Germany and Ecuador plan to resume their cooperation on environmental protection and climate action, which has been on hold since December 2014. This is envisaged in an agreement signed in Berlin today by State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry Jochen Flasbarth, and Ecuadorian Environment Minister Lorena Tapia Nunéz. Both parties also stressed that over the coming weeks they would work hard to ensure a successful outcome at the Climate Summit taking place in Paris in December 2015.
State Secretary Flasbarth: "Ecuador has one the highest levels of biodiversity worldwide and as a committed party to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an important partner for the German government. I am therefore delighted that our bilateral cooperation is starting up again and can be continued under the BMUB's International Climate Initiative (ICI)". Projects supported by the BMUB through the ICI include forest conservation work and nature conservation areas in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.
The two countries highlighted the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks will attend the UN meeting of heads of state and government at the end of September for the adoption of the 2030 Agenda.
Last December the Ecuadorian government refused members of the Environment Committee of the German Bundestag entry into the country and declared an end to the environmental cooperation with Germany. Talks in Berlin over the following weeks and months succeeded in resolving the misunderstanding , thus clearing the way for resuming the dedicated and close cooperation between the two countries.