One of the main issues regarding the implementation of REDD+ in Latin America has been the growing concern that such projects may infringe upon the rights and negatively affect the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. Various indigenous and civil society organizations are ardently opposed to the initiative. Such is the case in Ecuador, where indigenous opposition to REDD+ represents a considerable obstacle in the creation of a national strategy since more than 60% of the country‘s remaining forest cover is on indigenous land or under indigenous occupation. Thus one of the most critical challenges remaining for Ecuador will be the construction of a strong legal, financial, and institutional framework—one that the greater indigenous community might be willing to accept.

This Sourcebook by the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD), the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) develops a framework for standardising approaches for selecting indicators, and proposes a menu of core indicators for monitoring and evaluating agriculture and rural development (ARD) activities. Ultimately, the objective is to improve the quality of monitoring and evaluation of agriculture and rural development programmes at the national and global levels.