In Nepal, where smallholder farmers face land degradation, limited market access, and vulnerability to climate change, the Setidevi Cooperative— a forest and farm producer organization—promotes agroforestry as a solution to build resilience and improve livelihoods. Across 400 hectares, it has supported the adoption of diversified agroforestry systems, including silvoarable, agrosilvopastoral, horticultural, and home gardens. To implement this, the cooperative distributes high-quality seeds, offers technical guidance, and runs demonstration farms. It also addresses barriers like unclear land tenure and limited credit access, while strengthening farmer networks through cooperative organization, financial incentives, and peer-to-peer learning. By aggregating produce and connecting farmers to regional markets for milk, fruits, and vegetables, Setidevi fosters enterprise development. Ongoing training in land management and pest control helps sustain the system’s uptake and long-term benefits.
MVIWAMA is a network of 399 farmer and pastoralist groups in Manyara Region, Northern Tanzania, with over 9,300 members—more than half of them women. In Mbulu District, MVIWAMA supports the expansion of agroforestry through tree nurseries, demonstration farms, farmer exchanges, and training in sustainable land use. It promotes value addition and marketing of garlic, honey, and seedlings to strengthen livelihoods. The approach addresses land degradation, deforestation, and low farm productivity by building local knowledge and restoring tree cover on cropland. Women and youths play leading roles in agroforestry expansion, enterprise activities, and food security. By combining environmental restoration with income generation, the solution helps communities adapt to climate change impacts and improve the sustainability of farming systems.
The Union of Peasant and Indigenous Organizations of Cotacachi (UNORCAC) in Cotacachi, Ecuador, is restoring traditional agrobiodiversity and food systems through seed fairs, community seed banks, agroecological farming, and traditional knowledge transfer. Operating across four agroecological zones, over 45 grassroots groups—including women’s associations—are conserving native crops, strengthening food sovereignty, and revitalizing biocultural heritage. Challenges addressed include genetic erosion, land degradation, and malnutrition. Key results include the revitalization of chakra systems—traditional Indigenous farming plots integrating crops, animals, and medicinal plants—and value-added enterprises like Sumak Mikuy, which produces dried native fruits, and Sara Mama, which makes the ancestral maize-based drink Chicha de Jora. Women farmers lead intergenerational learning and community-based solutions for sustainable livelihoods.
The Ombombo Mobile Classroom is an innovative education solution developed by EduVentures to expand access to quality learning in remote and underserved communities. By bringing education directly to learners through a mobile, flexible classroom model, the solution overcomes barriers such as distance, poverty, climate stress, and limited infrastructure. Learning activities are delivered within community settings using context-relevant materials and participatory teaching approaches.
The solution addresses challenges including low literacy levels, and lack of educational resources in rural and drought-affected regions. By providing learner-centered education, skills training, and environmental awareness programs, the Ombombo Mobile Classroom strengthens local capacity and inclusion. Positive results include increased access to education, improved learner engagement, and stronger community ownership of learning, contributing to more resilient and adaptive education systems.
The Serranía de Chiribiquete National Natural Park is Colombia’s largest terrestrial protected area, covering more than 4 million hectares, and for that reason presents multiple challenges for its management and protection. Its inscription on the World Heritage List as a mixed site in 2018 raised important questions about the area’s sustainability and the best approach to its management. Among the main challenges for managing this World Heritage Site (WHS) are climate change, tourism, and deforestation associated with unauthorized land uses, the latter occurring in areas surrounding the site. However, the greatest challenge likely relates to the presence of uncontacted indigenous communities within the WHM, which is why access to the area is strictly restricted for conservation purposes. Consequently, various strategies have been proposed, including a working strategy focused on the area of influence to address the threats facing the site.
The project “Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction through Community-Based Management of Walnut Forests and Pastures,” funded by BMZ and implemented by GIZ and CAMP Alatoo, promoted sustainable natural resource use in Kyrgyzstan from 2018 to 2023.
