| Strategic Directions |
Investment Priorities |
| 1. Foster civil society participation in regional decisionmaking on select policies and investments to promote the conservation and sustainable development of the Selva Maya and the Selva Zoque and Chiapas/Guatemala Highlands corridors |
1.1 Promote policy reforms that integrate biodiversity conservation in agriculture, infrastructure development, forest fires and tourism |
| 1.2 Develop and strengthen collaborative networks that enable civil society to influence investments with corridor-wide impacts (such as Mundo Maya, PPP, CAFTA) and to foster coordination of current activities |
| 1.3 Build and support action-oriented associations focused on conservation-based enterprises to identify and share lessons learned and to facilitate their growth |
| 1.4 Promote the introduction and use of new sustainable conservation financing mechanisms, focusing on payments for environmental services. *CEPF will not provide funding for the actual payments, but will fund analysis and promotion of different models |
| 1.5 Support corridor-level biological and environmental management monitoring relevant for understanding the state of biodiversity conservation for decisionmaking |
| 2. Collaborate with other donor-funded projects to facilitate and operationalize successful conservation activities in Northern Mesoamerica's eight most important key biodiversity areas |
2.1 Increase coordination of key stakeholder groups to plan and implement initiatives in the eight priority key biodiversity areas |
| 2.2 Increase local government and NGO capacity for forest fire prevention and control, enforcement of land tenure laws and the prevention of illegal hunting and timber harvesting |
| 2.3 Build civil society capacity to support the mitigation of impacts of proposed infrastructure projects on biodiversity, focusing on roads and dams |
| 2.4 Assess the adequacy of coverage of protected areas, and lay the groundwork for declaration of new private and public reserves |
| 3. Support priority conservation actions in three priority key biodiversity areas |
3.1 Strengthen management of Sierra de las Minas in areas such as facilitating payments for watershed services, stakeholder coordination, and reduction in timber harvesting |
| 3.2 Strengthen management of Laguna del Tigre in areas such as fire management, conflict resolution and economic alternatives to deforestation |
| 3.3 Strengthen management of Chiquibul/Montañas Mayas in areas such as xate harvesting and the protection of the Macal River valley |
| 4. Support efforts to prevent the extinction of Northern Mesoamerica’s 106 Critically Endangered species |
4.1 Improve protection of Critically Endangered species through enhanced knowledge of their conservation needs, increased local capacity to conserve these species and investments in field conservation and protection projects |
| 4.2 Increase coordination of efforts to improve the protection of critically endangered species through the exchange and consolidation of data and information |