Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities

The overall goal of the GEF alternative is to support an emerging network of indigenous communities engaged in integrated ecosystem management in the Central American region. This would enhance the sustainability of human-managed systems that have been evolving for centuries in Central America, conserving high levels of biodiversity, but that are under increasing threat. The building of community networks across the region would create links between communities with established best practice examples of IEM and those with comparable environmental characteristics and similar potential for IEM. The long-term outcome would be that successful and proven regional models are effectively adopted in local and national initiatives, including World Bank and IDB-assisted projects, and that a common vision emerges among indigenous communities on how best to manage their traditional resources.