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 goals

Mission

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Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras

The Ecologic Development Fund, or Ecologic, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the conservation of critical natural resources in rural areas of Latin America. Since 1993, Ecologic and its partners have promoted sustainable livelihoods that affirm local cultures and strengthen community participation in natural resource management, holding the belief that linking environmental stewardship and economic development positively impacts threatened habitats as well as human well-being. Targeting Latin America as both 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) place tremendous pressure on fragile ecosystems. It is the balance between human needs and environmental imperatives that Ecologic finds most compelling in addressing the future of the planet.

The Impact of Poverty on Biodiversity

Resource use associated with conditions of poverty, for example, slash and burn agriculture, clearcutting, and overfishing, are believed to place tremendous pressure on fragile ecosystems. Similar threats are posed by ecologically unsustainable activities in mining, agribusiness, and oil exploration. 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 largely unintended consequence is driven by conversion of forest land to agricultural uses fueled by subsistence needs of the poor as well as environmentally unsustainable commercial expansion. 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. With the human population expected to increase, Ecologic promotes sustainable, long-term solutions amongst its partners to improve human well-being today and to protect natural resources crucial to future generations.

Mitigating climate change

Ecologic's approach to the anticipated challenges of climate change - believed to be the direct result of adding too much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere - 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. By planting and protecting trees, EcoLogic’s Honduran venture 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. 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. In 2008, Ecologic plans to launch their Carbon Plus Program: Offsets for the Voluntary Market, offering corporations and institutions the opportunity to neutralize their carbon impact by purchasing carbon credits produced by our projects.

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

Community self-determination

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Earth, Trees, Water Meets Locally in Guatemala

Since their inception in 1993, Ecologic has taken 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.

Impact

Organization history

• 1992: At the Earth Summit in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, many in the international conservation community acknowledged that conventional approaches to protecting the planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity often did not take into account the needs of the people living in and around threatened areas. The conservation strategy they envisioned would seek to understand and integrate local needs by addressing the underlying social and economic causes of habitat loss. Out of this vision, co-founders Shaun Paul and Russell Byers establish EcoLogic Development Fund.
• 1993: EcoLogic establishes an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts and awards its first grant of $30,000 to the Mario Dary Foundation for a conservation project in Punta Munabique, Guatemala.
• 1994: EcoLogic initiates its second project in Petén, Guatemala, with the Bio Itza Association
• 1995: EcoLogic provides a two-year, $44,000 grant to support economic self-determination and natural resource management in 30 indigenous Guatemalan villages. Partnership with the Maya Forestry Action Plan is formalized.
• 1996: EcoLogic expands to Honduras to strengthen protection of the Jeannette Kawas National Park.
• 1997: EcoLogic expands to Honduras as we strengthen local capacity and participation in management and protection of the Jeannette Kawas National Park.
• 1999: EcoLogic and its Honduran partner organization join forces to train 100 villages in the buffer zone of the Pico Bonito National Park on how to stabilize their soils and protect their water sources.
• 2000: EcoLogic begins working with a partner in Belize to create a blueprint for the local indigenous community to manage the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
• 2001: EcoLogic expands into Mexico and begins work with the National Federation of Autonomous Campesino Organizations (UNORCA) to promote agro-forestry. Executive Director Shaun Paul is awarded a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader Fellowship.
• 2002: EcoLogic participates in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, leading to a heightened focus on freshwater conservation and integrated watershed management. Partnership with Ulew Che' Ja' (Earth, Trees, Water) is formed in Totonicapán, Guatemala.
• 2003: EcoLogic launches its Water Campaign to increase watershed protection and potable water infrastructure to help rural communities reforest water sources. EcoLogic’s Shaun Paul serves as co-chair of the Partnership Sub-Committee of White Water to Blue Water (WW2BW): an initiative of governments of Spain, Great Britain, the U.S., and a variety of non-governmental organizations formed to develop a plan to promote the sustainable use of water in the Caribbean Basin.
• 2004: EcoLogic initiates partnership with the Regional Council of Sierra de Guerrero in Mexico.
• 2005: In response to Hurricane Stan, EcoLogic and EcoLogic Finance team up to assist in Mexico and Guatemala.
• 2006: EcoLogic participates in the 4th World Water Forum, attended by 19,000, where their Guatemalan partner, Ulew Che’ Ja', is recognized as a top-ten finalist for the Kyoto Water Prize, awarded to the best grassroots water project in the world. EcoLogic and its Belizean partner, SATIIM wage a successful campaign to demand an environmental impact assessment prior to any oil exploration activities in the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
• 2007: EcoLogic teams up with ProNatura in Mexico to begin watershed management restoration efforts in Veracruz. EcoLogic's Belizean partner SATIIM, along with other indigenous groups in southern Belize, win landmark legal victory that recognizes indigenous land rights around the Sarstoon Temash National Park.
• 2008: EcoLogic forms strategic alliance with Reforestamos Mexico to promote conservation-led development among indigenous communities.

Partnerships

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Maya Forestry Action Plan

• 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, Guatemala
• 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