Resilient and Biodiverse Landscapes of Northern Mesoamerica

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and consortium partners have launched the project titled "Resilient and Biodiverse Landscapes of Northern Mesoamerica" funded by the UK Biodiverse Landscapes Fund (BLF), with a duration of 6 years and 1 month.

The objective of this project is to help reduce poverty and create sustainable economic development for the communities that are living in and dependent upon ecologically critical landscapes in the Selva Maya (Guatemala and Belize), Moskitia (Honduras) and Trifinio (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) forests, through lasting landscape protection, sustainable management and restoration, safeguarding biodiversity and maintaining and improving the quality of ecosystems.

These forests are the largest and most biodiverse in the region and are crucial to the livelihoods of millions of people. However, the region is highly vulnerable to climate change and deforestation, which exacerbates impacts and threatens ecosystems and biodiversity. To carry out this project, WCS will lead a broad multisectoral consortium made up of civil society, local and Indigenous communities, government institutions, the private sector, and research institutions.

The program consists of four components:

Thriving and Resilient Communities: Activities to secure land and resource rights, develop forest-based income streams and implement climate-smart rural development with appropriate social safeguards.
Protected areas and species protection: Ensure well-governed conservation areas and specific protection activities for threatened species.
Enabling policies and financing mechanisms: Consensus-building, multisectoral collaboration, and policy reforms to incentivize forest protection and strengthen the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Adaptive Learning and Management: Implementation of a monitoring and evaluation framework as a central component to assess impact and guide decision-making.

The project, which began operations in September 2023 and will conclude in October 2029, aims to achieve measurable results, such as improving the rights and livelihoods of 19,770 people and improving policies and financing mechanisms to support forest protection.

Who are we?

WCS is a global non-profit organization with more than 120 years of experience in the conservation of wildlife, landscapes, and natural resources. WCS's mission is to save wildlife and wild places around the world through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. WCS operates in more than 60 countries organized in 14 major regions, including the Mesoamerica and Caribbean region.

In Mesoamerica, WCS aims to conserve the region’s largest wild places and key wildlife species, inspiring people to act on their behalf. Through our initiatives, we seek to reduce poverty and promote sustainable economic development in the region's environmentally critical landscapes. By combining experience, resources, and expertise, WCS and its partners are committed to supporting the people and nature of Mesoamerica and achieving a shared vision for the region's forests.

WCS has made strategic interventions in the region that have helped address major interconnected environmental and development challenges, with work dating back to the 1970s. Its strategies have focused on a rights-based approach to community-based conservation, the development of sustainable forest-based income streams, collaboration with Indigenous Peoples and local communities and government institutions in the inter-agency management of protected areas and species protection, combatting wildlife trafficking, marine conservation and building alliances and partnerships with the private sector for the benefit of people and nature.

Leading this programme, WCS will act as the main delivery partner of our consortium, being responsible for programme management, financial administration and reporting to the Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the United Kingdom (DEFRA). WCS will lead coordination with the BLF Fund Manager, Independent Evaluator and Mesoamerican Landscape Coordinator based at the UK Embassy in Guatemala City, as well as with government partners and allies.

PARTNERS

Regional Context

The Selva Maya, Moskitia and Trifinio forests are the most extensive and biodiverse natural ecosystems in Mesoamerica, spanning a combined total of 85,000 km² that are home to rare species such as the jaguar and the scarlet macaw. Nearly half of the region's carbon stocks are stored here, and forests provide essential ecosystem services to millions of people. Half of the world's forests are managed and protected by vulnerable indigenous and local communities, who depend on them for their food security and income.

Photo: Tiklal, Selva Maya, Guatemala.

However, Central America is highly vulnerable to climate change, especially severe droughts, tropical storms, and hurricanes. These phenomena affect forests through forest fires, natural disasters and biodiversity loss, and poor rural communities through crop failure, food insecurity, limited access to clean water and disease outbreaks. Deforestation, driven by illegal land grabbing and cattle ranching in protected areas and Iindigenous territories, further exacerbates these impacts. In fact, since 2000, the two largest forests in Mesoamerica – the Maya and Moskitia forests– have been reduced by approximately 15% and 20% respectively, and the Trifinio has lost 10% of its forest cover.

