For years, the lack of infrastructure and government neglect have led to an increase in poverty in the region, a situation that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the indigenous peoples of southern Costa Rica (Brunka region) are organized and have knowledge about ecosystem restoration and land management, Dìwö Ambiental proposes activities to reinforce and deepen this knowledge, as well as to coordinate efforts in the face of the challenges the region experiences, strengthening the leadership of women, who have been mostly affected by inequality in the region.

With the support of GLFx, various activities were carried out to achieve this goal. Below are some of the activities carried out:

Activities

• Introduction to landscape restoration: Stakeholders and priority sites in my community. This was a participatory activity to understand the dynamics around forest recovery, as well as to envision the landscape, map key actors, and chart important sites.

• Sustainable land management: Community norms, impact reduction, and resources for implementation, where an introduction to the conflicts surrounding natural resources, common planning, and sustainable livelihoods was developed.

• Workshops on basic aspects of planning and executing restoration processes. Within this process, some activities were carried out to understand the interventions to be carried out and their execution was scheduled. All this information will be used in 2024 to carry out restoration actions. As a result of the process, 1,200 hectares and a total of 35 interventions were planned.

• A workshop on strategic monitoring and maintenance of restoration processes in an indigenous context was held, for which the Restor tool, which allows for more precise monitoring of these restoration processes, was used, and a list of actions was also defined.

• The information is also validated with the beneficiary groups, as well as sharing their comments for discussion.

Currently, work is underway on the development of a Forest Landscape Restoration Guide that contributes to the discussion around landscape restoration, the climate crisis, and environmental education in communities and recovered indigenous farms. This material will be distributed to at least 150 people. This guide will include informative material on how to access funding opportunities for landscape restoration processes on their farms, including funding options with a gender focus.

At least 15 people participated in each activity, mostly women.

Difficulties along the way:

• There are challenges in terms of accessibility when organizing these activities, as the region faces difficulties such as poorly maintained roads, limited transport flow and schedules, and lack of access to the Internet and basic services. Therefore, the experience itself allowed us to increase our capacities to face this type of exercise in diverse contexts.

• As young people, we see the importance of GLFx in fostering opportunities through collaboration on projects that seek social change, increase sustainability, and improve the landscape, in this case, in the Brunca region of Costa Rica.

• The workshops have a strong component in human rights, gender, and interculturality. We could not conclude without mentioning that landscape restoration is mainly carried out on recovered farms that were previously illegally occupied by non-indigenous people. The struggle for the visibility of their culture and knowledge will continue, especially in the context of the climate crisis, which forces us to rethink the predominant development model.

• In the future, we hope that the communities themselves will have the resources in infrastructure, economy, and personnel to directly access opportunities like GLFx.