Conservation and sustainable use of crop wild relatives (CWR) and edible wild species (EWS), under an institutional framework and the development of rural community initiatives in Ecuador To strengthen institutional systems for the implementation and enforcement of measures for the registration, in situ conservation and sustainable use of CWR and EWS in Ecuador, as a complementary scope for the incorporation of CWR and EWS in local, national and global strategies for the conservation of agrobiodiversity and its contribution to the improvement of the quality of life of the rural population. Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency. The main benefit of the project will be the improvement of the capacities of the national and local actors in the areas of intervention of the project, to face the challenges for the conservation, use and sustainable utilization of the CWR and EWS. In this sense, the project will contribute to the improved capacities of:  Improved management for the conservation of CWR and EWS of protected areas expressed in the increase in the management effectiveness score of the GEF monitoring tool (METT): Cotacachi National Park: from 60 to 61; Colonso Chalupas Ecological Reserve: from 56 to 60. (GEF Indicator 1.2). Other potential protected areas such as Sumaco-Napo-Galeras National Park and Llanganates National Park are expected to also benefit in their management, and will be reported in Terminal Evaluation.  50% (120) of institutional officials from MAATE, INIAP, MAG and local GADs (at least 20% women) for the conservation and management of the CWR and EWS.  1,200 beneficiaries (50% women and 50% men) sensitized and participating in the implementation of practices for the sustainable use of CWR and EWS to improve their livelihoods. Conservation and sustainable use of CWR and EWS. The conservation of CWR and EWS is a strategy that not only promotes the preservation of biodiversity per se, but also encourages the creation of "genetic reserves" representing vast and untapped potential for future crop improvement and coping with uncertainty caused by climate change and other negative environmental impacts. For example, the genetic contribution of wild species could increase crop productivity by as much as 1% per year (Flynn 2006 in Hunter and Heywood 2011). The project "In situ Conservation of Wild Relatives of Crops through Information Management and its Application in the Field", through its manual that was carried out in 2012, determined that wild relatives may have desirable characters that serve to provide crops with resistance to adverse environmental conditions, resistance to pests and diseases, increase nutritional properties, resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, among others (Hunter and Heywood 2011).In the short term, the project will promote opportunities in the use and sustainable utilization of CWR and EWS, as a strategy to support the economic reactivation of highly vulnerable populations, whose reality worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic that led to social and economic impacts of great proportions. According to the analysis carried out in the National Development Plan 2021-2025 Creating Opportunities, it is estimated that among the effects of COVID-19 in the country, the Ecuadorian economy decreased by 6.44%, the average nominal labor income was reduced by 12.6% for men and 7% for women, losing 532,000 jobs, of which approximately 76,000 were for women. This situation has left a large population in rural areas unemployed, who now see the exploitation of natural resources as the first emerging option for economic income, causing changes in land use that have almost doubled in some buffer zones of protected areas since the appearance of the virus.The benefits for the global environment are visualized, because the project aims to contribute to strengthening the conservation, use and sustainable utilization of biodiversity as a strategy to include or reinforce this issue within public policies, strategies and practices that link public and private actors that have an impact on biodiversity, but that at the same time can promote a balance between conservation, use and utilization of biodiversity.Food security and sovereignty. The Constitution of Ecuador, in its article 281, establishes that food sovereignty constitutes a strategic objective and an obligation of the State to guarantee that individuals, communities, peoples and nationalities achieve self-sufficiency in healthy and culturally appropriate food on a permanent basis. In the context of the project, the Andean and Amazonian chakras are seen as a cultural landscape that maintains strong identity and cultural ties between the population and nature, and promotes the maintenance of a high diversity of wild edible species. The project will promote sustainable management and conservation of these traditional agricultural practices, as a mechanism of food sovereignty in Ecuador, and in a complementary way, the conservation of wild relatives of crops will contribute to the security of crop production that could be affected by changing environments.The resulting socio-economic impacts mentioned above due to the presence of COVID-19 also materialize in terms of food security. Studies carried out at the regional level in Latin America and the Caribbean show that 40% of the poorest households are experiencing hunger and 50% are changing their consumption to less healthy diets. Unfortunately, the natural wealth contained in Ecuador is not only exposed to various threats, but also has not been used to improve the well-being of the Ecuadorian population. The indigenous, Afro-descendant and rural populations that have historically contributed to protecting and conserving the mega-biodiversity that Ecuador has, generally bear great deficiencies. The country has also not been able to take advantage of its agrobiodiversity to face some of its most felt needs, such as the high rates of malnutrition, which is particularly high among the child population.[1]Thus, the project proposes to generate direct benefits in terms of food security and sovereignty, as a response to the existing crisis. To meet this challenge, the project will launch various activities aimed at strengthening the knowledge of various actors about the importance and value of agrobiodiversity, especially CWR and EWS, in the perspective of revaluing its potentialities in the fight against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.Social role of protected areasThe increase in the size of protected areas worldwide occurs more clearly in regions that are home to the highest levels of biodiversity, where it is also very common to find conditions of high poverty, rapid population growth and political instability (Naughton-Treves, Holland, and Brandon 2005, 221). Studies show spatial overlaps between poverty, inequality and biodiversity in many countries located in the tropics. Spatially, rural poverty may be highest where biodiversity is greatest, i.e., the “rich forests, poor people” syndrome. (Peluso 1994 cited in Naughton-Treves, Holland, and Brandon 2005, 241). That situation is clearly evident in Ecuador, with the conditions of poverty present around protected areas, and that was previously analyzed.                      This reality has generated conflicts between the local population and conservation initiatives (Roe 2008 cited in Oldekop; Holmes, Harris y Evans 2015, 134; Cumming and Allen 2017, 1709). Above all, the establishment of the protected areas that make up the National System of Protected Areas, in many cases, have been the beginning of socio-environmental conflicts that continue today. Possibly little or no prior socialization with owners or possessors; decisions to evict or relocate people; or, the lack of political decision that at the time did not have enough firmness to apply current legal provisions, have been, among others, the causes of these problems and conflicts (EC MAE 2015, 202-05). As can be seen, and it is important to emphasize, even when the identification of the social component has repercussions on the management of protected areas, it has not yet been directly visualized by the national environmental authority. For example, it analyzes how the bad administration of the area affects society, or how human actions affect the state of conservation of the area; but very little has been analyzed and documented on the social impact of protected areas from an eminently social approach (Bruner et al., 2001; Butchart et al., 2010 cited in Porter-Bolland et al. 2011, 7). In this context, the project will be able to work as a pilot, with populations living in and around four protected areas, in order to contribute to the improvement of their livelihoods, based on the use and utilization of biodiversity.          [1] The high rates of chronic child malnutrition - where 3 out of 10 children under two years of age suffer from it - has made Ecuador the country with the second highest proportion of child malnutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Guatemala. (UNICEF, 2021).