Marcela Aguiñaga, Minister of Environment of Ecuador, cordially invites you to the side event organized by the Government of Ecuador at the COP14 in Poznan.

• Title: "Avoiding deforestation while benefiting local people: The Socio Bosque Program in Ecuador"
• Date: December 8th
• Time: 18:00 to 19:30
• Where: Room Grebe (UNFCCC COP14) Poznan, Poland (please double check the venue at the monitors during the conference)

This year, the Government of Ecuador launched its national "Forest Partners Program" ("Programa Socio Bosque" in Spanish). Socio Bosque consists of direct annual monetary incentives per hectare of forest given by the Government to individual landowners or indigenous communities who voluntarily decide to protect their native forest. Socio Bosque assures direct and equitable benefits for the local people who contribute to the reduction of deforestation rates, and seeks reconciliation between conservation and human well being.

With the program, the government aims at protecting 4 million hectares of native forest, significant reductions of GHG emissions caused by deforestation, and improvement of the living conditions of 1 million of the poorest people of the country. Socio Bosque is the central component of a national REDD proposal of Ecuador, a country that is committed to solutions for climate change.