Integrated Silvo-Pastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management

The development objective of this highly innovative pilot project is to improve eco-systems functioning of degraded pasture lands in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, through the development of more intensive silvopastoral systems that provide global environmental services and local socio economic benefits. As such, the project aims to demonstrate and measure, at farm and community level, the benefits of an integrated ecosystems approach to the improvement of degraded pasture lands in terms of: (a) local environmental benefits through reduction in erosion and improvement in soil and water quality with increased production, income and employment in rural areas; (b) global environmental benefits, through improved biodiversity and carbon sequestration services: (c) initial experiences in the management of incentives required to produce global environmental benefits; and (d) the development of comprehensive guidelines for sector and environmental policies in terms of land use, environmental services and socio-economic development provided by the introduction of silvopastoral systems to rehabilitate degraded pastures.