Into the Future

Lessons emerging from the WCS Mekong Drivers Partnership show that responding to large-scale drivers of deforestation in high biodiversity landscapes requires solutions that integrate work at multiple scales, as the diagram below illustrates.

To foster conservation and green growth in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the WCS Mekong Drivers Partnership is expanding implementation of a multi-scaled, multi-sectoral approach in high biodiversity priority landscapes and seascapes that aligns integrated protected area management at local and national scales with climate-smart land use and tenure security at the community and landscape level.

We will link these efforts with climate smart business and finance investments including conservation enterprise development in the target landscapes. Specifically, we will achieve sustainability and scaling by promoting commercially-viable agricultural production that connects to biodiversity-friendly markets at the national and international levels. Concurrently, we will work directly with government to foster enabling conditions through improved environmental and social policy and regulations that balance conservation and green growth, including offset policy.

Measuring and monitoring of these innovative solutions will be central to attract investment and development in the target landscapes. This will be continued through our integrated protected area management approach, with its four key building blocks: