Mesoamerica Landscapes Dialogue 2019 by Landscapes for People,Food & Nature
Pitch
Strategically combining a Landscape Leaders Dialogue with collaborative action planning to accelerate sustainable rural development
Description
Summary
Rural production landscapes in Mesoamerica are facing unprecedented pressures to meet growing demands for food and fiber production, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service delivery, and economic development. Single-sector approaches to reconciling competing demands for land and resources have proven insufficient, and the inter-linkages between economic, social and environmental challenges are increasingly evident. Water security underpins economic and community health; land degradation impacts food production; agricultural areas must provide habitat for threatened biodiversity. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) has emerged as a strategy to support the interrelated objectives of agriculture production, ecosystem services and rural livelihoods, while reducing the tradeoffs and conflicts associated with single-sector approaches.
In Mesoamerica, ILM is proliferating from diverse entry points such as integrated watershed management, biological corridors through agricultural landscapes, model forests, green municipalities, community agrotourism, sustainable territorial development, and climate-smart territories. These initiatives, drawing from different entry points across a wide range of sectors and stakeholders, provide ample experiences to learn from, and also point to systemic gaps and challenges that are difficult for individual initiatives to address on their own. Many programs and initiatives lack the networks or mechanisms for collective action. Expertise is fragmented and not easily accessible to field practitioners, and there is no platform for practical knowledge-sharing. This regional initiative organized around a “Mesoamerican Landscapes Dialogue” will work to fill these gaps by bringing together practitioners, policymakers, and landscape leaders across these communities of practice to share approaches and techniques, craft solutions to shared challenges, and develop strategies for collective action for strategic investment and regional impact.
Is this proposal for a practice or a project?
Project
What actions do you propose?
The Mesoamerica Dialogue 2019 event will be comprised of the following elements:
- Local knowledge and experience sharing sessions based on case materials provided by selected landscape leaders and local or regional initiatives
- Science meets practice – sessions with inputs from the most recent research findings on ILM and discussions on their transferability to the local context of the landscape leaders present.
- Let’s Get Down to Business day, Day 2 or 3 of the event dedicated explicitly to collaborative dialogue between private sector leaders and civil society about ways to partner to improve rural and youth employment opportunities and co-design and accelerate sustainable enterprises.
- A tools bazaar, a successful session format used in previous Dialogues, will directly build capacity of landscape leaders around tools and methods specifically designed for ILM.
- Poster and networking sessions allow all participants the opportunity to make their experience visible to peers and start conversations with those with similar challenges.
- Working sessions where working groups, learning networks, and other topical or sub-regional groups can develop shared work plans, agendas, and goals to promote continued post-conference knowledge-sharing and peer-to-peer support.
- Field trip to selected Mexican landscapes, co-organized by local landscape leaders, to explore challenges and successful strategies for integrated landscape management firsthand.
The major themes of the Second Dialogue, defined by the Co-Organizers, will tentatively be:
- Multi-stakeholder Landscape Platforms: Strengthening the role and voice of community organizations
- Mobilizing landscape finance
- Entrepreneurship and green, inclusive market development
- Gender and inclusion in integrated landscape management
- Policy support for integrated landscape management
- Monitoring integrated landscape management
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We will also organize a ½- to 1-day session especially designed for participation of private sector business and finance organizations, examining effective strategies for business-landscape partnership.
Associated with the Dialogue will be a set of field trips to active landscape initiatives, and possible a training workshop on landscape finance.
Who will take these actions?
This learning and sharing event will gather 150-200 landscape leaders from across Mexico and Central America, for structured peer-to-peer knowledge sharing on how to implement restoration and integrated landscape management at the landscape/community level. Researchers, business leaders, funders and policymakers will join them over the four days to listen, learn, and discover ways to support, scale, and replicate their successes, and help them and their peers better identify and overcome barriers.
The composition of participants will promote cross-sectorial dialogue facilitated by an event design that fosters strengthening of regional landscape partnerships/platforms. The Dialogue will encourage active engagement of rural youth leaders and entrepreneurs and the business and finance communities, to gain valuable insights and perspectives on how ILM can help generate inclusive rural economic development and employment opportunities.
The Dialogue organization, program and associated activities will be developed and implemented in a collaborative way by a group of Co-Organizers, partners of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative convened by EcoAgriculture Partners. Mexican host organizers will be NGOs Conservation International-Mexico, Reforestamos-Mexico, WRI-Mexico (20X20) and IUCN-Mexico, together with national government partners. Other Co-organizers include CATIE, GIZ-Mexico, Solidaridad-Mesoamerica, Rikolto, TreesWaterPeople, Heifer International, EcoAgriculture Partners, Loom Capital, and others now being recruited, including indigenous peoples alliances.
Where will these actions be taken?
The event will be in Mexico, but the Dialogue will include participants from all Mesoamerica countries. So it's expected the benefits of the event will spread in Mesoamerica countries.
In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.
Mexico
Country 2
Guatemala
Country 3
Costa Rica
Country 4
Honduras
Country 5
Belize
Impact/Benefits
What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?
By forming strategic alliances between actors (public, private, and civic) and organizations working in ILM in the region, we will provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences, document and disseminate lessons learned, and mobilize investment in sustainable landscapes that contribute to local stakeholder-agreed Landscape Action Plans.
Outcomes:
- 150-200 landscape leaders from Mesoamerica report significantly improved capacity for integrated landscape management or forest and landscape restoration, immediately following the event, with over 75% reporting usefulness of lessons learned at event after 6 months.
- Specific topical (finance, community leadership in ILM, gender-inclusion, agribusiness engagement, youth employment, policy, etc.) peer learning or collaborative action networks (communities of practice) are established to continue cooperation and knowledge-sharing beyond the event.
- Conference outcome statement sets regional priorities and commitments in relation to regional commitments on agriculture, environment, climate and sustainable development
- Learnings, including video recordings of their associated landscape leaders, will be produced to share with Dialogue participants and to a regional and international audience through various channels, including the Global Landscapes Forum.
What are other key benefits?
Costs/Challenges
What are the proposal’s projected costs?
The Following activities will cost 200,000 USD
- Convene organizing committee and working groups regularly
- Onsite event production, including field trips, venue, group dinners, banners, etc.
- Participant costs/sponsorships (200), including local & international travel, accommodation, meals
- Event content preparation, key speaker invitations, program development and facilitation
- Event outreach, promotion, materials, press releases
- Event follow up, participant survey, outcome report preparation, formatting, publication.
Timeline
The Dialogue event is being done once a year. This year 2019 the event will be in Oaxaca, Mexico. Duration: 4 days.
About the author(s)
The Dialogue organization, program and associated activities will be developed and implemented in a collaborative way by a group of Co-Organizers, partners of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative convened by EcoAgriculture Partners. Mexican host organizers will be NGOs Conservation International-Mexico, Reforestamos-Mexico, WRI-Mexico (20X20) and IUCN-Mexico, together with national government partners. Other Co-organizers include CATIE, GIZ-Mexico, Solidaridad-Mesoamerica, Rikolto, TreesWaterPeople, Heifer International, EcoAgriculture Partners, Loom Capital, and others now being recruited, including indigenous peoples alliances.
By:
Landscapes for People,Food & Nature
