MANAGEMENT OF THE TATABRO RIVER WATERSHED
(Project C00017)
The park among South America's most biologically diverse is threatened by small agriculturists, paper mills and gold mining. Black communities, descendants of former slaves, settled in this region, but without any property rights. Over the past two years, WWF has been supporting the Fundación Herencia Verde's (FHV) efforts to promote sustainable use of natural resources. Studies are being done to identify management options such as natural forest management, butterfly ranching, organic agriculture, and use of non-timber products. An example of this is the attempt to boost profits from finger bananas (bananitos), cultivated in the region for years. WWF and FHV are working with COAGRITA, a community-based agricultural cooperative, to improve production and marketing techniques. As a result, the cooperative is now expanding its market to Cali, the nearest city, and looking beyond for export opportunities to Europe's markets. Meanwhile, WWF and FHV continue to help the community improve farming and shipping techniques. Empowering local groups and giving them institutional support is the key to WWF's conservation work in the Chocó region. This should enable the people to determine priorities for the growing international development aid coming into the region, which includes a scheduled US$9 million Global Environment Facility (GEF) project.
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