Fondo para la Paz, I.A.P.

Miguel Hidalgo, Mexique

An Overview Of Our Solution

Fondo para La Paz (FPP) facilitate the development process in Mexican-indigenous communities with high vulnerability and extreme poverty, with the ultimate goal to sustainable development and human security conditions; through to participatory planning process and the communities as main actors. We present 3 farming projects in different regions, which aim is to allow increase incomes, improvement food security & wellbeing, and conserve ecosystem services (ES) with an adequate cultural management. As a result, agricultural practices and crop yields have improved, and also, social dynamics have been strengthened, food and water availability are enhanced and ES are been identified and conserved. Inside FPP replication and scale has taken place, participant farmers’ increase each year.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

À but non lucratif

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Forests

Grasslands

Population impacted

990 families direct impacted, aprox 4,100 people

Size of agricultural area

423ha in differents Mexico regions, with coffee, maize and vanilla

Production quantity

234Ton/year maize; 5Ton speciallity coffee

People employed

23 people directly in this projects; 56 people in all Fondo para la Paz

Describe your solution

FPP believes that every person is capable, responsible and main actor of their own development; we promote activities and process to generate opportunities for present and future. Through community participatory planning (PP) facilitated by FPP, people of each region could identify their main problems and solutions to them, according to their resources and capacities. FPP role is facilitate community organization, decision making, develop abilities and skills, and empower communities capable to structure and design sustainable projects and establishing links with stakeholders; in order to improve human security conditions which permit communities resilience and climate change adaptability. In the case of coffee, vanilla and maize farm-communities, change is being reached through strategies structured according to local culture and traditions and focused in PP process, developing agricultural projects that permit conserve BD and ES, and also impulse economic security in a medium-long term. We work to develop abilities that permit farmers analyze and assess new practices and technologies, choose the best option for their lives and production, and identify the ES that are conserving with these; this way, the changes their adopt are culturals and could endures over time.

Describe your implementation

We work up to 15 years each community; throw PP, we focus on organization and development process, empowering women role as leaders, and facilitating the appropriation of technologies and new ways of production. Through monitoring and accompaniment we promote change management and also we evaluate the results in medium and long term. The main obstacle is language, because each region has their own language, but several members of FPP-team share language, culture and traditions which make easier the development process with people. We work with groups of farmers, promoting organization and collective actions, and identifying the context of each crop: strengths and opportunities to improve. Through the specialists support in each region, we design trainings to develop specific abilities in participants, as a complementary strategy we pilot different models of production to identify the best techniques to improve in farms. We realize operating and financial reports to recognize best options to produce, according to farmers needs and financial capacities. To increase productivity, we promote products transformation, for example in the case of coffee, we impulse farmers to do humid benefit and sell speciality parchment coffee; FPP support products commercialization, coffee was being positioned in Japan (Wataru), Mexico (Cobalto) and others; now we have negotiation with Sustainable Harvest, Cobalto, Teikei coffee, Stumptown, among others. All these crops are suitable for each area, have management by agroecological system and permit ES conservation; in case of vanilla and coffee are perennial, in case of maize are in milpa systems and crops rotation. And all of these activities were selected by community people, whom made the compromise to improve their systems and active participate.

External connections

Our key partners at each area are SLP: Pepsico Foundation and municipal government. Mixteca: International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT); National Institute of Forest, Agriculture and Pastoral Research (INIFAP); Ministry of Agriculture Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). Sierra Zongolica: Agroecological Centre of Coffee (CAFECOL); INIFAP; Postgraduate College (COLPOS); Chapingo University, Ecology Institute (INECOL); Walmart Foundation Mexico; ADO Foundation; and Zurich Foundation. The economic supports by Foundations permitted develop and implement different projects in each area. Technical support of all mentioned Institutions allow framework design for each project, developing skills and sharing technical theory to achieve goals. During projects we facilitate the identification of all the landscapes-units in each region, to recognize the process that connect all units, and to promote activities that permit impulse them and conserve the ES of all areas. We evaluate our projects in short, medium and long term, with the objective to measure the results and to recognize the relevance of them.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

Fondo para la Paz (FPP) works with 111 indigenous communities from 5 States in Mexico, with high poverty and marginalization. They’ve lands with high biodiversity (BD) and ecosystem services (ES), practice agriculture for self-consumption and use their land for food and timber; but haven’t food-economic security, and their practices could fragment landscape and loss ES. Development is the challenge for FPP, beyond wellbeing and infrastructure, we want to strengthen organization and focus on improve skills and abilities that achieve an organized and empower people; strengthening their cultural values, recognizing languages, providing especially trainings and promoting sustainable projects to improve their lives. We present 3 cases: maize in Mixteca, Oaxaca; vanilla in San Luis Potosí (SLP), and coffee in Sierra Zongolica, Veracruz. We work to sensitize on environmental problems and improve agricultural practices in order to ensure human security, conserve ES and recover soil and BD.

