EcoLogic Development Fund

EcoLogic Development Fund

Founded	1993, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Focus	Conservation, Reforestation, Microwatershed management, Community self-determination
Area served	Latin America
Method	Promoting sustainable livelihoods, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Linking environmental stewardship to economic development
Website	www.ecologic.org

EcoLogic, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a Four Star Charity Navigator Rating, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, advances conservation of critical natural resources in rural Latin America by promoting sustainable livelihoods and strengthening community participation in environmental stewardship. EcoLogic was established to fulfill a mandate voiced by indigenous and environmental leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit to reduce the destruction of significant tropical ecosystems by advancing economic development and self-determination among communities living in and around threatened habitats. EcoLogic partners with local organizations to promote community-based management of forests and coastal ecosystems, often at the level of microwatersheds (direct water sources and the land cover that helps recharge and clean the water). Since 1993, EcoLogic has provided direct technical and financial assistance to over 5,000 rural communities and has helped to protect 2,000 water sources throughout Latin America.

Mission and Motivation

Mission

The Ecologic Development Fund is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the conservation of critical natural resources in rural areas of Latin America by promoting sustainable livelihoods and by strengthening community participation in natural resource management.

The Impact of Poverty on Biodiversity

Latin America is home to some of the greatest biodiversity of plants and animals but also some of the poorest people in the western hemisphere. Ecologic is motivated by the belief that resource use associated with conditions of poverty (slash and burn agriculture, clearcutting, overfishing) places tremendous pressure on fragile ecosystems. Similar threats are posed by ecologically unsustainable activities in mining, agribusiness, and oil exploration. It is the balance between human needs and environmental imperatives that Ecologic finds most compelling in addressing the future of the planet. In its 2007 State of the World's Forests report, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization found that in the last 15 years, Latin America has lost over 158,000,000 acres (640,000 km²) of forest. Central America alone has lost 19%, the largest percentage for the region. This habitat devastation accelerates the loss of species, endangers critical sources of safe water, and contributes the massive release of greenhouse gases that exacerbates global warming.

Mitigating climate change

Ecologic's approach to the anticipated challenges of climate change is to plant and protect trees that store the carbon dioxide our society produces (CO₂ sequestration). Tropical forests having been identified as especially effective areas to serve this function, Ecologic's conservation efforts in the heavily forested areas of Latin America are leading the way in the introduction of sequestration as a solution to local conservation efforts and global environmental well-being. Producing and selling carbon credits benefits poor, rural communities by employing individuals in the planting and maintenance of millions of trees each year. Linking global market demand for forest resources to the communities Ecologic and its partners serve helps halt destructive land-use practices that severely decrease the Earth's capacity to absorb greenhouse gases, protect water, prevent erosion, and support life.

See also: Carbon credit, Emissions trading, Carbon footprint, and Carbon offset

Community self-determination

EcoLogic takes a people-centered approach to the conservation of tropical and semi-tropical habitats, holding that conservation efforts too often impose restrictions that fail to take into account the needs of people living in and around threatened areas. A goal of long-term, effective stewardship requires understanding and integrating local needs. Additionally, Ecologic recognizes that local people are often excluded from important decisions regarding their land, resulting in resource extraction from which they see little benefit. Thus, Ecologic employs a strategy of community-led resource management by encouraging those closest to the land to steward resources that meet their needs and in ways that are ecologically compatible.

Highlighted Results for Conservation and Communities

• Pico Bonito Forests in Honduras, a joint venture between EcoLogic and Pico Bonito National Park Foundation, received the 2007 Energy Globe National Award for projects that innovatively conserve natural resources or make use of renewable energy. By planting and protecting trees, Pico Bonito Forests helps offset carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon stored though these efforts generates carbon credits, which are then sold through the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund to countries seeking to meet their greenhouse emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Pico Bonito is the fourth forestry project worldwide whose methodology for carbon sequestration received approval under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
• EcoLogic's Belizean partner Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), along with other indigenous groups in southern Belize, won a landmark legal victory in the Supreme Court of Belize that recognizes indigenous land rights around the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
• In Totonicapán, Guatemala, introducing a new tray-based system instead of plastic bags to raise seedlings increased planting rates from 30 seedlings per day to 360, and plant survival rates from 60% to a stunning 98%.
• With EcoLogic’s support, two towns in the Sierra de Guerrero region of Mexico, Santa Rosa de Lima and Santa Barbara, earned national environmental certification through Mexico’s National Environmental Auditing Program. They were the first communities managing communal lands—called ejidos—to be recognized in this way. Their accomplishment demonstrates the potential of rural communities to be effective natural resource managers and leaders in watershed management to ensure water quality.

Partnerships

• Municipalities of the Central Atlantida Department (MAMUCA); Atlantida, Honduras
• Pico Bonito National Park Foundation (FUPNAPIB); Bosques Pico Bonito and Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras
• Ulew Che’ Ja' (Earth, Trees, Water); San Miguel de Los Altos, Guatemala
• Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM); Sarstoon Temash National Park, Belize
• Ak’Tenamit (New Village); Sarstun, Guatemala
• Mancomunidad de Municipios Frontera del Norte (Northern Border Municipalities Alliance); Sierra Cuchumatanes, Guatemala
• Consejo Regional de la Sierra de Guerrero (CRESIG – Regional Council of the Sierra de Guerrero Mountains); Sierra de Guerrero, Mexico
• Reforestamos Mexico (Reforesting Mexico); Sierra de Guerrero, Mexico
• Pronatura Veracruz; Veracruz, Mexico

External links

• Ecologic Development Fund
• Fundación Parque Nacíonal Pico Bonito
• Pronatura Veracruz
• Ak'Tenamit