Rio Ayuquila-Armeria and other priority watersheds
This project is part of the National Forestry Commission's (Comisión Nacional Forestal, CONAFOR) initiative: “REDD+ early action implementation in Mexico's priority watersheds through the development of local governance mechanisms”.
The project’s main objective is to strengthen local capacities (at the state and municipal level) and develop, through a pilot project, a mechanism for sustainable rural development and forest management in order to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, ensuring community development. The project is under development in 10 municipalities with 133,331 inhabitants, in 223 locations. Stakeholder engagement is crucial in the development of the project. The stakeholders involved include academia, government entities, non-profit organisations and the Junta Intermunicipal de Medio Ambiente para la Gestión Integral de la Cuenca Baja del Río Ayuquila (JIRA). JIRA is a decentralised government body that was set up to solve existing incoherence between municipal policies, which result from short governmental periods. A workshop was held to bring understanding about REDD+ to the municipal authorities and to promote capacity building among JIRA’s technicians.
Specific objectives include: (1) the development of technical and organisational capacities within the Junta Inter-municipal del Río Ayuquila to ensure permanence and address mitigation and adaptation needs; (2) to reduce forest pressure through sustainable forest management; (3) the promotion of community benefit sharing mechanisms from national and international sources related to sustainable forest management; and, (4) the development a methodology for ensuring its replication in other priority watersheds.