CATIE’s Forest Landscape Management Chair, headed by Ronnie de Camino, also President of the Ibero-American Model Forest Network, is launching three new projects in 2016 to support forest landscape restoration (FLR) and management in Latin America, including in Model Forests. These projects are designed to support Initiative 20×20, a country-led effort to bring 20 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean into restoration by 2020. The initiative—launched formally at the UNFCCC COP 20 in Lima—will support theBonn Challenge, a global commitment to restore 150 million hectares of land around the world by 2020 and the New York Declaration on Forests that seeks to restore 350 million hectares by 2030. WRI, in association with CATIE, CIAT, andIUCN, supports Initiative 20×20 through its Global Restoration Initiative.
The first project will support restoration of degraded lands in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and Chile. The project will support governments in developing restoration strategies through a baseline study, defining country expectations, and determining desired outcomes. It will also establish new financial mechanisms to attract private sector investment and catalyze restoration activities at the landscape level, providing benefits to private landowners, communities and society as a whole. This 3-year project between WRI, CIAT, and CATIE is funded by BMUB, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
A second project focuses on an analysis of local, social, economic and governance structures necessary for managing identified high potential secondary forests. Funded by BMUB and led by CATIE, the project will also provide communities with training on best forest management practices.
Funded by LuxDev (the Luxembourg Development Cooperation) and led by CATIE, the third project is designed to develop models for secondary forest and degraded primary forest management within five Central American countries, with priority in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The primary objective is to provide assistance to and help finance small and medium sized forest enterprises in managing secondary and degraded forests through economically viable models. In the first phase, proponents will assess potential areas and enterprises to target for investments. After a feasibility study, the LuxDev will determine which enterprises to invest in.
Many of the targeted countries also have Model Forests, several of which will be involved in project activities. As well, the Model Forest approach will be used, including facilitating the voluntary participation of representatives of stakeholder interests and values on the landscape to create a common vision and implementation strategy. The IMFN and the Iberoamerican Model Forest Network is pleased to be a partner in Initiative 20×20 and contribute to FLR in the region.
This story has been adapted from the Ibero-American Model Forest Network’s website
For more information:
Heather McTavish: Heather.McTavish@catie.ac.cr
http://www.bosquesmodelo.net/en/
