For the past year, CSF-Bolivia has been working on an innovative platform called CASA Verde which aims to engage different sectors of Bolivian society including conservation NGOs, private companies, and the general public, who are interested in contributing to environmental conservation. The main objective of CASA Verde is to improve conservation of ecosystems that sustain life and productive activities in Bolivia by promoting greater participation and awareness in society. CASA Verde will also contribute to the implementation of the commitments assumed by Bolivia in the National Development Plan, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

SENACE course participants Photo credit: Verónica Villarreal Serpa, SENACE

A rural area near São Paulo, Brazil. Photo credit: Filipe Frazão

CASA Verde logo.

CSF-Brazil recently hosted the seminar "Implementation of Environmental Reserve Quotas (CRA) in Brazilian states" to help promote more economically efficient and environmentally sound forest conservation, in partnership with the Federal University of Minas Gerais state (UFMG), the Forest Code Observatory (OCF) and the Environmentalist Parliamentary Front, on December 7th at the House of Representatives in Brasília, Brazil. More than forty people attended the event, representing the Ministry of the Environment, the Environment Secretariats of thirteen states, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, national and international universities, as well as the organizing institutions.

CSF staff conducted a field visit to villages of the Munduruku people in the Brazilian Amazon. These communities have been adversely affected for several years by the construction of the Teles Pires and São Manoel hydropower plants. Scenic beauty of the Teles Pires river.

Tropical savannah (Cerrado) area in Brazil. Photo credit: Pedro Gasparinetti.

As part of our collaboration with the Environmental Ministry in Peru (MINAM), CSF has finished a series of papers on environmental compensation (biodiversity offsets). We explored 4 infrastructure and extractive projects in Madre de Dios and Loreto, and analyzed how to offset their residual impacts. This work supports MINAM’s development and implementation of technical compensation guidelines, while also generating evidence about methods for designing environmental compensation plans.

CSF Director Técnico de Latinoamérica, Alfonso Malky, presentando en el evento

CSF participated in a meeting held on October 27th, 2016, at the Federal District Urban Development Agency (Terracap) in Brasília. The meeting’s goal was to contextualize and carry out the facilitation process and data collection with members of the Aliança Cerrado, to be used to support the design of the new Forest Compensation Law of the Federal District. This meeting was conducted by Pedro Gasparinetti, CSF consultant, and opened by Raul do Valle, from the Environmental Department of the Federal District (SEMA-DF).