Site: Talamanca region, Costa Rica
Type of Partnership: community development
Website(s): Talamanca Initiative
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Description: A collaborative partnership of three community-focused organizations - Associacion ANAI, APPTA, and CBTC - the Talamanca Initiative has worked since 1983 to integrate biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica. The initiative's biodiversity conservation efforts include establishment of Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge, a last sanctuary for the endangered Manatee, and development of Central America's only permanent raptor migration monitoring program. To encourage sustainable socio-economic development, the initiative has promoted crop diversification and organic agriculture, with APPTA's processing system becoming the largest volume producer and exporter of organic products in Central America. Since 1991, the initiative has also run a Regional Training Center and has helped establish 13 local ecotourism ventures. As an example of the gains that have been made through the initiative's work, income in villages has risen up to six-fold and communities have been able to engage in sustainable income generating pursuits that also work to protect their natural environment.

Source: Equator Initiative