This collective brings together women’s groups from communities bordering the Popenguine Nature Reserve, a 1,000-hectare coastal reserve located in the Thies region of Senegal. Since the creation of the reserve in 1986 to prevent over-harvesting of marine resources and degradation of mangrove forests, the park’s authorities have sought to involve local communities in its management. Volunteer groups of women began forming to help reforest sections of mangrove forest in the late-1980s, eventually leading to the creation of COPRONAT in 1996.

Comprising more than 1,500 women organized in economic interest groups (Groupements d’Intérêts Economiques) in eight villages, the collective’s work has focused on rehabilitating ecosystems and resources that underpin the local economy. Its successes have included the creation of the co-managed Community Nature Reserve of Somone, and the operation of revolving credit funds that catalyze alternative livelihood activities such as ecotourism.

Sri Lanka's Community Development Centre (CDC) has worked to improve rural livelihoods through conservation of indigenous tuber varieties using seed banks managed by women-led self-help groups. Local technologies are used for seed production, with training on in-situ conservation of native varieties on individual land parcels. These self-help cooperatives are organized into federations of around five or six groups, each of which maintains a revolving credit fund to stimulate livelihoods diversification.

CDC has provided more than 300 families with an alternative income source and a viable food security solution. Monthly net profits from yam sales are roughly 5,000 Sri Lankan rupees per family, an improvement from 3,000 Sri Lankan rupees before the project began. Many farmers have also expanded into value-added secondary processing, and the production and sale of yam chips, yam sweets, and roti.

Cruzinha da Garça is one of the most important nesting grounds for sea turtles in Cape Verde. The Community Marine Association of Cruzinha da Garça seeks to develop alternative forms of local marine resource use to conserve this endangered species. The project is part of a regional initiative that involves fishing communities in the conservation of marine turtles and their habitat. Conservation and sustainable livelihoods work extends to the islands of São Nicolau, Santo Antao and Sao Vicente.

The association protects spawning loggerhead sea turtles in their natural habitats through beach monitoring, protecting the nesting grounds of the loggerhead sea turtles, and guarding against sand extraction and resulting habitat loss. The local population is engaged in data collection on both species and population growth and is involved in the development of ecotourism ventures.

Zambia's Luangwa Valley is the setting for a pioneering initiative that is transforming the local economy and reducing human pressures wildlife. Led by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) has brought about substantial livelihoods and conservation benefits through a producer group model of collective learning, reaching more than 40,000 farming households with training in conservation farming techniques.

Farmers are invited to become COMACO members in return for adopting a package of eco-agriculture and organic farming techniques that both reduce the environmental impact of farming and drastically improve agricultural yields. COMACO purchases farm commodities through a network of depots and collection centres, alleviating transport costs and guaranteeing a premium for organic produce through the payment of an annual dividend to member farmers. The initiative has been particularly successful in converting poachers to farmers.

The Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve is the largest marine protected area in Mexico, spanning more than 1.3 million acres of land and ocean. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its rich biodiversity and wealth of Mayan culture; "Sian Ka'an" is Mayan for "where the sky is born".

Working within this protected area is Community Tours Sian Ka'an, an alliance of three sustainable ecotourism cooperatives that work directly with the Punta Allen and Muyil indigenous communities. While the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve receives thousands of visitors every year, indigenous communities have not historically benefited from this traffic or from investments in the local economy: the initiative has aimed to change this by training community guides in operating small, group-based ecotourism ventures, promoting Mayan culture through visits to archaeological sites, and the sale of tourism-related handicraft products.

Since 1995, the biologically diverse Collingwood Bay area on the coast of Oro Province, north-eastern Papua New Guinea, has been the setting for a conflict between the province’s 3,000 indigenous Maisin people and proposed commercial logging and palm oil development within the community's 262,000 hectares of ancestral lands. In 1998, 38,000 hectares of tropical forest were fraudulently signed over to a foreign investor; since then, Conservation Melanesia, a local environmental NGO, has been a critical ally in publicizing the community's plight and building capacity to resist the proposed development.

In 2002, after a three-year battle, the Papua New Guinea National Court ruled in the Maisin's favour, returning the title of their land back to them. Since then, Conservation Melanesia has worked to develop a sustainable, long-term resource management strategy that effectively conserves the Maisin’s traditional forest land and supplies the community with a means of supporting themselves.

The artisanal fishers of the community of Tárcoles, located in the Gulf of Nicoya on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, faced declining fish stocks due to a combination of overharvesting by commercial shrimp boats and unsustainable local fishing practices. At the same time, development of the tourism sector along the coast threatened to restrict access to the shore and to marginalize their work. The local fishing cooperative CoopeTárcoles R.L. was founded in 1985 to confront these twin threats.

At the forefront of these efforts has been the development of fishing bylaws that stress sustainable practices, enshrined in the community's 'Code of Responsible Fishing'. In partnership with CoopeSolidar R.L., the initiative launched a sustainable and community-based ecotourism venture in 2007 to provide an alternative source of income for local residents. In 2009, meanwhile, the group was successful in gaining approval of a community-managed marine area.

Located in Nigeria's Cross River State, the Ekuri community manages a 33,600-hectare community forest adjacent to the Cross-River National Park. Community forest management began in the 1980s, when the villages of Old Ekuri and New Ekuri united in response to the proposed logging of their forest. The project would have included the construction of a road linking the villages to local market centres; instead, the community decided to sustainably manage the forest as a community asset, generating income, subsistence materials and food.

Levies on the sale of non-timber forest products by community members financed a road that eventually reached Old Ekuri in 1990 and New Ekuri in 1997. In addition to allowing farm and forest products to reach new markets, the road has also made possible the transport of construction materials for two schools, a health center, and a civic center where the community meets to discuss forest governance decisions.

The Fish Production Cooperative Societies of Cozumel and Vigía Chico works to advance a model of sustainable fishing for local communities. Located on the tropical island of Cozumel, an international tourist destination, and in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the cooperatives have a long history of collaboration dating to the 1960s.

Today, the two cooperative societies coordinate their fishing activities off the coast of the island of Cozumel, with a particular focus on lobster and scaled fish such as grouper, cod, and snapper. Together, the cooperatives support their 128 members to acquire fishing permits, collectively manage marine resources, and engage in group decision-making, using grants from the UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme to improve market supply chains and increase the abundance and diversity of endemic marine species.

Responding to deforestation around the headwaters of the Nosara River, a source of drinking water and of wellbeing for the inhabitants of the small town of Hojancha in the central highlands of the Nicoya peninsula, local farmers came together in 1994 to enhance local forest conservation and create the co-managed Monte Alto Protected Zone. This 924-hectare area was created by acquiring land for natural regeneration or reforestation. A co-management agreement with the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment ensures local participation in the area’s management decisions.

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