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The Silvopastoral project is funded by GEF (Global Environmental Facility) and LEAD-FAO and is being implemented by CATIE (since August 2002) in collaboration with the world bank, CIPAV of Colombia and Nitlapan-UCA of Nicaragua. The main objectives of this project are: 1) To test if payments for environmental services will “tip” the balance in the adoption of silvopastoral systems; 2) to develop methodology for monitoring and payment of environmental services;3) monitor the impacts of silvopastoral systems on biodiversity and water resources and 4) To develop and promote policies for sustainable livestock husbandry. The project is being implemented in Esparza of Costa Rica, Quindio of Colombia and Matiguas of Nicaragua and a total of 450 livestock farmers are directly collaborating with the project. However, one of the goals of the project is to replicate the results at a national and regional level so as to achieve wide scale impacts on sustainability of livestock systems and conservation of natural resources. This bulletin reports on the main activities that were carried out in the countries and in the region for mainstreaming of the project.
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The GEF-silvopastoral project collaborated with the national commission for agroforestry and Ministry of Environment (MINAE) to develop a regulation for payment of environmental services in agroforestry and silvopastoral systems which was approved by MINAE and implemented by FONAFIFO. Currently more than 700 livestock farmers (excluding that of the GEF-SSP project) in Costa Rica are benefiting from this payment scheme and the reports of FONAFIFO indicate that these farmers have been establishing trees in live fences and in pastures and have liberated marginal lands for re-forestation as a way to generate environmental benefits. The livestock farmers received an average of US560/farm/yr for the payment of environmental services.
Local policy- Municipality The SSP project is working with local policy makers of the municipality of Esparza to develop policies for payment of environmental services for conservation of water resources in key watersheds. A survey was carried out with the local community (consumers) to establish how much consumers are prepared to pay as an Eco-tax for creating a fund for payment of environmental services for water, and the data showed that they are willing to pay 8-12% above that which is paid on water rates. At the moment the project is making an economic study to determine how much it will cost for conservation of water resources and what payment system will be required for sustainable financing. The project is monitoring the impact of silvopastoral systems on water resources (quality and quantity) and preliminary results showed that runoff on degraded pastures was a mean of 42% compared to 3 to 6% in silvopastoral and forest systems. These results are being used to develop payment system for water with local municipality.
Proposal for Scaling-up the GEF-SSP project in Nicoya Based on the successful experience developed by the project in the Esparza region, a proposal for scaling-up the GEF-SSP project in the Nicoya Peninsula has recently been completed. The proposal was elaborated under the technical direction of personnel from the GEF-SSP project. The initiative is a joint effort of a consortium formed by the MAG, FONAFIFO (MINAE), and the GEF-SSP project/CATIE, with the support of Sigifredo Aiza, political representative from the Nicoya Peninsula. The purpose of the project is to improve the welfare of some 4500 livestock families (75% of the total livestock families of the region), to generate market opportunities for ecotourism, and certified livestock products, and to generate environmental services (particularly water, a critical service in the area) through the implementation of silvopastoral systems and environmentally-friendly land uses in the farms. The proposal has been presented to the Costa Rican Vice-president, Lineth Saborío, who has endorsed the initiative and has expressed her intentions of making the project of strategic interest for the sustainable development of the region. Through Aiza, the consortium has contacted several funding institutions, including the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, the Ambassador of Spanish Embassy, and the Central American Bank of Economic Integration, and responses on their interest in financing the project are expected in the near future.
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Collaboration between CIPAV and
FEDEGAN (main association for cattle
farmers)
Some of the main activities to be carried out are:
Through the collaboration with FEDEGAN it is projected to replicate the project results to more than 2000 livestock farmers in areas of concentration of cattle production in Colombia (see map).
