Summary report on process and achievements in the four pilot cities
A. Background
A.1 City Overview (100 words)
Esmeraldas is medium sized coastal city located in the northwestern corner of Ecuador. It is part
of the Chocó bio-geographical region that has one of the highest rates of biodiversity in the
world. Esmeraldas covers a land area of 16,155.97 km2 with a population, estimated for the year
2010, of 124,538 inhabitants. As in most cities in Ecuador, urban growth in Esmeraldas has
mostly been associated with illegal occupations of land in areas surrounding the consolidated
city. For the year 2009, close to 60% of the dwellings did not have a building permit, as they are
located in high-risk areas to natural disasters.
This section would provide basic information on the city (in line with the flyers) prior to CCCI.
A.2 Starting the Cities and Climate Change initiative (100 words)
With the support of UN-Habitat, the local government carried out the UN-Habitat’s Localizing
Agenda 21 Program. Through this initiative, Esmeraldas’ authorities were able to strength
institutional capacities and develop participatory process for environmental planning and
management. Tools such as, Canton’s Environment Urban Diagnostic were elaborated and the
Planning and Environmental Management Unit became stronger. From the beginning of UNHabitat work, the Esmeraldas authorities were interested in developing tools to managed risk and
climate change consequences, however, as a medium sized city it was difficult to include climate
change criteria in their planning actions, although most of the information is available for
decision makers.
B. Climate Change Assessments
B1. Initial Climate Change Assessment / scoping study (100 words)
An assessment of challenges and opportunities to climate change in the Esmeraldas city was
carried out to define how the current institutional framework and governance conditions allow
effective adaptation actions and to propose a set of tools designed to promote the adoption of
climate-aware economic, social and environmental agendas. Three Climate Change scenarios
were used to define likely related impact, however due to the information available these
projections were running at national level. In Esmeraldas likely impacts are linked to increased
land surface temperatures, sea level rise and uncertain impacts such as changes in precipitation
patterns, in cloud cover and wind patterns. This will indirectly impact on increased urban
immigration from affected rural populations; reduced food production; and changes in the
ecological stock and processes.
B2. Follow-up In-Depth Assessments (600 words)
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To understand the municipality point of view about climate change, the CCCI team conducted
two workshops with the municipality and local partners. The challenges and opportunities of
climate change were defined and discussed from a city perspective. Two problems were,
repeatedly, highlighted by the workshops participants: (1) water supply and distribution system,
and (2) the illegal dwellings located on landslide prone sites and flood zones. While, the main
objective is to include mitigation and adaptation actions in the local urban planning system, and
to strengthen local awareness on climate change; four objectives were defined:
1. To collect data on climate change to support decision makers;
2. To implement mitigation and adaptation actions;
3. To increase awareness on local population and promote educational programmes;
4. To promote technology transfer for local industries.
In partnership with the local university, civil society in Esmeraldas was also invited to discuss
about climate change impacts in the city.
University students, professionals, women groups, youth representatives, parish presidents and
local associations participated in a two-day debate. As in the former meetings water supply and
landslides were the main identified impacts.
However, citizens are also aware of:
1) Greenhouse gas emissions coming from the local oil refinery;
2) Need to increase knowledge and communication on climate change issues and green
practices;
3) High contamination of water supplies.
Besides, the CCCI programme in partnership with the Esmeraldas Municipality is collecting data
to improve information and decision making process to prevent the impacts landslides and
floods. The main result of this initiative will help decision makers to identify urban settlements
located in natural risk areas. A software is also being developed to support risk management. The
programme includes specific risk prevention information about social infrastructure, including
hospital and schools; main evacuation paths, as well as populations under risk. Finally, the CCCI
programme signed up a contract to develop a property registry project of the new settlements
areas located on flood zones, mainly on the south part of the city along the Esmeraldas River.
Most of the poorest settlements in Esmeraldas are illegally occupying urban land located in risk
areas, with no or limited access to public services. As a partial answer to this, CCCI Ecuador is
implementing urban agriculture activities, including permaculture systems to minimize wastes,
and to increase urban land productivity, while restoring the urban environment. Several families
built dry toilets (baños secos) and used human waste to produce vegetable gardens and other
products.
C. Climate Change Plans (adaptation plans and mitigation plans can be dealt with together) (600
words)
The Esmeraldas’ Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy will be launched in March 2011. This
document will summarise technical information available (such as the initial assessment report:
“Adaptation to Climate Change in Ecuador and the City of Esmeraldas: an assessment of
challenges and opportunities”) and will highlight the main concerns and expectations from the
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urban dwellers in Esmeraldas. The Strategy will also include up to date information about urban
settlements located in natural disaster areas, as well as information on property register.
The document will propose recommendations, potential for partnerships, and key activities to
adapt the city of Esmeraldas to climate change.
The main mitigation plan will include:
 Reforestation;
 Transport control;
 Waste management;
 Greenhouse gas emissions reduction (as a result of green technology implemented)
The main adaptation actions will include:
 Capacity building and educational programmes for water use;
 Educational programmes on climate change;
 Improvement of water supply and distribution system;
 Consultations and agreed settlements relocation from vulnerable areas, and
participatory urban planning to increase city resilience to Climate Change.
D. National consultation (300 words)
CCCI Ecuador has worked in close partnership with the Municipality of Quito in the
implementation of the pilot activities in Esmeraldas. Over the past years, the Municipality of
Quito made significant institutional efforts to incorporate Climate Change criteria in city
planning. CCCI Ecuador encouraged city-to-city cooperation as a unique opportunity to learn
from the Quito’s experience.
CCCI Ecuador worked in close partnership with the Ministry of Environment is taking the lead
in developing the National Climate Change Strategy, together with the National Development
and Planning Secretary.
However, efforts need to be pursued to strengthen the Climate Change agenda in Ecuador at
national level.
While Esmeraldas’ pilot activities led by CCCI Ecuador help local authorities to include climate
change criteria in their planning exercise; partnerships need to be strengthened at national level
to impact on public policies and climate change tools.
The experiences in Esmeraldas and Quito shall be used to develop a methodological manual to
design climate change strategies for cities in Ecuador.
Next steps for policy makers in Ecuador to better understand climate change consequences shall
be to put in place a national system to collect better and more detailed climate data.
CCCI Ecuador is also working with the MIDUVI (Ministry of Housing) and the CAE
(Association of Architects in Ecuador) in organizing a competition to produce housing
prototypes to promote green buildings and alternative construction technologies for affordable
housing options. This initiative is part of a national social housing project “Socio Vivienda”, to
support the construction of pro-poor and affordable housing solutions.
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