Our story
For eleven years, dreams, knowledge and commitments have added up to consolidate the Community REDD+ Portfolio in the Biogeographic Chocó.
A portfolio that thrills us from Acandí to Tumaco has been possible thanks to the commitment and work of the Mutatá Indigenous Council and the 19 Community Councils that are part of the 9 REDD+ projects: Bajo Mira y Frontera, ACAPA, Cajambre, Bajo Calima, La Plata-Bahía Málaga, Concosta, Sivirú, Usaragá, Pizarro, Piliza, ACABA, Río Pepé, Montaño, Vigía de Curvaradó-Santa Rosa del Limón, Domingodó, Apartadó- Buena Vista, Chicao, La Madre and Cocomasur.
During this journey, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) set a learning path that served as a compass for guiding the strengthening process with communities. Their committed work and the resources invested were crucial in shaping the Community REDD+ Portfolio into what it is now. Its management and accompaniment with Fondo Acción continued until 2018 through the Connected Landscapes program, leaving significant advances that paved the way for great achievements and results.
Fondo Acción joined efforts, abilities and resources to boost the project’s objectives, strengthening communication and trust with each of the participating communities, understanding the dynamics of their territories to generate real actions aligned with their contexts, culture and traditions.
In 2019, the Sustainable Colombia Fund and its donors, as well as the Inter-American Development Bank, joined this journey of commitments, learning and challenges, with the conviction that working with the communities of the Pacific could build viable territories.
Each of these actors has played an important role in this story with the goal of extending it in time and promoting it as a sustainable option for the families of the Colombian Pacific.
Here we narrate what the process has been like and the present the most important facts. We invite you to learn more about this story by clicking on the following sections:
Preserve to enjoy
The communities decide how the revenue from the carbon credit sales will be distributed and devise an Annual Operations Plan (POA) that addresses the obligations of the REDD+ project.
For communities, it’s clear that collective efforts must bring forth collective benefits. Resources should first be allocated toward the implementation of activities that continue to mitigate deforestation and forest degradation, and strengthen the projects’ governance, supply chain, monitoring, reporting and verification components; secondly, toward social initiatives such as improving housing, education, infrastructure, among others. Sustainable Colombia Fund supports the development of the Annual Operations Plan and its proposed actions through the project implemented by Fondo Acción, which ends in 2021.
“Reaching agreements, understanding and acknowledging the project as our own, knowing that Fondo Acción can leave – all of the organizations can leave- but the work we’re doing is for us, to defend our territory”.
Ruth Valencia, La Plata Bahia Malaga Community Council
