Exchange network

The platform brought together 73 experiences associated with Sustainable Forest Management, of which 70% have been developed in the Colombian Amazon, 25% in other territories of the country and 5% are international experiences and that according to their intervention are located in one of the categories of ExpoBosques:1) Human Welfare and Governance, 2) Digital Tools, 3) Forestry Extension and Financing, 4) Forest Management and Ecosystem Services and 5) Value Addition and Commercialization.This allowed the creation of an exchange network that promotes replication, especially in the Amazon.

The willingness of the entities, communities, institutions and companies to share the successes, challenges and impacts of their experiences and to participate in the exchange, made it possible to replicate new knowledge in a practical way.

The exchange through a mobile application, allowed the creation of this exchange network despite the effects of the pandemic and allowed to join efforts aimed at the protection and conservation of the Amazon, also gives visibility to organizations and rural associations that carry out activities for sustainable forest management, which can promote the replication of the experiences of greatest interest.Throughout ExpoBosques, more than 3,000 interactions took place between participants and exhibitors and more than 6,000 experiences were made visible in the different forums open to the public.

Improving framework conditions for the development of value chains

Multi-stakeholder consultation frameworks have been set up to guide and monitor the development of wood-energy value chains in the target regions.

In the Eastern Region, a regional platform has been set up by the Minister in charge of forests and wildlife, under the chairmanship of the Regional Governor.

In the Far North, a regional wood-energy unit (CRBE) has been set up.

These consultation frameworks are held every six months, and serve as a forum for taking stock of progress in the value chains concerned, as well as formulating guidelines for their smooth operation.

The strategic direction of the wood-energy value chains, embodied in the strategy documents drawn up, is the result of a consultation process involving the various stakeholders meeting within these consultative bodies.

The resolutions resulting from these meetings have enabled certain advances to be made, namely: i) the definition of a regulatory framework for the production and marketing of wood-energy; ii) the development and validation of guideline standards for the management of dryland forests.

  • Raising awareness among political decision-makers of the importance of the wood-energy sector;
  • Good participation of the various value chain players concerned in the meetings called;
  • Good follow-up of the platform's recommendations by the technical secretariat set up.
  • Funding for meetings of the CRBE in the Far North and the Plateforme Régionale Bois énergie in the East must be included in the budgets of local forestry departments to ensure the sustainability of these discussion forums;
  • The involvement of all categories of stakeholders in the various links of the wood-energy value chains has enabled us to propose regulatory texts that are adapted to reality and conducive to the development of these value chains;
  • Monitoring the evolution of wood-energy value chains within the framework of the CRBE or the Eastern platform, has helped to improve governance in the management of the value chains concerned.
Capacity Building and Awareness Raising

The NEPL NP ecotourism program directly and indirectly creates skills and capacity building opportunities and awareness raising for the following groups: (1) NEPL NP ecotourism team itself (2) Ecotourism communities and service providers (3) Visitors, TOs and the government counterparts.

 

When NEPL NP program began in 2010, tourism was almost non-existing in the region. By offering an opportunity to learn to the locals and recruiting tourism consultants to support, the NEPL NP ecotourism staff now has grown into some of the most experienced ecotourism professionals in the country. Most of these staff come from the NEPL NP villages and are from a former hunter households or even used to be hunters themselves. By working with the NEPL NP, staff have learned about the importance of conservation and today are well acknowledged ecotourism officers and conservation advocates. Some of the NEPL NP’s ecotourism staff have raised up to key NEPL NP management and advisory positions.

 

The NEPL NP ecotourism team now creates and coordinates ecotourism training opportunities and outreach campaigns. In addition, NEPL NP ecotourism program has a non-negligible awareness raising power that benefits all visitors as well as TOs and the government counterparts.

  • Trainings, Workshops, and Study Tours
  • Close collaboration with key decision makers
  • Close collaboration with local community and government agencies throughout the development and management of the projects is essential.
  • During the ecotourism program beginning, recruiting qualified local human resources was challenging, therefore, staff from other provinces were selected. However, due to the NEPL NP’s remote location, these staff moved away after short period of time. Recruiting less qualified, but local and motivated staff and providing the necessary skills and capacity building opportunities have presented greater results and higher level of commitment.
Institutional coordination for scaling up technological processes in family livestock farming.

The Resilient Family Livestock project is the result of an inter-institutional articulation process that includes:

  • First degree family producer organizations (6 Rural Development Societies), second degree (National Commission for Rural Development - CNFR), and third degree of regional coverage (Confederation of Family Producer Organizations of MERCOSUR - COPROFAM).
  • The National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), a public entity under private law.
  • The Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP), a government agency that provided political backing for the development of the action.

This network interacted with other institutions such as the University of the Republic (UDELAR), the Ministry of the Environment (MA), the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI), IICA and the Delegation of the European Union in Uruguay.

