Learning from Success:
Scaling-Up Community-Based Enterprises for Biodiversity and the MDGs

Latin American Learning Exchange Workshop
Merida, Mexico / 25-27 May 2005

Introduction Participant List Merida Meeting Agenda Workshop Photo Diary Daily Journal Supporting Documents Outputs / Products (English) Outputs / Products (Spanish) Media Materials and Coverage Partners Links

Introduction

Building on the recent recommendations of the UN Millennium Project and the Secretary General’s ‘In Larger Freedom’ report, the overall goal of this workshop is for community representatives, field practitioners and researchers to enter into dialogue on the connections between community livelihoods and emerging green markets at the local, national and global levels. With a view to providing input from the community perspective to the September 2005 ‘Millennium Review Summit’, discussion will focus on the interface between biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, and the MDGs and on the role of local entrepreneurs in driving income generation and sustainable use of natural resources. The workshop is directed at three participant groups: local communities; country governments and UNDP officials; and regional and global actors.

The Latin America Regional Exchange Workshop seeks to capitalize on the strength of the community-based movement in Latin America, which has grown considerably since the early 1990s. For much of the past year, UNDP’s regional support office in the Latin America region - in association with the Equator Initiative and IDRC - has documented 22 community experiences from the Latin American region in the areas of poverty reduction and environmental conservation. The extracted lessons and best practices developed through this process cover a wide range of local and regional experiences and form the basis for the discussion and dialogue that will take place during the workshop. These best practices will also provide the basis for a concrete, policy-oriented report that will synthesizes these lessons and other community experiences.

The Latin America Regional Exchange Workshop also seeks to explore approaches for creating a Regional Platform to support local community actors. This goal is inspired by the experiences of already successful regional marketing and advocacy organizations working in Latin America. Mexico is an ideal place for this kind of regional platform, because of its importance in matters of community forestry, biological diversity and agro-biodiversity. It also has access to important research institutions, worldwide certification centers (like those of the Forest Stewardship Council), and national and regional networks of producers’ organisations. By setting the stage for this Regional Platform, the workshop will reinforce UNDP’s role as a knowledge broker and begin to develop real tools that can support community initiatives in their efforts to reduce poverty and conserve biodiversity.