Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities

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The global objective of the Regional Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities in Central America Project is to achieve effective biodiversity conservation in Central America - Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama - by strengthening the capacity of indigenous communities to protect, and manage their natural and cultural resources, and, by recuperating and promoting their cultural values, and sustainable traditional land use practices, thereby preventing further land degradation that threatens environmental services, livelihoods, and economic well-being, and, conserving the region's high, though increasingly threatened, biodiversity resources. The components are : 1) Cultural and institutional strengthening, and capacity building of participating communities, which consists of a) generation and strengthening of the organizational, technical and administrative capacities of indigenous communities regarding the application of their cultural values to the management of their natural resources; b) standardization and criteria formation for traditional ecosystem management of indigenous communities, including a certification process for them to engage in effective ecosystem management, and; c) strengthening empowerment capacities of community organizations for traditional ecosystem management. 2) Promotion of sustainable cultural land use and traditional ecosystem management entails the development of a progressive series of community conservation, and sustainable cultural land use plans that together can form a network of land use areas, to yield greater collective conservation impacts, actually focused on actual planning and management of conservation areas. 3) Development of culturally appropriate products, markets, and services for environmental sustainability in indigenous communities will channel grant resources to develop financial mechanisms at the community level. Specifically, it will finance a progressive series of community biodiversity conservation, and sustainable use subprojects, compatible with the land use plans. Grant activities will focus on income-generating opportunities in four categories: a) traditional products; b) environmental services; c) eco/ethnotourism; and, d) traditional ecosystem management models. 4) Participatory project monitoring and evaluation will support training and capacity building on monitoring and evaluation of project impacts, and also progress in conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. It will finance scientifically sound monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity, to follow project implementation and biodiversity changes over time.