FELD 02/2017

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN LATIN AMERICA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN LATIN AMERICA JOINING FORCES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION The project in Osa started when the local »Fundación Neotrópica« environmental organisation encouraged the affected fishing communities to take an active role in the protection of mangroves. During the closed period for fishing, they began to grow and plant mangroves. »They showed us their nursery where they grow mangrove seedlings. Later on, the seedlings will be planted out together with the communities, for example, with school children,« says Sattler. The project was co-funded by the national VW retailer. »The success of this project was also owed to the fact that the NGO leadership established good and early networking contacts, for instance, with the Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment, companies and local fishing villages. But our results also showed how important it is to make the benefits of nature available to the local population. The broad recognition of mangrove forests as an crucial component of the common livelihood is an important cornerstone for success.« The ZALF team did not only study the project in Costa Rica. They also visited the inhabitants of Marujá in the Brazilian Mata Atlântica rainforest. Their community was ordered to leave their village and be relocated since their homeland was one of the last remaining parts of the primeval forest and was declared a protected area. In order to fight for their right to stay, they founded a local council and were ultimately successful. Now they support the park management with surveying the protected areas and reporting fish poachers or orchid thieves. In the Brazilian state of Tocantins, 2,000 km further north, owners of ceramic factories changed the fuel for their furnaces from wood to rice husks, which are a waste product from rice cultivation. This way, they protect both the rainforest and the health of their workers and with the sale of carbon certificates, they earn additional money on the free carbon market. »Different as the projects may be, they all have one thing in common: highly motivated, committed people who are willing to take the reins. They organised the necessary networks, which in turn provided resources. You have to invest in creative and motivated local people like these.« But this alone is not yet sustainable. »All the participants must have a measurable benefit from the project,« says Matzdorf. LEARNING FROM SUCCESS In Costa Rica, the ZALF researchers supported the transfer of the Osa fishermen’s concept to other communities, such as the Térraba Sierpe wetlands or the Gulf of Nicoya, and studied the transfer process. »The fishermen encouraged the other communities to also look for alternative sources of income, such as oyster farming in the mangroves,« said Sattler. What’s more, the researchers are now incorporating their findings into the design of their own environmental protection projects in Europe. The »cp³« project, for instance, studies networks of stakeholders from civil society, the private sector and government who developed innovative solutions for environmental protection. Another project is an Internet-based »marketplace for ecosystem services and biodiversity« which collects environmental protection projects and is expected to establish new funding opportunities. What they all have in common is the determination to learn from thriving local projects in order to make environmental protection more successful. Fisherman Eduardo Barroso and Karla Cordoba Brenes from ‘Fundación Neotrópica’ explain how mangrove trees reproduce. www.zalf.de/feld/en 32 33