Ecobreves – MEXICO: Mesoamerican Drylands Project Launched

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Jun 27 2011 (IPS) - Marginalized communities in four states in southern Mexico and the central Guatemalan department of Baja Verapaz will be involved in a project to improve natural resource management in areas with scant rainfall. The Conservation and Sustainable Management of Drylands in Mesoamerica initiative will be executed over the course of three years in Baja Verapaz and the Mexican states of Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas, with almost 1.3 million dollars in funding.

The project is being undertaken by the European Union, the Mexican and UK branches of the humanitarian organization Oxfam, and the Mexican Network to Combat Desertification and the Degradation of Natural Resources.

It is aimed at “strengthening local processes of agricultural production, building technical and empirical knowledge in local communities and promoting the sustainable management of land, energy and water in productive activities and conservation,” Oxfam Mexico campaign coordinator Dolores Rojas told Tierramérica.