Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Brasil

To inform municipal planning and promote transitions from harmful to SLUPs on regional ranches and farms, we tested and identified little-used or new practices that were both environmentally-friendly and profitable, e.g.: (i) rotational grazing and livestock watering systems that increase pasture quality, milk yield and cattle productivity, while conserving soil moisture and nutrients and avoiding erosion and water quality degradation associated with livestock impacts in riparian zones, and (ii) agroforestry restoration of degraded riparian zones that provides food crops to low-income farmers while protecting soil and water sources. By improving the efficiency and profitability of existing production areas, these proven SLUPs also eliminate economic justifications for additional native habitat conversions. To address the lack of regional land-use planning, we used Systematic Conservation Planning in collaboration with key partners to develop a land-use management plan for Corguinho. The plan provided spatially explicit municipal-scale solutions for implementing proven SLUPs and conservation and restoration measures that balanced the economic development and conservation objectives of municipal stakeholders. By developing municipal planning, rather than typical individual property planning, conservation efforts could be coordinated among a large number of properties simultaneously, producing outcomes that in the long term will be more effective at maintaining regional ecological function, environmental heterogeneity, and biodiversity. We promoted adoption of the planning among often skeptical landowners with outreach techniques that ensured greater uptake by the community. These included capacity building courses and events with landowner-to-landowner demonstrations of the economic and environmental benefits of SLUPs and other planning measures. Events also included neighboring municipality stakeholders to promote replication of successful Corguinho efforts.