Purchasing Choices and Forest Products

NORDECO is implementing a project in Bolivia together with two local partners: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Bolivia and Fundación Teko Kavi. The project is called ”Indigenous Forest Management for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Northern La Paz”.

The project will support climate change mitigation and adaptation by improving sustainable livelihoods. The project will establish community-based sustainable agroforestry systems to restore degraded lands and manage natural cocoa groves. This will represent an alternative to the advancement of the agricultural frontier into the Amazon rainforest and will be breaking the cycle of environmental degradation and poverty.

The project will also support local livelihoods based on the sustainable use of biodiversity for food products. The project will increase urban awareness and promote consumption of biodiversity products. This is not only important to develop local markets but it will also make a qualitative change in customers’ involvement in conservation efforts through purchasing choices. Local engagement in conservation efforts is directly related to land use choices but urban dwellers have only been passive recipients of information. A broader conservation constituency is required to face important challenges arising from encroaching development.

Photo: Mileniusz Spanowich/WCS