CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY
AMBIO has worked for years with a problem of global importance, such as the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Among the initiatives implemented, the aim is to sensitize the general population about the implications of climate change, and research or projects are designed in a participatory manner, which that can help to face this problem in the southeast of Mexico.
We have approached different strategies to mitigate climate change, but one of the most effective has been through the sustainable management of forests and jungles, which in Mexico belong mostly to rural communities and ejidos.
One of these strategies is addressed through the avoided deforestation scheme, under the Community Forest Management approach. It focuses on the management and conservation of community forest areas, to reduce forest loss due to anthropogenic activities or natural disasters.
Another path that we have successfully addressed has been the recovery of agricultural areas through the establishment of Agroforestry Systems (AFS) that allow the recovery of tree strata, in combination with agricultural activities. Both strategies are addressed with the Scolel'té Program, which has proven to be effective in the recovery and increase of ecosystem services in degraded areas.
The communities framed in Scolel'té have the commitment to conserve and restore forests or jungles, through the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES). The design is carried out from the localities point of view, with the participation and involvement of the farmers and their families, who are the basis for the development of the projects. The agroforestry systems oriented to meet the food and economical needs of the participants, in such a way that their adoption process meets specific needs in their contexts.
With the use of the Plan Vivo System, all the work carried out in on the plots of the participants offer the possibility of receiving the benefits of their participation in the Voluntary Carbon Market at a national and international level. The profits from the Carbon Certificates are delivered to the participants directly, in the form of Payment for Environmental Services (PES). This remuneration is managed locally by the participants themselves.
AMBIO focuses on developing strategies to conserve biodiversity in its work areas. This approach has been developed transversally with the line action of Integrated Management of the Territory. The objective is to recognize, systematize and revalue the local knowledge of men and women about the biodiversity present in their environments.
AMBIO has a Community Biodiversity Protocol, which was developed as a community technical tool to monitor, record and systematize information on the presence of flora and fauna. There is also a series of indicators that allow monitoring the impacts on biodiversity of the different AMBIO initiatives.