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Local
policies: Municipality Rio Blanco and Matiguas
The project
has been collaborating with the Rio Blanco municipality to develop and
implement policies for payment of environmental services for conservation
of water resources. In this respect, the municipality has implemented a
regulation for creating an environmental fund for compensating farmers for
conservation in the micro-watershed that is important for water recharge,
and the local community is now paying an ecological fee (10% of water
rates) for consumption of water which is being used to compensate farmers.
The SSP project provided technical support to the Rio Blanco commission to
do a study on demand and supply of water and valorization of water
resources in the Rio Blanco community and to develop an improved system
for payment of environmental service in the area. Following this
experience, the local policy makers of Matiguas requested support from the
project to develop similar policies to that of Rio Blanco.
On the 28 th
September the GEF-SSP project will participate with the local municipal
leaders and environmental commission, FOCUENCAS project, SNV and NITLAPAN
to organize the first seminar for payment of environmental services (ES)
in the Central and Northern region of Nicaragua. This workshop will
produce policy recommendations for sustainable financing of ES.
FDL (Fondo desarrollo Local- credit for livestock farmers) and ASOMIF The results of the GEF-SSP project showed that lack of capital for investing in silvopastoral systems was one of the main barriers why farmers have not adopted intensive silvopastoral systems for generation of economic and environmental benefits. Based on this result, the GEF-SSP project has been working with development institutions for providing credit to livestock farmers to design credit schemes that will contribute to sustainability of livestock farms. For example, the project supported FDL to develop a “green credit Scheme” where livestock farmers are required to invest in technologies that will contribute to increase productivity and conservation of natural resources and at the moment more than 300 farmers have obtained credit from the “green credit Scheme”. The project is also supporting ASOMIF (Association for Micro Financing) to develop a green financing scheme as was developed with FDL and under this system more than 1000 livestock farmers should benefit. In November a workshop is organized with ASOMIF to discuss policies for micro-credit and environmental services, and the GEF-SSP project will lead the discussions to formulate policies for the livestock sector. SNV (servicios nacionales voluntarios) The project has been collaborating with SNV (funded by the Netherlands Cooperation) to develop an incentive scheme for payment of environmental services in watersheds where SNV is operating The project is providing technical assistance and training to personal of SNV for designing and implementing silvopastoral systems for the generation of environmental services in the target areas. National level The GEF-SSP project held in Managua (February 2005) the First National Workshop on Livestock, Environment and Policy on Rural Sustainable Development. The workshop was directed to decision makers from the public and private sector and the main objectives were to present advances of the GEF-SSP project and to consider what are the policy implications for payment of environmental services at a national level. The workshop allowed participants to discuss what are the challenges and opportunities facing the national livestock sector and the strategies to make it sustainable. The participants contributed in several working groups analyzing possible avenues to promote a sustainable and environmentally-friendly livestock sector in the country based on the experience developed by the GEF-SSP project. Several recommendations were developed and presented to representatives from the ministries of agriculture (MAGFOR) and environment (MARENA) on the need to generate adequate policy initiatives on environmental services in agricultural landscapes to allow livestock farmers to introduce sustainable practices in their farms.
Policies for sustainable livestock systems in Panama. The GEF-SSP project is supporting AED, USAID, BDA (Agricultural Development Bank), MIDA (Ministry of Agriculture and Development) and authorities of the Canal of Panama (ACP) to implement policies for sustainable management of the watershed. A project was agreed with AED to use the experiences of the GEF-silvopastoril project to develop guidelines for payment of environmental services within the watershed area of the Panama Canal and in the month of September a workshop is organized with key decision makers to discuss this subject. In addition the project is also collaborating with AED and BDA to develop an operation manual for for managing credits directed for sustainable livestock production at a national level. On the 19th July Muhammad Ibrahim (Regional coordinator of GEF-silvopastoril project) was invited as a key note speaker to make a presentation "Global Perspective of sustainable livestock production and environmental services: benefits for Panama" in a meeting organized by USAID and BDA in which was represented more 100 key decision makers of national and private institutions working in the field of livestock and the environment.
