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Founded by local women in 2003, Asociación de Artesanas de Arbolsol y Huaca de Barro (AAAHB, Women Artisans’ Association of Arbolsol and Huaca de Barro) works to recover traditional methods of cotton production that are environmentally responsible and create positive socioeconomic change in Mórrope District, Lambayeque, northern Peru.

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Asociación de Apicultores de la Reserva de Tariquía (AART, Tariquía Reserve Beekeepers' Association) is an indigenous honey producer association that has been recognized nationally for producing the best organic honey in Bolivia. The group works within the Tariquía Flora and Fauna National Reserve, a protected area covering 610,000 acres of dense, semi-deciduous, montane Tucumano-Boliviano forest.

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Asociación Bio-Itzá (Bio-Itzá Association) is an indigenous organization of the Mayan Itzá people, located in the Municipality of San José in northern Guatemala, which works to involve local communities and incorporate Mayan cultural traditions in the conservation of regional biodiversity. Legally incorporated in 1991, the association's first major achievement came in 1998...

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The Articulação Pacari (Pacari Network) brings together 47 traditional pharmacies and community-based organizations to cultivate medicinal plants, preserve traditional ecological knowledge and health traditions, and protect biodiversity in the Cerrado (savannah) biome. In the absence of any comprehensive legislation that legally recognizes traditional ...

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The Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area Management Committee was established in 1995 as the first community-managed marine conservation area in the Solomon Islands. The 157-km² area is home to nesting grounds of the endangered Hawksbill sea turtle. This Marine Protected Area, created to stem the overexploitation of dwindling marine resources, attracts ecotourism that provides a valuable source of income for local communities.

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Developed as a response to the overexploitation of natural resources, wildlife poaching, and water pollution, the Alliance for Integrated Development Nepal (AID-Nepal) protects and manages the resources of Jagadishpur, an ‘important bird area’, a Ramsar site, and the largest manmade reservoir in Nepal. AID-Nepal works to create sustainable livelihoods while also maintaining and enhancing biodiversity in this wetland ecosystem.

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Alimentos Nutri-Naturales Sociedad Anónima (ANSA) is a group of independent businesses, entirely owned and operated by women, which harvest, process, and sell the abundant and rarely utilized Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum). The nut was once a staple food for the ancient Mayans but is threatened with extinction due to the spread of logging and conversion of land to agriculture.

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Aharam Traditional Crops Producers' Company works with socially marginalized rural producers to conserve biodiversity in the semi-arid Ramnad Plains of Tamil Nadu state. The initiative uses a producer group model focused on women and landless labourers to promote organic farming practices that improve crop diversity and agro-biodiversity.

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Cellule d'Appui à la Conservation et aux Initiatives de Developpement Durable (CACID, Support Group for Conservation and Sustainable Development Initiatives) was the local implementing partner to the Waza Logone floodplain rehabilitation project, an IUCN-led intervention in northern Cameroon from 1987-2000. The project piloted a succession of floodwater...

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Aharam Traditional Crops Producers' Company works with socially marginalized rural producers to conserve biodiversity in the semi-arid Ramnad Plains of Tamil Nadu state. The initiative uses a producer group model focused on women and landless labourers to promote organic farming practices that improve crop diversity and agro-biodiversity.

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For more than twenty-five years, the Agencia para el Desarrollo de la Mosquitia (MOPAWI, Agency for the Development of the Mosquitia) has worked to engage local and indigenous communities in the integrated management of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve and other protected areas in northeastern Honduras.

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In response to declining local octopus populations, community leaders in the coastal village of Andavadoaka sought to regulate harvesting practices. With guidance from Blue Ventures, a UK-based NGO, the village authorities created a trial "no-take zone" in 2004 where octopus hunting was banned for a period of seven months.

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Kalinga Mission for Indigenous Children and Youth Development, Inc. (KAMICYDI) works to improve food security for the indigenous Kalinga people of the Philippines Cordillera, while ensuring the ecological integrity of the area's mountain forests. The association draws from traditional farming practices and customary forest management systems.

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Through participatory planning and mapping exercises, the agro-pastoralist Itoh community conserves land around the Kilum mountain forest for grazing and agriculture. This forest fragment had previously been under threat from encroachment for timber harvesting and clearing for agriculture; it is the largest remnant of montane forest in the ...

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FrutaSã has its roots in a scoping study of the Brazilian Cerrado eco-region conducted in the 1990s to determine socioeconomic challenges facing smallholder farmers and indigenous communities. Alongside mounting environmental threats to the region, exacerbated by the economic marginalization of the rural communities and subsequent over-exploitation...

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The Asociación de Mujeres Ixpiyakok (ADEMI, Ixpiyakok Women's Association) brings together 30 groups of Maya women in Chimaltenango to improve local food security and nutrition through organic family farms and seed banks. Originally launched as a credit and savings program for local women, the association has expanded into health and education service provision, as well as advocacy for women’s rights.

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Developed in response to marine ecosystem degradation, declining fish diversity and abundance, and associated losses to fishermen’s and fisherwomen’s incomes, Akdeniz Koruma Dernegi, or Mediterranean Conservation Society in English, has created a network of ‘no-take zones’ that put local fishing communities at the lead of marine biodiversity conservation.

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Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program

The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program manages a community conservation area and locally-owned forest, the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea. The locally-driven initiative undertakes a range of activities to protect the watershed and provide the local population with sustainable livelihoods.

The conservation area covers 78,729 hectares of habitat, protecting endemic and endangered wildlife species, including the Huon tree kangaroo. The organization has partnered with the private sector and the government on a conservation livelihoods program and a coffee harvesting project, which has brought in more than US$75,000 for local farmers and their families. Farmers use this additional income to pay for their children’s school fees, family health expenses, and basic household necessities.

The initiative represents a unique model of community mobilization and leadership, and is the first time that the diverse indigenous communities involved in the initiative have come together to advance a shared conservation and sustainable livelihoods agenda.

 

Key Facts 

Founded: 1996

Location: Huon Peninsula, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea

Beneficiaries: 12,000 people

Area of Focus: Community-based conservation and livelihoods development

 

Case Study

Find other Winners' Case Studies in our E-Library

 Equator Prize 2014

 Asia And The Pacific

 Biodiversity Conservation

 Sustainable Forestry

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Contact Information

Ms. Mikal Nolan
mikal.nolan@treekangaroo.org
Language(s): English, Tok Pisin