Ecuador protects Amazon with second debt-for-nature deal

By AFP

Ecuador announced Tuesday that it had converted part of its $1.5 billion of external debt into protection for the Amazon rainforest, the second so-called debt-for-nature swap in the South American country.

Economy Minister Juan Carlos Vega said that the government had renegotiated the debt to secure a new $1 billion loan "with better payment conditions."

The operation generated over $460 million in savings, which were "exclusively destined to the protection of our Amazon," Vega told an event in the capital Quito attended by President Daniel Noboa.

Debt-for-nature swaps are an increasingly popular tool to help developing countries refinance and raise money for environmental or climate causes.

Last year, Ecuador converted $1.6 billion of debt into a loan deal that included $450 million in funding for marine conservation in the Galapagos Islands.

The UN World Heritage Site situated 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off Ecuador's coast is where British naturalist Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution.

Barbados last week completed what it called the world's first debt-for-climate resilience swap.

The Caribbean island said the deal would allow it to invest $165 million in helping it adapt to climate change.

In October, the Central American nation of El Salvador announced that it would invest $350 million in conservation of the Lempa river -- one of the longest in Central America -- as part of a debt-for-nature deal.