a tandem of the two. One goes with the other. Obviously our main cause, what mobilizes us, what makes us go through thick and thin and reach these dialogues is conservation. The conversations with the fishing sector, be it artisanal or industrial, have been at an extraordinary height, we have held many meetings with different actors and the level of respect and professionalism was extraordinary.

In Glasgow they were surprised by two things: the creation of the reserve and having promoted the creation of this new area with the fishing sector. Imagine that the fishing sector agrees so that, in quotation marks, its area is reduced. The dialogue was extraordinary with the National Chamber of Fisheries and the National Federation of Fishing Cooperatives of Ecuador.

Now, the bottom line is conservation, but we need resources to control these reserves. Because if we create a reservation and tomorrow you don’t have technology, AIS (automatic identification system), a BMS (satellite tracking) system, airplanes, resources, all this falls apart. In reality, the end goal is conservation, but along the way you need resources.

President Lasso could have said that what will be saved in the debt swap goes to whatever he wants, because we are a sovereign country, but the president said that it will go 100% to conservation.

Now that you talk about the exchange for conservation, when that proposal was known last year the fishing sector assured that it was not convenient for the country in economic terms and sovereignty. Who will be in charge of choosing the best formula for this procedure?

Shoemaker, to your shoes. The limits of each portfolio and portfolio must be respected. We must understand that we have a president who is an administrator par excellence and who knows all this financial language very well and he has stated that the previous proposal is being evaluated and that he has opened a call to the world because different actors are needed such as financial structuring, banking investment, current bondholders, what they want to buy. The president and the finance minister are in the evaluation process.

And that call that President Lasso has made has an echo?

We have had messages this week from Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, from different portfolios and investment banks who want to participate in the process and it does not necessarily have to be just one.

However, what the president has said is that he is going to do it up to the maximum limit so that 100% of the benefits are destined for Ecuador, administered by the Ministry of the Environment and dedicated exclusively to the purpose for which this debt swap is carried out.

This exchange, in essence, is that a debt that is in certain conditions is renegotiated and reduced to a smaller size and the differential is used for conservation.

Environmentalists asked for 445,000 square kilometers of protection, but the fishing sector was proposing only 30,000. Two very distant proposals. How did the Government establish the 60,000 square kilometers and “satisfy” all the actors?

Well-managed controversy generates development. Personally, I think that the 445,000 kilometers was an absolutely disproportionate proposal in a country where the fishing fleet is the largest in the eastern Pacific, which is developing, where 7 out of 10 people do not have adequate work, where fishing generates more than $ 1.6 billion in exports.

So, we have reached this figure (60,000 square kilometers) where all parties feel comfortable, where we protect an area where non-target species navigate: sharks, whales, turtles, sea lions, manta rays. These species use this migration route to connect with Costa Rica.

With this historic decision, Ecuador redesigns new borders, the concept of which is applied by humans, since species do not understand borders. With the connection with Costa Rica, we can now say that we have a border with Panama in terms of species migration.

The announcement of the new reservation has already been made, but this does not mean that everything is already done. There are issues to be defined, such as the geographic coordinates of the area, the management plan, among others. When would the reservation on paper already be effective?

We want to invite some world actors involved for December and that they accompany President Lasso in signing the decree in Galapagos. The decree is a presidential instruction in which the Ministry of the Environment is ordered to create the marine reserve within very general frameworks.

Hence, it is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment to create the coordinates that are the measurements, establish the areas of no take, of no longline. Then the specific management plan that is given with the signing of the ministerial agreement. All of this I hope will be ready in the next six months.

The management plan for the current Galapagos Marine Reserve took more than five years to be published, will you really get the plan for the new area to be in six months?

In 150 days we have shown that we are a very efficient government in all portfolios. We arrived and there were 136,000 procedures dammed up and we have dispatched more than 40,000 in 150 days; a multi-purpose risk project that was dammed for nine years, we have taken it out in five months; The ministerial agreement for the recycling of batteries, which had been dammed for seven years, we removed in one hundred days.

There is no time to lose and worse if we talk about protection and conservation. This topic will be led by Environment, the Ministry of Production and the Galapagos National Park.

Many sectors criticized that President Lasso travel to Glasgow amid the protests that took place at the end of October. How important was the presence of the president at COP26?

There is nothing healthier than time. Sometimes having the patience to reach that moment when it can be shown that the decisions are wise or wrong. The world has woken up this week to news that Ecuador is a conservation leader, that Ecuador is creating a new marine reserve.

Everyone celebrating that Ecuador was not just promises, but concrete actions and that despite the fact that we are developing, we make commitments. I do not believe that there has been such a positive, clearly positive, impeccable campaign and a message is sent to the world that Ecuador works in a balance between production and conservation.

So, the president’s decision to go was fundamental, essential, and it pays off handsomely, to leave at a time when there were demonstrations in the country. (I)