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CSD-8: Sustainable Development Success Stories |
Location |
The Chocó region of Colombia, which encompasses ten million hectares extending the entire length of Colombia’s Pacific coast. |
Responsible Organisation |
Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working in partnership with nearly 50 national and local NGOs, Afro-Colombian grassroots organizations, universities, and scientific research groups. Approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for an allocation of US$ 6 million. |
Description |
The Chocó possesses the greatest plant biodiversity on the planet. Twenty-five percent of the plant and bird species living in this region are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else on earth. The region also, however, has the country’s highest poverty rate, which has fostered high rates of deforestation and unsustainable resource extraction. This project seeks to support a development strategy for the Chocó based on scientific knowledge as well as management options guaranteeing biodiversity conservation, while promoting sustainable uses by local people. When this project began, the Chocó was targeted for massive industrial development with no provisions for biodiversity conservation, sustainable practices, or local consultation. Feedback comments from a work plan distributed to more than 150 groups suggested that a broad, inclusive consultative process would be necessary to address complex social, ecological and economic dimensions. A consensus was built among diverse and often contentious interests. The local community became the project’s primary designer and implementer, effectively reversing traditional development processes. Subcontracting the project implementation to local community groups guaranteed their participation, and provided them with the training and capacity building needed to make biodiversity conservation sustainable. Local ownership of the project was integrated into a multidisciplinary approach designed to address all the socioeconomic, scientific, institutional, and political factors involved. Project coordinators helped local groups formulate project proposals, and implementation is now distributed among nearly fifty organizations. |
Issues Addressed |
Land resources management, consumption and production patterns, economic growth, forests, poverty, and capacity building. |
Results Achieved |
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Lessons Learned |
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Contacts |
Mahenau Agha |