  • Previous CNFR projects with INIA and UDELAR (co-innovation in family production).
  • Existence of validated good livestock practices for family livestock production.
  • Alignment with NDCs (2017): GHG mitigation, adaptation and resilience of livestock systems to climate change.
  • CNFR membership in COPROFAM for scalability of co-innovation and inter-institutional articulation processes in the region.
  • Access to funding sources such as EUROCLIMA+.
  • The development of extension actions with family livestock requires an integral methodological approach such as Co-innovation.
  • The role of producers' organizations is key for the implementation of effective public policies in rural areas.
  • Good livestock practices require long terms to generate results and impacts on family systems.
Promoting climate-resilient natural resource-based economy and businesses

The project increases the generation of ecosystem goods and services and promotes the establishment of commercially viable natural resource-based businesses managed by local communities. To establish such businesses, the project conducted a baseline study including an assignment on the Economics and Market Analysis for establishing financially viable natural resource-based businesses in the Gambia. The report proposed 7 potential business portfolios and defined the financial implications of these natural resource-based businesses for the contributions to the National Forest Fund (NFF) through a detailed discounted cash flow analysis. One such activity to facilitate the establishment of these businesses was the introduction of bee-fodder tree species to support bee farming in the community-owned forests and community-protected areas (CPAs).

 

The project also facilitated the integration of the EbA approach and natural resource-based businesses into existing government plans and activities and demonstrated and quantified their commercial viability to promote further investment by the government and the private sector beyond the project implementation period.

Access to enough natural resources is important and requires, if not available, restoration and related activities to ensure availability.

 

Enough funding is key to build the required infrastructure and start the business.

 

For the businesses to be economically viable and attractive for local people, they need to stem from participatory processes and answer community needs. Technical guidance and training to the population can support the process.

 

Having support from the government and environmental agencies is helpful.

Providing capital only is not enough to develop successful natural resource-based enterprises. A more holistic, capacity development approach is needed. To achieve sustainability and impact, it is crucial to adopt participatory approaches to incentivize community members to take part in the activities.

 

The importance of implementing natural resource-based businesses through suitable business models implies the development of a business culture along the value chains of forest products to facilitate value addition and link producers and vendors to input and output markets. This requires:

 

  1. Developing appropriate institutional arrangements to extend credit to actors in the Small and Medium Forest Enterprises (SMFEs); create awareness among value chain actors of appropriate financial sources, and establish credit guarantee schemes for producers and cooperative organizations.
  2. Developing and improving the knowledge of market information systems and quality control measures and standards.
  3. Strengthening community-based organizations of SMFEs to access services and facilitate their partnership with private sector entities.
Adopting mitigation measures to reduce the impact of climate risks

Based on the results of baseline studies that determined climatic risks, different ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation measures were identified and individual farmers and community-based organizations were incentivized to lead the various activities through diverse training (led by World Agroforestry (ICRAF)); including:

  1. The establishment of a two-meter-wide fire belt around all preferred mother trees, large trees within a forest that act as centralized hubs, supporting communication and nutrient exchange amongst trees.
  2. Farmer-managed tree growing approach, named Zai Pits, half-moon planting pits, which farmers create in the hardpan soil using hand tools or plows and animals. These act as micro-water catchments, holding about four times the amount of water that normally runs off the land but also compost, thereby increasing production.
  3. Adding water-buffering vegetation around the runoff water collection reservoir to reduce wind flow over the reservoir and thus reduce evaporation from the system. The system also facilitates reduction in runoff and enhances groundwater recharge through infiltration.
  4. Rainwater harvesting, storage, and distribution techniques were implemented to support the restoration efforts and overcome the shortage in water resources due to extreme weather conditions and low rainfall.

It is crucial to conduct baseline studies to determine the climatic risks, and then select adequate adaptation and mitigation measures, in light of local specificities. To choose the most appropriate and effective measures, access to enough knowledge from national and local sources (indigenous communities, national institutes, and ministries, local NGOs, etc) is key, and enough financial resources, human resources, and time should be allocated to the implementation of these measures.

  • By applying the correct planting or restoration method, such as assisted natural regeneration and having adequate access to resources, the survival rate went from 10-48% to almost 95% after three months of planting. Now these measures are being replicated in other community-owned forests and community-protected areas (CPAs). 
  • Constraints, other than genetic and/or climatic, should be carefully explored and addressed to increase the survival rate of seedlings (e.g., bushfire, water shortage, grazing by wild and/or domestic animals including those coming through seasonal transhumance, etc)
  • In certain regions, there is only a short rainy season. Seedlings that are planted late in the rainy season can therefore struggle to survive the long season and the heat.  
  • To increase the survival of the seedlings, measures such as the establishment of a fire-belt, or the use of water-buffering vegetation, might be required.
  • The adoption of farmer-managed tree growing approaches and the establishment of rainwater harvesting structures at the project sites might be necessary for an effective large-scale restoration.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Constructing new plant nurseries and genes banks
Adopting mitigation measures to reduce the impact of climate risks
Promoting climate-resilient natural resource-based economy and businesses
UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
Constructing new plant nurseries and genes banks
Adopting mitigation measures to reduce the impact of climate risks
Promoting climate-resilient natural resource-based economy and businesses