Regional project: Our Land, Our Forest

The AMPB (for its acronym in Spanish) is a partner organization of the Climate and Forests Program at ICCO. The AMPB evolved as a platform of indigenous territorial governments and community forestry organizations, and its members represents many of the communities that live on the most densely-forested lands in Mesoamerica.

We have been working with the MAPF���������������������������s leaders and member organizations for four years, including ACOFOP in Guatemala.

During these years the alliance has developed innovative governance models that vindicates indigenous and forests communities rights in the region, nevertheless, the alliance and its member organizations still needs to build on their capacities related to the organizations and governance to strengthen their advocacy and lobby actions.

Since the alliance does not have a legal status, ACOFOP will be the administrator for the current project proposal. The project will be implemented by the Association of Forest Communities of Pet������������������n (ACOFOP) which is part of MAPF and member of its Executive Committee. ACOFOP is a second level institution made up of 22 community organizations that perform community forestry in the Multiple Use Area of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the department of Pet������������������n, Guatemala.

The current project proposal is part of a broad project that will be implemented with the members of AMPB named Our land Our Forest II and will follow up the activities carry out in the that project. This project aims to contribute to:

- Ensure respect for indigenous and forest communities land rights;
- Improve forest, land management and control;
- Strengthen indigenous and forest community organizations and their social cohesion; and
- Strengthen local human resource capacity, with an emphasis on women and youth.

This project will work to ensure respect for indigenous and forest communities land rights, improve forest, land management and control through different activities such as the establishment and implementation of the Unit of Surveillance and control; dialogues with government organization and other indigenous group in the negotiation of the management of the boundaries in the biosphere reserve, sanitation process, titled and other. Other activities will be part of this project such as strengthen leaders, including youth and women in the process of dialogue and territorial management.

The project is aligned with ICCOs Regional Program on Climate and Forests which main objective is to promote sustainable changes in the social, economic and political environment in which forest community groups operate, as well as to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation; within this program, ICCO implements the project Our Land, Our Forest II. The current project constitutes a territorial investment within the latter.