ASL News: 2019 highlights

Amazon Sustainable Landscapes

NEWS | DECEMBER 2019

( Versión en español / Versão em português )

Dear Friends,

In this newsletter we are happy to share some key events from 2019—an important year for the ASL. In the next few weeks we'll be sending out our annual report where you'll find out more about ASL’s work in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru and explore highlights from working with communities, project teams, implementing agencies, donors and other stakeholders to achieve environmental and social impacts.

Thank you all for your support and energy, which makes the ASL Program possible. As we plan for the next year, we hope to build on the progress achieved and be united to protect biodiversity and promote sustainable land and water use in the Amazon.

While 2019 brought many successes and accomplishments, sadly it was also the year that we lost Claudia. Our dearest friend and colleague Claudia Sobrevila unexpectedly passed away on July 31st. Her passion and commitment to protect the environment and indigenous peoples will remain as an inspiration to our program.

Claudia believed that by increasing societies’ understanding of the need to care for and nurture the environment we create a powerful movement toward peace. Please watch this video created for Claudia where her vision is captured through her own words, and explore this special book where friends and colleagues shared their thoughts, commemorating her life. Here is the last communications piece that Claudia championed on a topic dearest to her heart—the indigenous communities and their role in conservation. She is dearly missed every day, but we are committed to honor her legacy through the implementation of our projects and with the utmost respect for nature, the Amazon, and the people living in the region.

Warm regards and wishing you Happy Holidays and a joy-filled 2020.

The ASL Team

News at a glance ( scroll down to read more )

Amazon countries sign the Leticia Pact
ASL's Second Annual Conference
Making progress towards integrated watershed management in the Putumayo-Içá
Knowledge Exchange – Community Forestry Selva Maya and the Amazon: Working Together for the Forest, Life and Peace
World Conversations II: A dialogue between Brazil, Colombia and Peru
A new phase for the ASL
Introducing the ASL knowledge management platform

ASL regional highlights from 2019

Amazon countries sign the Leticia Pact

The governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname signed the Leticia Pact on September 6, 2019.

The agreement includes a commitment to generate a joint response to disasters that may arise in any country of the region; strengthen regional actions to face pressures such as deforestation, selective logging, and illegal exploitation of minerals; and advance the generation of scientific knowledge to make the best decisions to protect the Amazon. The Pact mentions the second phase of the Amazon Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) program and recommends the prompt formulation of its national projects.

The Action Plan that will materialize the commitments of the Pact was officially launched this month in Madrid at the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25). The plan includes activities in five thematic components:

Reforestation, conservation, forest and biodiversity sustainable management, and bioeconomy
Security in the Amazon
Information and knowledge management
Women and indigenous people’s empowerment
Financing and international cooperation

Read the Leticia Pact HERE

Read the action plan in Spanish HERE

Read the statement from Naoko Ishii, Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO and Chairperson, HERE

ASL’s Second Annual Conference

Over 65 participants including ASL government beneficiaries, partners, implementing agencies, and project teams from Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, gathered at the ASL’s Second Annual Conference in Leticia, Colombia, from September 3–5, 2019, to share knowledge, reflect on their work, and inspire one another.

Experts delivered keynote talks about community forestry management, conservation agreements for restoration, financing mechanisms for protected areas, and complementary conservation strategies.

Read the report here

Making progress towards integrated watershed management in the Putumayo-Içá River

ASL is supporting the regional coordination process between Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to establish collaborative actions for the conservation and sustainable management of the Putumayo-Içá watershed.

To date, the process has involved multiple virtual events and one meeting with key government decision makers, leading to the preparation of a regional project to be submitted to the GEF for financing under the International Waters and Chemicals/Waste GEF Focal Areas. A technical workshop recently took place in Leticia, Colombia, from December 2–5, where representatives from government agencies and civil society organizations exchanged knowledge about the watershed, identified opportunities for the regional project, and made progress towards the definition of priority activities at the national and regional level.

Knowledge Exchange – Community Forestry Selva Maya and the Amazon:

Working Together for the Forest, Life and Peace

Twenty-one participants from Brazil, Colombia, and Peru gathered to learn how local communities in Guatemala are protecting more than 500,000 hectares of forest through community concessions granted by the government while generating economic and social benefits. Participants at the July 2019 exchange were from local communities working on forest management, governmental and non-governmental institutions directly interested in the processes, and specialists in forest management and conservation. The event was widely disseminated in different media.

Download the report on challenges and lessons learned (in Spanish)

Read news articles in Spanish and Portuguese

Watch the video on Community Forestry – Learning from Petén (in Spanish w/English subtitles)

World Conversations II: A dialogue between Brazil, Colombia and Peru

We are pleased to share the report and video that resulted from the intercultural regional dialogue for environmental and territorial management in the Amazon “World Conversations” that took place in February. The dialogue was sponsored by the ASL and organized by the Gaia Amazonas Foundation and its strategic partners: the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), the Instituto de Pesquisa e Formação Indígena (Iepé), and the Institute of the Common Good (IBC).

Read the report HERE (in Spanish)

The event facilitated an exchange of experiences around territorial management issues and governance between representatives from indigenous groups, national and international civil society organizations, and environmental authorities of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. The report and video summarize the main results and reflections from a meeting that helped build joint knowledge, sign a declaration and create regional alliances for the future of the indigenous territories and protected natural areas in the Amazon Northwest.

Watch the video HERE (in Spanish)

A new phase for the ASL

In June 2019, the GEF Council approved a package of programs and projects worth almost $1 billion to “tackle growing threats to the natural world and to help some of the Earth's most vulnerable people adapt to climate change.”

A second phase of the ASL (ASL2) was among the programs approved. Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname will join Brazil, Colombia and Peru to collectively aim to improve integrated landscape management and conservation of ecosystems in targeted areas in the Amazon region. ASL2 will consist of seven national projects and a regional coordination grant, building on the components of the current ASL by expanding the geographic scope and implementing integrated forest landscape approaches. At the national levels, the program will support the expansion and consolidation of terrestrial and freshwater areas under legal protection, including both protected areas and indigenous territories; the development of productive landscape management of selected regions, and the improvement of policies and strategies for integrated management of both protected and productive landscapes. All these interventions aim to reduce deforestation and ensure the protection of terrestrial and aquatic species and habitats. At the regional level, the program will enhance regional coordination, collaboration and knowledge exchange, and learning among all stakeholders.

Introducing the ASL knowledge management platform

The knowledge management platform of the ASL has established a large Amazon community of practice (CoP) that aims to support the delivery of the national projects and program goals.

The ASL CoP (version 1.0), aims to increase collaboration and coordination across the ASL program, projects, and its partners; provide access to practical, actionable knowledge through a web-based centralized platform; and support and promote the programmatic approach by encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas and knowledge exchange across the Amazon biome. The online space for the ASL CoP has been built on a secure Collaboration for Development (C4D) platform hosted by the World Bank. This knowledge exchange platform intends to facilitate interactions among its members including government counterparts, development partners, academics and experts, and the teams from implementing and executing agencies. The platform is hosting a repository of publications and resources relevant to the Amazon which will be updated regularly with contributions from its members.

Please stay tuned for more updates when we will send an invitation to become a member so that you can join us and help us build this community of practice, participate in discussions, and share ideas and resources.

In the meantime, please visit this collaborative platform and explore the ASL publications and resources .