COMDEKS Phase 4 Newsletter- Issue 1, February 2025
The Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative Programme (COMDEKS) was launched in 2011 as a flagship programme of the Satoyama Initiative, a global effort to promote the sustainable use of natural resources in landscapes and seascapes with local communities whose livelihoods and cultural heritage depend on them.
The COMDEKS programme provides small-scale finance directly to local communities, Indigenous Peoples and civil society to implement locally-led projects that improve livelihoods and well-being, conserve biodiversity, address climate change, build resilience and support local cultures and practices.
Launched in 2022, COMDEKS Phase 4 is funded by the Ministry of Environment Japan (MOEJ) and the Keidanren Nature Conservation Council (KNCC) and implemented by the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Our Stories
Strengthening Morocco’s landscape approach in COMDEKS Phase 4
Although Morocco has only recently joined COMDEKS Phase 4, the country’s journey toward a landscape-focused approach began a decade ago. Since 2015, the Small Grants Programme in Morocco has focused on socio-ecological landscapes- mosaics of natural and human-modified ecosystems shaped by ecological, historical, and cultural processes. In Phase 4 the High Atlas Mountains is one of the key landscapes where COMDEKS is being implemented.
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Ten years of SGP and COMDEKS support in Cameroon’s Bogo region
Cameroon’s Bogo region is a typical Sahelian environment with diverse natural resources, including high biodiversity and rich alluvial soils. This landscape is home to more than 128,000 people across 227 villages, making up a mosaic of ethnic groups that earn a living from agriculture, livestock rearing, fishing, hunting and trade. COMDEKS Phase 4 builds on a decade of work taking place in the Bogo landscape with SGP and COMDEKS support.
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Empowering Bhutan’s Highland mountain communities
Bhutan’s Highland landscape is a sensitive Himalayan ecosystem and home to a diversity of flora and fauna. Traditionally, Highland communities have practiced sustainable land use and pastoralism. However, climate change poses significant risks to both the landscape and the people’s way of life. COMDEKS Phase 4 aims to leverage the social strengths of these mountain communities to build resilience, promote biodiversity conservation and improve livelihoods across the region.
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Protecting Peru’s high Andean heritage
Recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System, the Ácora district in Peru encompasses 200,000 hectares of a high Andean landscape rich in agrobiodiversity. SGP is currently supporting 11 community organizations in this region under Phase 4. Main activities include planting 300 hectares of land with 66 varieties of Andean tubers and grains, promoting native agrobiodiversity conservation and strengthening local production systems.
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Wetlands, waterfowl and water buffalos: enhancing the resilience of the Samsun region, Türkiye
Located on the Black Sea coast, the Turkish province of Samsun is a unique landscape made up of forests, wetlands, and agroecosystems. The region is recognized for its rich biodiversity and cultural heritage, including the valuable traditional knowledge of its communities. The selection of Samsun as the target landscape in COMDEKS Phase 4 region builds on several successful initiatives funded by SGP in the region, particularly those focusing on locally-led water buffalo, waterfowl and wetland management.
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Boosting biodiversity conservation in Ghana’s South Afadzato landscape
Nestled in the northern reaches of the Togo-Atakora Mountains, Ghana’s South Afadzato landscape encompasses over 180,000 hectares of forests, grasslands and agricultural areas. COMDEKS Phase 4 is supporting local initiatives that are restoring buffer zones around sacred forests, creating small enterprises on poultry and ruminant rearing, and providing economic incentives for communities to conserve biodiversity by integrating non-timber forest products in farms and forested areas.
Read More »Events and Activities
CCD COP16, Riyadh, December 2024: advancing policy coherence through landscape approaches
At the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Riyadh, SGP participated in an event hosted by the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative, highlighting COMDEKS Phase 4. The event explored how landscape approaches can bridge the gaps between environmental and development policies while promoting sustainable and inclusive practices..
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CBD COP16, Cali, October 2024: supporting the implementation of the GBF through local action
At the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Cali, SGP, MOEJ, KNCC and partners hosted an event on COMDEKS Phase 4 and the Satoyama Initiative, showcasing SGP and community speakers who shared examples of successful locally-led projects in Türkiye, Cambodia, and Colombia using the landscape approach.
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High Level Political Forum, July 2024: building sustainable and resilient communities through COMDEKS and the Satoyama Initiative
Aligned with the theme of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development held in July 2024, SGP held a side event with key partners to highlight the role of COMDEKS in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and key targets under the Global Biodiversity Framework, including those on inclusive ecosystem restoration and protected area management.
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Resilience indicators workshop on sustainable landscape and seascape management, July 2024
In July 2024, SGP and the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability conducted an online workshop with SGP COMDEKS country teams. The event focused on a toolkit of indicators that helps local communities assess their socio-ecological resilience and develop strategies for sustainable landscape and seascape management.
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Public private partnership event for COMDEKS Phase 4, Tokyo, February 2024
KNCC, MOEJ and UNDP held an event in Tokyo to highlight the public-private partnership for COMDEKS Phase 4 and raise awareness of the Satoyama Initiative. The event presented first-hand insights from SGP COMDEKS case studies in Cambodia and Costa Rica, and illustrated how economic diversification can create synergies with landscape restoration and biodiversity conservation.
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High Level Political Forum, July 2023: Restoring our relationship with nature
The world faces a multidimensional planetary emergency of nature loss, climate change, poverty, inequality and insecurity. These are integrated crises that demand integrated solutions. This event focused on COMDEKS’ role in supporting local action and partnerships to promote the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in an inclusive and effective manner.
Read More »Publications
COMDEKS Phase 4: Societies in Harmony with Nature
This brochure presents an overview of the COMDEKS Programme. It includes a brief background on COMDEKS Phases 1 to 3, a description of the COMDEKS Framework and key terms, as well as an overview of COMDEKS Phase 4. Additionally, the brochure features two case studies from previous Phases.
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Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS), 2024 Edition
Produced by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability with key partners, this publication contains a set of 20 indicators that provides communities with a framework for discussing and analysing socio-ecological processes essential for SEPLS resilience through a collaborative, community-based process
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