Successful soil conservation in the Ecuadorian Highlands

Excerpt

A program of sustainable land use that promotes soil conservation while improving the economic lot of participating farmers has been initiated in the Ecuadorian Highlands of the Andes Mountains. The program is the Sustainable Land Use Management Project (SULAMAN), previously called the Community Land Use Management Project. Its creation follows the establishment of the National Soil Conservation Program by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Agriculture. The program's objective is to “introduce sustainable soil conservation practices and a conservationist ethic to small farmers cultivating steeply sloped lands in order to improve production and enable cultivators to earn from their lands an adequate livelihood on a sustained basis” (2).

The program began in three provinces in 1985 (Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, and Tungur-ahua). It proved so successful that two additional provinces (Canar and Loja) were added to the program in 1988 and three more (Azuay, Bolivar, and Imbabura) in 1989.

The Highlands

The Highlands are the mountain land on the flanks of the Inter-Andean corridor, a broad, high valley that extends north and south almost the length of Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador's capitol, is in the valley, virtually on the equator. Ambato, the administrative center of SULAMAN, is …