The creation of a permanent fund to cover management expenses in protected areas, has helped government managed administrations to have an annual budget to cover their main operational activities, such is the case of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve.

This fund is officially known as the Protected Areas Fund (PAF) and was established as part of a 1999 initiative carried on by Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment and the National Environmental Fund, the initiative was also supported by international organizations. The main goal was to diversify financial sources for public-sponsored protected areas and ensure financial resources in the long term.

The National Environmental Fund established in 1996 served as the main precedent to the PAF. It was considered as “an independent financial mechanism available to support plans, programs, projects, and any activity pursuing the protection, preservation, and improvement of the environment and natural resources”. This fund, created as a private organization, administered and channeled financial resources, provided technical counseling, but didn’t participate in the direct implementation of any initiative.

The Amazonian border integration initiative known as the Tri-National Program, was promoted by the Administrators of three protected areas (The La Paya National Park-Colombia, the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve-Ecuador, and the Güeppí National Park-Peru), enabling a management optimization under a regionally coordinated model.

It all started in 2005 as a result of the dialogue efforts carried on by the representatives of the three Protected Areas. In 2006 the initiative was consolidated as the Tri-National Program, since then it has continuously been strengthened over time.

The first important decision towards financial support for the initiative, was sought trough an agreement among the environmental funds available in each of the three participating countries. Afterwards, additional financial support was pursued through several projects that could cover the expenses of priority lines such as protected and buffer area’s management, social participation, organizational capacity improvement and the conservation corridor´s enhancement.

In this context, the Goverments united to seek operational, technical and financial mechanisms to ensure the conservation and sustainable development of the Corridor, with the ambition of becoming a successful pilot experience of transboundary management.

One of the great challenges for the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve was the consolidation of its boundaries and securing management agreements with the local populations and indigenous organizations. Under the previous logic of integrating cultural variables in the national preservation process, the project “Delimitation of the lower region, conflict resolution, and awareness of the communities about the resource management and use in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve” was successfully created.

The project main goal was to preserve the biological and cultural integrity of the Reserve under a strong alliance between the MAE and the indigenous communities that inhabit and coexisted in the territory: Siona, Secoya, Cofán, Kicwa, and Shuar.

As a result, in 1995 began the process of establishing Natural Resources Use and Management Agreements with most of the communities in these five indigenous nations. Such efforts promoted local participation and the recognition of the Protected Area for shared management.

The agreements became formal documents that legitimized the communities’ right to live in the Reserve and use the natural resources within under special conditions.

CITIES WITHOUT HUNGER contributed to the passage of a bill on urban agriculture in São Paulo in 2004 (Lei 13.727, de 12 de Janeiro de 2004). By this law, the institutional and legal framework for urban agriculture in São Paulo was created. 

The project aimed to improve governance of land and water resources at the community-level in order to enhance community resilience to water hazards and promote sustainable drylands management. This entailed several measures:

• Establishment of a water resource management committee that is responsible for the water retention structure, for undertaking early warning and preparedness for flood and drought; and for ensuring that water is proportionally distributed. The committee also liaises with wider landscape management programmes and the government and NGOs.
• Demarcation of the migratory route for pastoralist communities in order to reduce potential conflict over animals entering farmlands, and farms encroaching into rangelands.
• Establishment of revolving funds for agriculture (seed bank) and livestock drugs to sustain livelihood activities and provide continued services over the longer term period.

Building strong partnerships at the local and national level and working with the local community is essential for the implementation and overall success and sustainability of the project.

Furthermore it was essential to connect the local communities to government bodies and ensure the state takes joint ownership of the activities so that any future support that is needed can be sought from the government.

The project invested significantly in building capacity for Eco-DRR implementation. Firstly, awareness raising for different audiences (communities in the project area, government, university and other local and national audiences) was conducted by various means such as radio, conferences, workshops, factsheets and posters, 3D model and video.

Secondly various workshops on Eco-DRR implementation were undertaken at the local level to instruct on nursery management, early warning and preparedness, community resilience centre management, as well as trainers training. Field demonstrations and practical trainings at the provincial and national level served as a basis for strengthening Provincial and National Governments’ understanding of Eco-DRR practice in order to sustain future implementation and replication of Eco-DRR measures.

Finally, the project involved universities in Afghanistan in national and provincial EcoDRR conferences and trainings, in an effort to mainstream Eco-DRR concepts and practical knowledge in university programmes.