Naomi Millner was recently awarded ca. £13000 of ESRC Impact funding by Bristol University to support a new collaboration with Bioversity International, a Research for Development organisation which specialises in the protection of agricultural and forestry biodiversity. The funds will allow Naomi to contribute to the 'Livelihoods' theme in a multi-million pound project focused on the conservation of forestry theme of a large inter-disciplinary research programme focused on biodiversity conservation within forests in Mesoamerica. Drawing on her previous participatory work with small-scale farmers and social movements in El Salvador, Naomi will complement the scientific and economic studies being undertaken by contributing toward cultural understandings of nature and conservation amongst the forest indigenous communities. She will also support the design of impact pathways for the broader research by developing in-depth understanding of diverse stakeholder interests and perceptions of the research.
The larger project breaks new ground by bringing together, for the first time, a multidisciplinary team of social and natural scientists who will rigorously analyse and compare community forestry experiences in the Petén, Guatemala and the Autonomous North Atlantic Region of Nicaragua (RAAN), some of which have been under way for as long as 25 years. There are few examples of community forestry where enough time has passed for lessons to be learned, but the community forests of the Petén, established more than 20 years ago, are among them. Nicaragua’s forests, similarly rich in mahogany, currently yield fewer benefits to local people. A ban on harvesting mahogany and several other timber species has been in place since 2006, and Hurricane Felix devastated large forest areas in 2007. The expected impact of the project is that new information, tools and recommendations will be integrated into management and utilization plans, policies, regulations and development activities by governments, NGOs and community organizations. Their implementation will yield increased benefits to local people from the use of forest resources (including high value timber species) and improved management and conservation of the resource base. The options developed will be applicable not only in Nicaragua and Guatemala, but also to other forest communities in Latin America and beyond.
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