Implementation of Essential Biodiversity Variables for Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring at the Subnational Level in Colombia

In 2017, USAID started in Colombia the program “Riqueza Natural”, where sustainable environmental management practices are established and enhanced to protect biodiversity. With PEER’s financing program for the project “Implementation of Essential Biodiversity Variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring at the subnational level in Colombia”, Humboldt Institute together with Universidad de Medellin, Temple University and GEOBON aims to “identify necessities and priorities of information for decision making at the subnational level for TDF ecosystems through a participatory process that empower local communities and associations to identify and monitor key natural resources for the sustainability of their livelihoods”. All of these projects have given continuity to the biodiversity research and conservation work done by Humboldt Institute in the TDF of the region of MM. The community monitoring cycle was created to reach the target to generate a participatory process that gets local stakeholders to formulate questions that guide decision making and identify the information needed to answer them. Through the identification of the EBVs in the cycle and the indicators that evaluate its state, the community could make better decisions around the problems identified by them. The first phase of the monitoring cycle allows us to comply with the first objective of our project: to identify necessities and priorities of information (relevant EBV) for decision making at the subnational levels for TDF ecosystem. The workshops maked with the three communities (Asociacion Integral Campesinos de Cañito - ASICAC, Asociacion de Productores Agropecuarios de la Vereda Brasilar - ASOBRASILAR and Asociacion Mujeres Unidas de San Isidro - AMUSI).