LAUSR

The effective implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to forests (SDG15) and water resources (SDG6) have significant implications for achieving quality of life for people in urban and rural areas. We carried out a study in the rural parishes of the Metropolitan District of Quito (MDQ), Ecuador. The objective of the study was to assess how biophysical factors, institutional capacity and institutional complexity influence the perceived effectiveness of forest and water management. Ordinal logistic regressions were applied and spatial lag regressions were also calculated to assess the possible spatial correlation of the dependent variables. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation analyses (Gi* and Anselin Local Moran´s I) were applied to assess the perceived effectiveness. The regressions results show that the number of stakeholders involved in the management of each resource, used as a proxy for institutional complexity, was a significant variable (p-value = 0.003 for forest resource management and p-value = 0.027 for water resource management) when explaining perceived effectiveness. The spatial autocorrelation results show spatial hotspots (90% and 99% confidence) and a cluster (95 % confidence) of forest management effectiveness as well as some spatial outliers (95% confidence) of water and forest management effectiveness. These findings were put in context to assess the current institutional arrangements used by local actors to implement SDGs 6 and 15. The results obtained may be useful for improving local public policies that seek integrated implementation for SDGs 6 and 15, while the applied methods can be transferred to the study of other SDGs.