The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank Thursday announced a five-year joint program to promote sustainable development in indigenous communities in Central America (Mellemamerika).
The program will be financed with a 9 million US dollar grant from the GEF, 4 million of which will be administered by the World Bank and 5 million dollar by the IDB.
The Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities Regional Project will strengthen the capacity of indigenous communities in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama to protect and manage their natural and cultural resources, as well as recuperate and promote their cultural values and sustainable traditional land use practices.
The new project will be implemented by the Central America Indigenous and Peasant Coordination Association for Community Agroforestry (ACICAFOC), in coordination with the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA) and the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD).
– This program represents an opportunity for the banks, the indigenous peoples and their communities to work together, said Alberto Chinchilla, ACICAFOC regional facilitator, adding:
– The fact that the project was designed through a highly participative method, with frank discussions among all parties, underscores the capacity of the indigenous peoples and the communities to manage their own development, as well as their capacity for negotiation.
The GEF grant will be disbursed between 2005 and 2009. Local indigenous communities and CCAD will contribute 2,5 million dollar in counterpart funds to the project, which will enable participating groups to access additional resources from other development projects financed by the IDB and the World Bank in Central America.
– For indigenous and small farming communities in Central America, the challenge of sustaining livelihoods and preventing environmental degradation go hand in hand, said Jane Armitage, World Bank country director for Central America.
– The needs of these communities are at the forefront of the project, which was designed by local indigenous leaders and organizations. Furthermore, the project was negotiated and will be implemented directly by an indigenous NGO – a first for the World Bank, added she.
The project will prevent land degradation that threatens environmental services, livelihoods, and the economic well-being of approximately 558 indigenous communities while conserving the regions high, but increasingly threatened, biodiversity resources.
The program will support the following initiatives in six project priority areas:
1. Strengthen cultural sustainability and institutional capacity in indigenous and small farming communities by sponsoring workshops, forums, training, study tours, and internship exchanges, as well as disseminating information through newsletters and literature.
2. Promote sustainable cultural land use and traditional ecosystem management by analyzing traditional practices and cultural uses that benefit sustainable ecosystem management, identifying existing biodiversity resources and land use patterns, developing community-based cultural land use plans, and formulating community bylaws to regulate cultural land use plans, among others.
3. Develop culturally appropriate products, markets, and services for environmental sustainability in indigenous communities by financing subprojects that address the research, marketing, and coordination aspects of income-generating opportunities, such as traditional products, environmental services, eco/ethnotourism, and traditional ecosystem management models.
4. Monitor and evaluate project activities and impacts through a participatory approach to track changes and progress in conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity as well as the effects on community well-being, cultural sustainability, and human development.
– The preparation of this project involved extensive consultations with regional and national indigenous organizations and communities throughout Central America, said Miguel Martinez, IDB regional operations manager, adding:
– Their participation will be ensured during the implementation phase through a Project Council formed by representatives of CICA, ACICAFOC and CCAD.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
