The NFAP of Ecuador, Programa de Acción Forestal de Ecuador (PAFE), was set up in 1990. The final document contained 59 project profiles, to be implemented between 1991 and 1995. An international round table was organized in January 1991, with the intensive participation of the international community. Although the quality of the NFAP documents was good and the support from the donor community was very positive and enthusiastic, the PAFE, as a process, stagnated.
The reasons were manifold: the lack of a separate National Coordinating Unit and the limited institutional capacity of the Subsecretariat of Renewable Natural Resources (SUFOREN) which was in charge of the PAFE implementation; delays in the provision of the pledged international support; a change in the federal government in August 1992, and subsequent new priorities in the national forest policies (Modernization of the State, Master Plan of Reforestation, Master Plan of Biological Diversity, etc.), institutional delays, and changes in the personnel with subsequent loss of the "institutional memory" and knowledge about the process; and loss of interest by institutions in the public sector, private sector and NGOs.
In September 1992, the Institute for Forestry, Natural Areas and Wildlife of Ecuador (INEFAN) was created as an autonomous institution linked to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador, with inter alia a Directorate of Planning, responsible for the preparation of Operative Annual Plans, budget and finance planning and international cooperation. Through INEFAN, many of the main conclusions and recommendations developed under the PAFE are currently being followed up. In fact, the creation of INEFAN itself can be linked to a PAFE recommendation for the strengthening of the forestry sector and the creation of a strong umbrella organization. PAFE had made a recommendation for an increase in forest plantations which led to the establishment by INEFAN of a Master Plan of Reforestation and the reforestation over the past three years of some 23 000 ha. PAFE recommended the establishment of a national programme on biological diversity, and a Master Plan of Biological Diversity was prepared and presented by INEFAN, approved for funding under the Global Environmental Facility and is now being executed. Moreover, many of the project profiles which were presented by the PAFE and approved by international donors are now being executed.
