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Lesson Learned
José Luis Capella, senior attorney, Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (Peruvian Environmental Law Society or SPDA).
With support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), SPDA implemented a project to disseminate legal tools and services to local communities to assist with conservation efforts in the Vilcabamba-Amboró biodiversity conservation corridor of the Tropical Andes Hotspot.
What was the most important lesson learned?
Many people involved in private and communal conservation projects need technical and legal support to strengthen their initiatives, in order to ensure effective access to information and to encourage them to be part of more formal strategies.
Describe how you learned this and whether / how you have adapted your approach or specific project elements as a result.
Our project supports local citizens, enterprises, the indigenous population, and other forest stakeholders in the Peruvian sector of the Vilcabamba-Amboró Corridor. In particular, we provide the necessary legal insurance and technical support for the implementation of private and communal conservation tools such as nontimber concessions (conservation, ecotourism, forest fruits recollection) or private conservation areas.
This project has given people who have been working their own lands in a sustainable way, and those who are interesting in adopting the same perspective, an opportunity to be recognized and supported in their efforts. For this reason they are very thankful for the work we're doing with them.
We also understand that government support is necessary to promote and implement different private conservation strategies. This support is also necessary in maintaining these conservation strategies among social groups.
This project is even more valuable given the regional context in which we are working. The area is characterized by a combination of poor population, insufficient support from the government, and lots of unsatisfied needs.
On the other hand, the region also features large infrastructure projects, the extraction of non-renewable resources like gold and hydrocarbon, and the exportation of raw materials such as timber and Brazilian nuts.
In this scenery, working with the people who need support to keep conserving their areas becomes a necessity and an obligation both for the government and for nongovernmental organizations.
- July 2006
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© SPDA
José Luis Capella
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