South-South exchange contributes to learning about LED-R issues across rainforest countries

Earth Innovation Institute (EII)

As part of the launch of meeting of the Sustainable Tropics Alliance, Alliance members also participated in the first field knowledge exchange expedition in the Sierra Madre region of Chiapas, Mexico. Meeting hosts and founding Alliance members Pronatura-Sur organized a two-day expedition to the Sierra Madre region along the Pacific Coast of South-western Mexico (April 19-20, 2013). 

During the field trip, participants visited communities with on-going projects in sustainable cattle ranching and sustainable forest management, while learning about issues of land tenure, markets, access to finance and existing social organization and dynamics as main drivers of land-use decisions. It was a unique opportunity for representatives of the Alliance member organizations to “compare notes” on these issues among the focal regions of the project as they learned how actors in Chiapas are finding ways to overcome the obstacles to moving toward a low emissions rural development model. 

The meeting and the field trip provided the foundation for discussions of a basic conceptual and methodological framework for LED-R as well as for the value that the Alliance could provide to members in facilitating climate- and well-being-focused development. The field trip allowed members to see the value of being part of a knowledge exchange network and systematizing concepts and approaches to reframe rural development and conservation models.