Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation into Production Systems in the Juniper Forest Ecosystem

The overall goal is to improve the condition of the Juniper forest ecosystem, in order to conserve biodiversity and increase the ecosystem’s contribution to sustainable development. This will include: •Improving the health of the ecosystem’s components, notably: othe hydrological cycle; othe quality of soil; othe diversity of plants. •Sustaining the extent and improving the health of the Juniper trees; •Increasing the population of globally important plant, animal and bird species. The project objective is to make production activities in the Juniper forest ecosystem biodiversity friendly. The project will focus on reducing the negative impacts of production activities in the livestock grazing and energy production sub-sectors, while exploring opportunities for biodiversity benefits from sustainable tourism, controlled hunting and watershed and ecosystem services. The Project strategy is three fold: •Develop community-led solutions to natural resource management challenges in selected areas; •Support communities and local and provincial government to replicate the solutions across the entire Juniper area; •Build local and provincial capacity to sustain the project successes in Juniper areas and to disseminate findings broadly.