In this meeting BDA and USAID signed a memorandum of agreement in which BDA agreed to implement policies for sustainable livestock development within the waterhsed of the Panama Canal. Under this agreement an estimated sum of 54 million US dollars will be allocated for credits directed to sustainable livestock production and the GEF-silvopastoril project will collaborate in developing a manual for managing credits that will generate environmental benefits (Photo shows signing of agreement) . Collaboration with ACP. ACP is interested to design and implement policies for payment of environmental services and promotion of silvopastoral systems in the Panama Canal watershed because of the negative impacts of cattle production on the environment and natural resources especially in water harvest and sedimentation of reservoirs. A presentation on the GEF-SSP project was made to ACP staff and the director requested support from the GEF-silvopastoril project to develop sustainable livestock systems and incentive schemes for payment of environmental services. In the month of September a workshop will be organized with the decision makers of ACP in which the methodologies and results of the GEF-SSP project is presented and areas of collaboration defined. It is expected that more than 1000 livestock farmers in the area will benefit from the results of the GEF-SSP project. Models and training of extensionists. The GEF-SSP project is collaborating with ACP, AED, BDA and MIDA to establish farm models (15 farms) for sustainable cattle husbandry and generation of environmental services based on silvopastoral systems. The objective is that BDA will provide credits for the adoption of these farm models in the Panama Canal watershed and other areas where cattle production is practiced in Panama. Through this collaboration 15 extensionists working in local institutions in Panama were trained in the area of silvopastoral systems and livestock and the environment.
Recovery of Degraded pasture Lands project. CATIE is implementing a project on recovery of degraded pasture lands in Muy Muy of Nicaragua, Juncal (Olanchito) of Honduras and El Chal- Dolores of Peten in Guatemala, which is funded by Norway. The main objective of this project is to develop a methodology for recovery of degraded pasture lands and to identify silvopastoral alternatives for sustainable animal husbandry. Over the past three years the GEF-SSP project has been collaborating with this degraded lands project to develop policies at a local and national level for sustainable land use and on payment of environmental services. The GEF-SSP project has also been sharing methodologies for participatory farm planning and monitoring and more than 300 farmers in the pilot areas of the degraded lands project are participating in adoption of silvopastoral systems. FOCUENCAS. The Focuencas project is funded by SIDA and is being implemented in Nicaragua and Honduras.The GEF-SSP project is collaborating with FOCUENCAS to establish farm models (10) with silvopastoral systems to enhance productivity of farms and recovery of degraded sites in the watersheds of Copan. The objective is to replicate these farm models in the watersheds where livestock production is dominant. The project is also working with local municipal leaders to develop incentive schemes to promote adoption of silvopastoral systems.
FRAGMENT.The GEF-SSP project collaborated with the FRAGMENT project (funded by INCO) to evulate how livestock farmers (Nicaragua y Costa Rica) make decisions on retention and/or harvesting of trees in silvopastoral systems and these results are being used to design and silvopastoral systems in Central America. Additionally the GEF-SSP project is currently using methodologies developed by FRAGMENT for designing payment schemes for conservation of biodiversity.
Lack of technical expertise to implement and participate in programs in the area of livestock and the environment and on silvopastoral systems is one of the major limitation for converting traditional to sustainable cattle systems in Latin America. In this respect the GEF-SSP project has contributed towards training of more than 10 graduates at a MSc level and 300 extensionists from different institutions in Central and South America. Many of the people trained are currently working in the field of livestock and environment.
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| Edition:
Muhammad Ibrahim, Project Coordinator
Muhammad Ibrahim, Project Coordinator. Email: mibrahim@catie.ac.cr Enrique Murgueitio, National Coordinator of Colombia. Email: enriquem@cipav.org.co Francisco Casasola C, National Coordinator of Costa Rica. Email fcasasol@catie.ac.cr Elías Ramírez, National Coordinator of Nicaragua. Email nitlactaf@ns.uca.edu.ni Design: Luis E. Quirós S., System Analyst/Webmaster |
