COMACO, from snares to plowshares:

A conservation and human wellbeing success story.

Themes: Conservation, NGOs, Livlihoods, Poverty, REDD

Community Markets for Conservation is a private sector, not-for-profit social enterprise in Zambia. It was established in 2003 to halt wildlife poaching and illegal tree cutting for charcoal by helping poor rural families to increase their food and income security through improved farming practices and marketing of value-added agricultural commodities. COMACO supports 178,891 farmers in the Luangwa Valley, providing them with improved farming skills, seed loans, a premium price for their crop surplus, and a dividend if they comply with sustainable farming and wildlife, and forest conservation best practices. Maize yields using COMACO methods increased by 63% and net income was 37% higher than for farmers who purchased inorganic fertilizers. Between 2012 and 2018 the number of food secure families increased from 67–84%. Elephant poaching has declined in all but one COMACO district, poaching is now primarily conducted by nonlocal hunters, and leg-hold snare detections by community game scouts have decreased significantly in COMACO areas. Increasing food and income security while reducing deforestation and unsustainable hunting for ~$US10 per farmer per year is cheap and can be replicated in Zambia and other nations in Africa.

Indigenous land rights in the Amazon Basin.

Themes: Human rights, Indigenous people, Conservation, REDD, Policy

Si no se protege a los pueblos indígenas no se está protegiendo la Amazonía. Los bosques amazónicos están protegiendo el planeta y mitigando el cambio climático por lo tanto es una prioridad alinear las políticas para proteger al mismo tiempo: territorio, pueblos indígenas y bosques. . If indigenous people are not protected then nor is the Amazon. The Amazon forest protects the planet and mitigates climate change which means that it is a priority to align those policies that protect land, indigenous peoples and the forest.

Cornered by Protected Areas.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz (UN Special rapporteur) and RRI launch an RRI brief derived from the upcoming Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas report.

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, REDD, Policy, Poverty, CBD, Financialisation

Indigenous Peoples and local communities have been conserving their lands and forests for centuries. But the rise of “fortress conservation” is forcing them from their homes, hurting people and forests alike.

Amazon Indigenous REDD+: an innovative approach to conserve Colombian forests?

An authority that represents indigenous organizations of the nine Amazonian countries proposes a conservation initiative in which cultural traditions and ancestral knowledge form the basis for development.

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, REDD

The Amazon Indigenous REDD+ (RIA) initiative led in Colombia by the indigenous organization OPIAC is being implemented in the departments of Amazonas and Guainia, territories made up of 169 indigenous reservations of 56 different villages, not counting the populations that are in voluntary isolation. In 2012, the reservation of the Upper Basin of the Inírida River (CMARI), inside the Puinawai Nature Reserve, was chosen as the location of the first pilot implementation project of RIA in Colombia, which had its official presentation at COP18, the 18th meeting of the UN Climate Change Conference. For indigenous communities in the Amazon, it is important that their ancestral traditions are recognized as the basis for the implementation of RIA and used as a mechanism to safeguard Amazonian biodiversity.

Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala

Themes: Conservation, REDD, Indigenous people, Parks, Poverty

In the Maya Biosphere Reserve concessions where local communities sustainably harvest forest products have proved a boon for people and the forest alike — but their future is uncertain. Mongabay correspondent Sandra Cuffe investigates the complex forces at play in her series exploring challenges in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

Conservation’s people problem

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, REDD, Parks, Poverty

The field of conservation has faced down an internal crisis over is its treatment of indigenous peoples and local communities living in ecosystems targeted for protection. Conservationists now often engage these groups in a spirit of partnership, asking and listening instead of telling and demanding. But still there is much work to do. Part 4 of Conservation, Divided: Mongabay’s four-part series investigating how the field of conservation has changed over the last 30 years.

Is carbon funding hurting forest peoples?

Evidence from Madagascar

Themes: REDD, Conservation, CBD, Poverty, FPIC

The Paris Agreement of December 2015 encourages countries “…to take action to implement and support, including through results-based payments…activities relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (Article 5) as a key policy instrument for climate change mitigation. The Agreement also acknowledges the need to respect human rights in all climate actions.

REDD+ versus indigenous people

Why a tribe in Panama rejected pay for their carbon-rich forests. Panama's efforts to gain funding for standing forests roiled by indigenous opposition.

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Parks, REDD

"I have struggled to tell this story in ways that make sense to average readers who understand little about carbon markets and the magnitude of REDD+. One personal goal is to explain the Kuna perspective on REDD+ and their opposition — which is why you see in the piece a focus on them, and not on the REDD+ program per se. I consciously left a lot of the inside-baseball details out, the back-and-forth, because I simply find it not only confusing to the reader, but not relevant to the issue at hand, which was, why did the Kuna (from their perspective, from what they know and what many people told me) reject REDD+? Also, the piece aims to tell a human narrative, and not be a technical report." Ruxandra Guidi