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February 2011
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About Us
The Conservation Stewards Program (CSP) bridges conservation and development through innovative conservation agreements developed in partnership with communities and others who own or rely on natural resources.
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Update from the CSP Team
Dear Friends,
In December last year, CSP held its Fifth Annual Learning Network Meeting, in Cape Town and Namaqualand, South Africa. In addition to updates on progress in all of the agreement efforts taking place in 9 countries, participants learned from a site visit with people of the Leliefontein community, where Conservation South Africa is working with communal and private farmers through conservation agreements, to manage livestock numbers and restore wetlands in an extremely fragile ecosystem. Learning Network Meeting sessions included discussion on revising monitoring frameworks to incorporate an explicit "Theory of Change," and emphasized the urgent need to develop long-term financing and management plans for each agreement.
We hope you enjoy this newsletter, and I encourage you to also visit the CSP website (www.conservation.org/csp) to see the updated CSP brochure, a selection of photos from the Learning Network Meeting, and other materials that we've added. If you have anything that you think should also be added to the site, please contact us - your ideas are very welcome.
Finally, in the coming months please also look on the site for the revised edition of the CSP field implementation guide!
Cheerio,
Eddy
Eddy Niesten
Senior Director |
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Peru
Using Conservation Agreements to Strengthen Community Natural Resource Management in the Peruvian Andes
By Margarita Mora, Percy Summers and Braulio Andrade
CI-Peru has been working with the Antamina mining company through Asociación Ancash (AA) since 2004 to protect Andean ecosystems in Peru’s Ancash region, in the Conchucos corridor between Huascarán National Park and the Cordillera Huayhuash Reserved Zone. This Andean landscape contains some of the last and best conserved remnant forest patches of Polylepis. These are the highest forest ecosystems in the world, growing at more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, overgrazing, fires and firewood collection have depleted these systems to less than 2 percent of their original cover.
Local communities have a long history of interdependence with the natural landscape of the Conchucos corridor, having settled in the area before the Spanish conquest of the Peruvian Highlands. In 1622, Charles V of Spain granted the Llámac and Pacllón communities the use rights over their territory. However, they did not receive land titles until the beginning of the 20th century. Since the 1600s the economies of both communities have been oriented mainly around cattle and sheep farming. They also plant crops such as potatoes, oca (an Andean tuber), wheat and maize for subsistence food production.
In 2005 the communities decided to protect their land from outsiders interested in extracting their natural resources, and pursued declaration of their territories as private conservation areas. The National Protected Areas Service of Peru (SERNANP) required the communities to zone their 19,000 hectares and develop master plans for management and protection. Pacllón was declared a private conservation area in 2005, and Llámac in 2009. In 2010 CI and AA started working with the Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN), a Peruvian NGO, to design and implement conservation agreements to protect these amazing forest ecosystems. In 2010 ECOAN developed feasibility analyses for conservation agreements in both communities. These analyses showed that although the communities desired to manage their natural resources and implement their master plans, they lacked the means to do so. In October 2010, ECOAN signed conservation agreements with both communities.
The motivation for establishing conservation agreements in the Conchucos corridor was to provide communities with the means to conserve polylepis forest. Polylepis forests harbor numerous endemic species of birds, insects and mammals. These forest patches are crucial for water and climate regulation and nutrient cycling processes. Thus, protecting polylepis forest is not only important for conservation of its associated fauna and flora, but also maintains ecosystem services and reduces the communities’ vulnerability to climate change.
Under the conservation agreements the communities have committed to:
- Forgo logging of polylepis trees;
- Control burning of fields to prevent fire in polylepis forest patches;
- Participate in communal reforestation campaigns to plant 40,000 polylepis seedlings in one year;
- Nurture the polylepis seedlings to ensure their survival;
- Stop grazing cattle and sheep in polylepis patches and reforestation sites; and
- Fence critical polylepis forest patches and reforestation sites to protect them from cattle and sheep.
In exchange for complying with these commitments, the conservation agreements specify the following benefits for the 300 families of the communities:
- Support in animal health (provision of medicines to the communal veterinary post);
- Improved seeds for better pastures;
- Technical capacity-building to enhance production of traditional Andean crops; and
- Funds for the implementation of some of the activities defined in the master plans.
The communities also requested technical support for cattle improvement, fruit cultivation, irrigation, and ecotourism. In addition, ECOAN will provide capacity-building and tools to establish polylepis seedling nurseries and build fences. These activities will strengthen communities’ governance and capacity to manage their territory, and provide them with the means to implement the conservation area master plans.
ECOAN currently is carrying out feasibility analyses in other communities in the Conchucos corridor. The goal is to help additional communities establish private conservation areas to protect polylepis patches and other Andean ecosystems. The long-term aim is to enhance connectivity between these conservation areas, using conservation agreements to make sure that key areas are protected and local communities receive tangible benefits from choosing conservation. |
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Cambodia
Chanthy Hot: Working with Fellow Cambodians to Save the Dragon Fish
By Kathleen Miller
Since 2006 and with support from the Conservation Stewards Program, CI Cambodia has maintained a conservation agreement with the Thma Doun Paov community, located on the periphery of the CCPF . Residents committed to ban harvest and sales of dragon fish, as well as halt the use of shifting cultivation. In return, community members who patrol and enforce the conservation commitments receive payment and the community itself receives funding for education as well as livestock and agricultural tools that help with farming. There have since been five other agreements signed with communities around the CCPF. Chanthy Hot leads the socioeconomic monitoring efforts with each of these six communities, measuring the impacts of the agreements on people’s lives and livelihoods.
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 Read the story
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View the Video
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Colombia / Brazil
Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystems in the Amazon
By Margarita Mora
In a remote part of the Amazon rainforest on the border between Colombia and Brazil, accessible only by plane, Isaí Victorino and Francis Palacios have been working with local communities for the last four years. They are implementing five conservation agreements with three indigenous reserves and two communities. The agreements involve communities in the protection of five lakes and a creek that provide habitat for two threatened fish species, the pirarucu and arawana, as well as the surrounding forest. In total, 400,000 hectares of primary forest and freshwater ecosystems are being conserved and 800 people are receiving benefits in exchange for their conservation efforts. But what does this really mean for Isaí and Francis? Between jokes and laughter, Isaí and Francis share their perspectives on living in La Pedrera and working with communities.
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Read the story
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Photo Credits: CSP Team, © Photo by Margarita Mora; Huayhuash Glacier, © Photo courtesy of ECOAN; Polylepis Weberbauer, © Photo courtesy of ECOAN; People of Llamac Working in Nursery, © Photo courtesy of ECOAN; Chanthy Hot, © CI/Photo by Kosal Sar; Isaí Victorino and Francis Palacios, © Photo: Courtesy of Isaí Victorino.
Header Photo: Malagasy children, © CI/Photo by Eric Coppenger; South African landscape, © CI-South Africa | |
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