Resumen:
: Deforestation is a severe threat to diversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region (EAR). To
mitigate deforestation, it is necessary to know the relevant stakeholders’ roles and interactions and
deepen our knowledge of the local livelihoods, objectives, potentials, limitations, and “rights of
being” among farms, as well as the best management practices (BMPs). In this study, our aim was to
identify and assess livestock BMPs along an elevational gradient to foster sustainable production
and reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). This approach could be
environmentally and economically beneficial. Data were collected from 167 households along three
elevational gradients, as well as from 15 interviews held among a multidisciplinary panel of key
stakeholders and researchers in the EAR. The results showed that most of the Kichwa population
lives in the medium zone, which features a larger agricultural and forest surface. Conversely, in
the lower and upper areas, livestock predominates, where the upper area is specialized in milk
production and the lower area in dual-purpose cattle (meat and dairy). The stakeholder assessment
provided several key results: (a) social, structural, and technical factors have complementary effects
on BMP adoption; (b) the sixteen assessed BMPs facilitated the implementation of existing financial
incentive programs and enabled public–private partnerships to develop REDD+ projects. The policy
implications of implementing these approaches are also discussed.