Describe the context in which you are operating

Mexico, three indigenous groups from Mexico: Nahuas, Mixtecas and Teneks; each one has their languages, tradition and cosmo-vision. 40 communities catalogued as extreme poverty and high marginalization, most of them have BD richness and ES well conserved. Food and economic security is threatened by crops yields, loss of genetic BD, loss nutrients and ES. We work with them to wellbeing and development, searching for a productive activity could permit increase economic security, preserves ES and BD, with the ultimate goal to achieve human security in medium-long term.
Mixteca: 9 communities, Oaxaca. Belong to Mixteca bioregion, have a deforested landscape, pine-oak forest and milpa (maize and others crops mixed) patches. They are self-consumption “milpas”. Their mainly problem is desertification by land-use change and deforestation.
Nahuas: 18 communities, Veracruz. Belong to Sierra-Zongolica bioregion, landscape oak-pine; coffee plantations and milpa patches. They have a coffee tradition but they haven’t appropriated techniques to produce, selling coffee-cherry obtaining less than 0.5 USD/kg. Another problem are loss of natural varieties and Rust that replete farms by 70%; farmers prefers resistant varieties that could change diversification and BD loss.
Tenek: 13 communities, SLP. Belong to Huasteca Potosina bioregion, they are milpa self-consumers and are starting vanilla orchards.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

The three projects are based on crops species that permit low management and share practices inside of agroecological systems, seeking permaculture. We identified by PP process, which one is the main agricultural activity in communities, and what are the goals and vision that community has of landscape-unit including management, yields, commerce, etc. With this information, next step of PP is to identify strategies, activities, needs and their responsibilities, and stakeholders’ participation, including FPP. After that, we propose the strategy to work, involving strategic stakeholders. The project development includes the goals, indicators and how we will measure the impact in long term. The projects are suitable for regions and permit to conserve ES; we haven’t wildlife ecological studies but by farmers and us observations identify more wild species richness (birds and insects) and better nutrition in soil. Also we promote local endangered species use to shade farms and local varieties to crops.

Language(s)

Mixteca- Oaxaca: speaks Mixteco; Sierra Zongolica, Veracruz: speaks Nahuatl; Huasteca Potosina, SLP: sepaks Tenek.|| 70-75% of population sepaks Spanish as second language.

Water

The main water source used for the crops is rainwater. Agroecological managment (as non-soil compaction and compost) allow water filtration and groundwater recharge. For vanilla FPP has implemented rainwater harvesting systems which are used to irrigate during the dry season. For coffee, wet-benefit practices are promoted by special ecological pulp-machine that reduces 50% water-use in all process. At Mixteca, forest and soil conservation activities allow water retention.

Food Security/Nutrition

Food security is endangered by BD loss and lack of economic activities in these areas. We promote self-consumption activities to improve diet including products and subproducts as wild plants, mushrooms, insects, that are found in farms and milpas. We promote the best management and diversification to obtain these products, and integrating financial education to improve wellbeing. With harvest incomes, people have more opportunities to buy other foods and have more variety.

Economic/Sustainable Development

FPP development process is based on equilibrium of environmental-social-economic aspects; we promote activities for wellbeing and production, to have the process to get above the poverty line, and empower communities. Maize: we have 40% low cost in production compared with others. Coffee: farmers increased yields for speciality parchment coffee, increasing incomes to 0.5USD/kg (cherry) to 2.5-3USD/kg, in two first years. Vanilla: Prospection considering could be sold in 5USD/kg

Climate

The project design consider strategies that allow adaptations to climate change (e.g.: selection of local species and varieties that are resistant to water shortages or to high temperatures) and building community resilience (as temperature regulation capacity at coffee plantations through vegetation manage), in order to guarantee food security, others ES conservation, water availability, high crop yields, CO capture and food security.

Sustainability

Developing process in indigenous communities is lengthy; because we have to strengthen abilities for achieve goals. This project's needs been financing to implement and operate by FPP. In a time defined by each project, we support, training, sensitize, give materials and incomes to start or improve farming and wellbeing; and during several years, this continue. After that, farmers will have the skills to be part of the production chain and be responsible with environment.

Return on investment

The costs to implement these projects are to 200-350 USD/farmer/year, depends on agricultural activity and the year of production. This cost doesn’t include infrastructure and wellbeing projects to the same families; but includes FPP operation and monitoring. The return of expected investment is organized communities, farming-crops more resilient and resistant to sickness, pest and drought, cultural management that permit conserve ES and BD, and achieve in medium-long term human security.

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How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

These kinds of projects have been done before, however FPP design and execution are distinctive from the origin; the strategies are built with the community participation, PP and people knowledge; and complemented by experts support. Inside FPP, the projects are being scaled and replied, FPP maize project has scaled to 30-389 farmers in Mixteca-Oaxaqueña. Vanilla project will be scaled to 30-117 farmers in SLP. Coffee project in Zongolica has scaled to 400-800 farmers, and to 120 farmers from others FPP work areas. All projects could be replicated in any Mexican- American region with similar biogeographical conditions. The cost will depend the area and the process of develop skills and abilities. The main point is have community-participation and PP, also a team that facilitated the process of develop and appropriation of the project and include all the aspects to sustainable farming to conserve ES y BD.

Overview