A key outcome was strengthening environmental education. In remote mountain areas, biology and ecology were taught mainly in theory, with materials poorly adapted to local realities. To address this, local teachers and the project team developed a teacher’s manual with practical exercises and teaching guidance. Approved by the Kyrgyz Academy of Education, it was introduced in 35 schools, with potential for nationwide use. The project also supported integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into pre-service and in-service teacher training
In northern Benin, the decline in vegetation cover is contributing to soil degradation and biodiversity loss. The headwaters of the Mékrou River basin (TBV), covering an area of 36,316 hectares and located in the Atacora department, is severely affected by this phenomenon. Between 2005 and 2020, nearly 95% of the dense forests have disappeared, and 46.6% of the gallery forests are now degraded, thereby weakening ecosystems and the living conditions of local populations. The participatory development of an action plan for landscape and forest restoration (LFR) constitutes a restoration solution that involves all stakeholders, with a focus on local communities and their restoration needs. This process, developed at the Mékrou TBV level, resulted in an RPF action plan validated by all stakeholders, whose shared vision is: to restore and protect the Mékrou forest landscape in order to improve socioeconomic conditions by 2030.
The GIZ project ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction through Community Based Nut Forest and Pasture Management’, implemented from 2015 to 2023 in southern Kyrgyzstan, piloted a participatory pasture management approach. Livestock breeding is the main source of income for the local population. The pressure on pastures is increasing annually due to misuse and constant growth of livestock (+3% per year). Intensive grazing also damages the unique walnut forest, which covers an area of 13,000 ha. Due to grazing in the forest, damage to the forest is expressed in the loss of seedlings and ageing of the forest due to lack of regeneration. During the project, a plan for participatory pasture management was developed by involving residents in the state forest fund. A platform for general discussion of pasture issues called District Pasture Commission was also established. During 8 years the platform has shown its high efficiency in solving conflict issues.
Walnut forests in southern Kyrgyzstan are negatively affected by human activities. In the Arstanbap area, where a large proportion of the forest is concentrated, forests serves as the main source of income for the communities. However, there is unsustainable use of natural resources, manifesting itself in the illegal felling of healthy trees, grazing in the forest, and improper harvesting. The residents’ behavior is explained by their high dependence on pasture and forest resources, low or complete lack of knowledge and information about the harms of their actions. The information campaign carried out by CAMP Alatoo PF under the Eco-Education, Forest Management and Value Chain components included in the project “Biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction through community-based management of walnut forests and pastures” aimed at raising people’s awareness and knowledge, changing attitudes and values, providing tools and knowledge necessary for sustainable management and biodiversity conservation.
Cameroon’s forests face pressures from logging, agricultural expansion, population growth, and climate change. These challenges are made worse by inadequate forest management. In response, the Dja and Mpomo Model Forest (FOMOD) in eastern Cameroon developed an agroforestry model across its 1.6 million-hectare Congo Basin landscape. This began in 2011 with two pilot micro-enterprises. The first focused on Moringa cultivation, valued for its ecological co-benefits. This success led to the expansion into four municipal level enterprises. These were later consolidated through the “Eco Agricultural Business for the Adaptation to Changes in Climate (B-ADAPT)” project on eco-agricultural adaptation to climate change. FOMOD has sought to increase institutional visibility, combat endemic poverty, strengthen governance for vulnerable groups (Indigenous peoples, women, and youth), and build financial self-sufficiency through agroforestry and new partnerships. Core to building self-sufficiency is the development of green value chains.
Mexico is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world, home to rich fauna and flora and considered a biocultural hotspot. However, ecosystem degradation and climate change have threatened biodiversity across the country.
Amid this situation, the Ministry of Environment and Land-use Planning of the state of Guanajuato, with support from the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), strengthened the management and mobilization strategy of Guanajuato’s Environmental Public Fund. Following these reforms, the fund’s annual revenue increased by USD 545,110 (MXN 10,000,000), improving its capacity to finance biodiversity-relatedprojects.
This initiative is part of a broad strategy to implement the BIOFIN methodology at the subnational level across 15 state governments in Mexico, enhancing biodiversity finance while adapting to the context and priorities of each state.
KehatiKu is Borneo Futures’ flagship community-based wildlife conservation pilot, testing a novel approach of paying for wildlife data across 9 villages in Indonesia. Over 800 non-specialist villagers act as data collectors. KehatiKu provides real-time wildlife population metrics, currently based on >160,000 wildlife observations, allowing our team to conduct occupancy analyses that contribute to a growing database of species presence to support effective, outcome-based conservation. Observers voluntarily gather wildlife records during routine activities, using mobile phones. Observations may be photos, videos, or sound recordings. Observations are uploaded to our server and verified by our biodiversity experts. Once verified, observers receive a payment corresponding to species rarity and difficulty of observing them, providing sustainable income. The program is very popular and has resulted in spontaneous wildlife protection. We have evidence that now forests and wildlife is valued more for conservation than exploitation.
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