Landscape approach to conservation through externally-aided projects
Creation of a fund to sustain conservation programmes
Knowledge transfer in regenerative soil management.
Defining environmental problems
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This building block consists of transferring knowledge of regenerative soil management to technicians, producers and state officials.
We offer a diploma course in Holistic Management at the Earth Center—our educational facility that offers an average of 40 workshops annually and capitalizes on GESGIAP’s 30 years of experience in conservation and sustainable development. The diploma course in Holistic Management is attended by officials, technicians, producers, and students and covers topics such as Key-line hydrological designs, pest control, bio-intensive crops, and preparation of bio-fertilizers. It is having a real impact on the formulation of public policies in the state of Querétaro, the application of resources, the management of livestock herds, and therefore, in the regeneration of soils.
Workshops, networking events where participants share their experiences, and on-going technical training and support to producers who adopt regenerative management tools, are also fundamental to this building block.
We ensure that necessary conditions are met by building alliances between producers, technicians, and officials; guiding and orienting public policies; providing technical training and support to producers; managing resources for optimal infrastructure development; and fostering a sense of responsibility and environmental stewardship in participants. In this way, we create a culture of conservation and participatory, ecological citizenship that is receptive to implementing regenerative soil management.
We have learned that in order to achieve a permanent impact, we must accompany projects until we are sure that participants have developed all necessary capacities. We must also provide support to participants to develop infrastructure and acquire equipment; continuously organize workshops for alliance-building among participants; optimize resource management; ensure a balance between conserving resources and generating economic opportunities; and establish monitoring and evaluation schemes that systematize experiences and record the impact of actions and strategies.
Biodiversity conservation, often seen as an economic burden for rural communities, is not guaranteed by the sole act of decreeing a territory as a protected area. Yet because of GESGIAP’s work for over 30 years—educating, training, providing technical accompaniment—we are seeing the emergence of a society with sustainability capabilities and a sense of belonging, defending the territory and working to restore biodiversity.
"Action learning" and monitoring to increase capacities and knowledge
Implementation of scalable EbA measures to increase forest cover and water availability
Consolidating inclusive governance for adaptation
Sustainable territorial planning for the region
The Ecological Planning Working Group of the Initiative will conduct research, analysis, and surveys, and facilitate indigenous peoples' own bio-cultural mapping. Mapping provides geospatial analysis for planning at the larger landscape scales. Compiling and integrating layers of information such as pending indigenous lands claims, industrial threats, wildlife corridors, hunting grounds, protection status, ecosystem types and biodiversity data, population data, access routes, and fluvial links helps the alliance establish priorities and make sound governance decisions. In addition, such biocultural mapping is a key aspect of storytelling.
- Work will be carried out and guided by indigenous leaders and technical teams to weave together a tapestry of indigenous life plans, further flesh out implementation and find emergent threads. Examples of potential emergent threads include developing capacity for implementing self-reliant renewable energy and/or transportation systems; training and coordination for watershed restoration and water quality management; and establishing a regional hub for incubating and innovating solutions.
- Engage academic sector
- Conduct research focusing on solutions and alternatives to current growth-focused economic models that are based on export-driven resource extraction industries and that instead focus on alternative indicators of wellbeing
- Exploration of models of indigenous co-governance in other parts of the Amazon or the world
Indigenous life plans respond to a development vision of the indigenous territories so it is important to ensure its implementation, respecting the particularities of each community and each indigenous group. These natural resource plans are created through collaborative decision-making, and provide tools for self-governance and participatory management that harness the collective wisdom of the community.
An initial process of gathering all the indigenous life plans has started since last year. However, various indigenous groups need financial resources to update their life plans.
Social business company for commercializing cooperative products
The Silver Back Company Ltd is a social business company created by the Environment and Rural Development Foundation(ERuDeF) in 2013 to assist communities in ERuDeF's areas of operation commercialise products produce by cooperatives.
Proceeds generated through the Silver Back Company will be used towards the capitalization of the Forest Protection Fund (a community based conservation trust fund) and the ERuDeF Endownment Fund (designated to support the charitable activities of ERuDeF) and partly reinvested into the company.
The factors include; Availability of Non-Timber Forest Products such as Palm Oil, Eru, Natural Honey and by-Products etc, Availability of well organized cooperative societies in the protected area and the collaboration of the local communities.
The lessens learned include;
New strategy needs to be in place to enhance the effective implementation.
Training and capacity building to be intensify.
New products to be identified and their corresponding value chains developed
Cooperative Societies to be trained and capacities built on sustainable production of goods.
