The Ecuadorian Condor Bioreserve Initiative

The Condor Bioreserve (CBR) initiative is an attempt by government and non-governmental agencies to manage four ecological reserves and their surrounding areas and populations in Northern Ecuador for sustainability and natural resource conservation. The goal of this paper is to assist the participants at the CBR, and the interested reader, in understanding the decision process in which they are involved; the authors provide a general framework for understanding decision processes and problem solving approaches. Key issues addressed include social process, decision process, and the common interest. Social process refers to the context within which decision-making takes place, and includes the analysis of participants, their perspectives, values, and strategies, and the outcomes and effects of their interactions. Decision process refers to the various activities which constitute most problem-solving and policy-making processes: initiation, estimation, selection, implementation, evaluation and termination. In our discussion, we take the normative position that for decision processes to result in conservation or sustainability, they must seek to find the common interest. We discuss the difference between special interests and the common interest, and provide some tests to determine whether decision processes in the CBR initiative contribute to the common interest. Finally, we suggest that (1) analysis of existing experience within Ecuador, (2) utilizing the problem-solving framework we have proposed, and (3) widespread diffusion of this knowledge to CBR participants will help policymakers and managers in their attempts to find the common interest and promote conservation and sustainable development.