Executive Summary :

The project will directly benefit 1,452 people from various community organizations and private reserves. Our objective is “Restoring and conserving biodiversity in mangrove ecosystems and dry forest to sustain the livelihoods of local communities, through the strengthening of local capacities in community organizations and coordinated work with public, private and community actors”. The project has 4 components: Socio-environmental, in which we will work on issues of conservation and restoration of three ecosystems (mangroves, rainforest and dry forest). Desired results are: 1200 hectares of mangroves, 7000 of rainforest and 330 of dry forest preserved and managed sustainably; and, 10 hectares of mangrove ecosystem and 200 hectares of dry forest restored. The Socio-productive is dedicated to improving the productive activities related to ecosystems. It is expected to improve the income of families dedicated to the production of artisanal salt, strengthening of agroecological farms (based cocoa) and community tourism, two of three of these activities depend on the health of ecosystems. The Education-sensitization has two parts; one of which is the training of 1,500 children of 15 schools, and the other training of 50 new leaders and 500 persons trained by the community organizations. The last component is advocacy, which aims to recover 300 hectares of mangroves for restoration and reach an agreement with various public, private and community actors for the integrated management of a watershed. The project will be implemented through the creation of the Project Management Committee involving representatives of communities and private reserves. This committee will make major project decisions. Participation of women and youth in the project will be prioritized.