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The Bank Information Center, in collaboration with the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, will hold the “Second International Workshop on Social and Environmental Safeguards in Indigenous Territories and Forest Communities of Mesoamerica” in San Jose, Costa Rica on March 15th and 16th.
The main objective of the workshop is to facilitate discussions of regional safeguards principles for Mesoamerica, with the participation of 40 indigenous and civil society representatives from the region. Some of the issues to be addressed during the workshop are: safeguard policies and standards at different international institutions; national experiences with safeguards; safeguard policies in the context of REDD+ for land and territories; consultation and participation; and training in advocacy strategies.
The specific objectives of the workshop include the following:
- Create a space to analyze the importance of how safeguard policies are defined according to the agenda of territorial rights.
- Analyze accomplishments achieved in the dialogue process with decision makers around adopting safeguard policies that protect community rights in the framework of the REDD initiatives.
- Develop basic elements for principles in safeguards material at the regional level in Mesoamerica, focusing on producing a proposal for a Mesoamerican approach to two “themes of interest”: (1) land & territories, and (2) consultation & participation.
- Begin to develop a regional advocacy plan to strengthen the positioning of communities in terms of social and environmental safeguards in the framework of the political dialogue and negotiation processes that are being developed to define National REDD+ Strategies.
The Second International Workshop on Social and Environmental Safeguards in Indigenous Territories and Forest Communities of Mesoamerica is an activity within the framework of the Mesoamerican Pre-Congress of Areas Protected by Indigenous Peoples, and it is a continuation of the First International Workshop on Social and Environmental Safeguards, which took place in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on September 23, 2013.
Latest Update:
Participants in the Second International Workshop on Social and Environmental Safeguards. Photo credit: Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests.
Participants report that the Second International Workshop on Social and Environmental Safeguards was a success. Three presentations given at the workshop are available for download below:
Agenda Mesoamericana: Incidencia política.
More workshop materials available for download in Spanish:
Guía Popular para la Incidencia. Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA).
La incidencia política: herramienta para el cambio en una sociedad democrática. WOLA.
Políticas de Salvaguardia Socio Ambiental y Enfoque Común del FCPF. Bank Information Center.