The Great Forests of Mesoamerica are of crucial importance to the region's population, culture, biodiversity, economy, and resilience to climate change. However, Iindigenous and local communities are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

Results of the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund

The program will achieve the following measurable results:

19,770 people and 50 communities with improved land or natural resource rights.
4,516 people in 47 communities with direct benefits through local enterprises linked to sustainable natural resource management.
10 key indicator species with stable/increased populations in the landscape.
Stabilization of ecosystem integrity (habitat loss, fire degradation, illegal wildlife trade) and fragmentation.
Formal recognition of 5 new protected areas and sustained connectivity of two essential biological corridors.
At least a 5% reduction in deforestation and fires.
1.18 million/ton/CO2 of GHG emissions reduced or avoided.
1,503,141 hectares of land with improved sustainable land management practices as a result of international climate and other funding.

This cross-sectoral partnership will drive a coordinated strategy to achieve a broad and lasting impact that will be sustained long after the project ends and can serve as an example to the world of how to successfully address the climate and biodiversity crisis, while improving human rights and benefiting the most marginalized people

Transformations in each implementation landscape

General

Develop a multi-sectoral consensus and support governments to implement international climate finance for protected areas in Biodiverse Landscapes Fund countries.
Establecer una red de socios locales e internacionales para sostener las intervenciones del BLF y acompañar los tres sub-paisajes de BLF a largo plazo.

Selva Maya (Guatemala and Belize)

Increasing binational collaboration in the Maya Forest.
Drive the "second wave" (renewal and expansion) of community-based natural resource management in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Develop a model to improve the conservation and management of natural resources in highly degraded protected areas of Petén (mainly in southern Petén).
Improve protected area and conservation management in Belize by advancing Indigenous forest management and private nature reserves.
Secure ecological connectivity between northern and southern Belize, through the Maya Forest Corridor.

Trifinio (Guatemala/Honduras/El Salvador)

Increase trinational collaboration in Trifinio.
Consolidate Plan Trifinio as a leader in the sustainable development and conservation of the Trifinio region.
Develop an annual monitoring system to report on management for the conservation of the Trifinio region.

Moskitia (Honduras)

Increase the ecological stability of the Honduran Moskitia, achieving a net loss of forest close to zero and halving the area affected annually by fires.

In Guatemala, as BLF's primary delivery partner, WCS maintains active Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with Guatemala's CONAP (since 2007), the Ministry of Culture and Sports (MICUDE, since 1994), and the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Livestock (MAGA; since 2019).

In Belize, WCS is expanding our long-standing MOU originally with the Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, which was restructured in late 2020. The Belize Forest Department recognizes WCS's management of the Maya Forest Corridor private reserve in central Belize.

In Honduras, WCS has maintained an MOU with the Forest Conservation Institute (ICF) since 2007 and has established partnerships and working relationships with the National Agrarian Institute (INA), and the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente). The Honduran implementing partners, the NGOs INCEBIO and Bosques del Mundo, have agreements in place with the Ministry of the Environment and the ICF.

Other consortiums members, such as Balam, ACOFOP, CDF, BMFT and CATIE, also have active government MDEs, management agreements or government recognitions. The implementing partners also work closely with government institutions such as CONAP (Guatemala), ICF (Honduras) and MiAmbiente.

WCS and the implementing consortium partners will continue their active collaboration with government institutions throughout the implementation of the BLF project beyond existing MOUs. This will be achieved by keeping the lines of communication open, engaging in regular consultations, and working closely with government agencies and other relevant local organizations, at regional, national, territorial, and local levels, through participation and involvement in key meetings and events.

Transparency Commitment

WCS is committed to being transparent in how it spends its aid funding so that UK taxpayers and citizens can more easily hold Britain and LDP governments to account for using aid money wisely.

By enhancing the transparency of UK taxpayers’ aid money, WCS is not only making this information more accessible but also fostering a culture of accountability. This, in turn, will significantly boost the effectiveness of aid funding in addressing poverty and preserving the planet’s biodiversity.

The IATI Standard (http://iatistandard.org/) is designed to give a high degree of transparency, so the information requirements are significant and detailed. WCS has complied with this standard, and information of our BLF project can be found on the following site: http://www.d-portal.org/ctrack.html?reporting_ref=US-EIN-13-1740011#view=act&aid=US-EIN-13-1740011-MESO-BLF

This information is updated every 3 months.

For more information, please write to: mesoamerica@wcs.org

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