Environment Peace Initiative for Colombia (EPIC) REPORTE Q4FY2016

The project aims to address deforestation and forest degradation in two distinct geographic zones in Colombia: Caquetá and the Pacific region. In Caquetá, the project focuses on consolidating biodiversity corridors in the Piedemonte Andino Amazónico region and establishing reduced deforestation and sustainable natural resource management belts in the municipalities of Solano and Cartagena del Chairá. The project seeks to implement strategies for sustainable community-based income generation, improve the livelihoods and well-being of rural communities, and support public and community governance arrangements, ultimately reducing deforestation rates in the Amazonian forests of Caquetá. In the Pacific region, the project aims to complete milestones associated with the verification of eight REDD+ projects. EPIC will support community governance agreements, strengthen and capacitate leaders and teams in 19 organizations (Afro-Colombian and indigenous), and complete specific requirements leading to the verification of REDD+ projects in the BioREDD+ Pacific portfolio. The project focuses on three main strategies: 1) promoting alternative, profitable, environmentally friendly, and low-carbon emission economic options; 2) strengthening and empowering local civil society and regional and local governments; and 3) generating enabling conditions for results-based incentives and other payment mechanisms. In Caquetá, during FY2016, EPIC made significant progress in the Corredor Fragua – Churumbelos (CFC) area. Two veredal transformation agreements, 42 farm plans, and four indigenous reserve management plans were concluded. A total of 300 farm plans were implemented, with 64 corresponding to women and 236 to men as household heads. These implementations will continue until Q2FY2017. EPIC established sustainable practices in 1,580 hectares, classified as silvopastoral and agroforestry systems. The majority of the area (86%) was achieved through the establishment of silvopastoral systems, specifically with the installation of living fences (252.5 hectares) and productive pathways (1,120 hectares). The project also supported the castaño (castanheira) chain in the CFC area. During FY2016, EPIC identified 34 families with castaño trees and updated the inventory of trees in the piedemonte. The sale of 33.7 kg of castaño to the company Kahay S.A.S. generated a price of $4,000/kg, a 100% increase from the previous year's price. Additionally, 6,900 castaño trees were planted in productive pathways, strengthening the productive chain, protecting soil and water, and consolidating connectivity corridors at the plot and vereda levels. As a result of the implementations in the CFC area, EPIC measured increased economic benefits for 193 people, as indicated in Annex D9. The increase in economic benefits is reported for the sale of products such as milk, cheese, plantains, panela, cacao, eggs, and criollo chickens generated by intervened productive systems. The percentage of increased benefits varies by product and diversity of production in the farm, ranging from 8% to over 100% monthly. Products related to agroforestry systems, such as cacao and plantains, account for 45% of the people with increased economic benefits, while milk and cheese related to silvopastoral systems generate 33% more income. Furthermore, based on the results of the ecosystem analysis and farm planning, EPIC mapped and concurred with the CFC community five connectivity corridors (see Annexes D4 and D5). These corridors have an estimated area of 4,240 hectares and were used to: 1) update the Transformation of the Landscape Plans (TPL), which were conceived as management instruments to scale up territorial management from the farm and vereda level to the municipal level; and 2) construct a participatory strategy for connectivity at the plot, vereda, and reserve levels in the CFC area, which was adopted by the municipalities of Belén de los Andaquíes and San José del Fragua in their territorial ordering processes. During FY2016, two local research studies on fish and butterflies were concluded with children from the Las Minas vereda (Belén de los Andaquíes), and the edition of the re