| EcoLogic Development Fund | |
| Type: | Nonprofit |
| Tax Id: | 25-1704582 |
| Status: | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus: | Conservation, Reforestation, Microwatershed management, Community self-determination |
| Headquarters: | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Region: | Latin America |
| Method: | Promoting sustainable livelihoods, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Linking environmental stewardship to economic development |
| Website: | https://www.ecologic.org/ |
EcoLogic Development Fund (EcoLogic), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States, advances conservation of critical natural resources in rural Latin America by promoting sustainable livelihoods and strengthening community participation in environmental stewardship. EcoLogic was established to fulfill a mandate voiced by indigenous and environmental leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit to reduce the destruction of significant tropical ecosystems by advancing economic development and self-determination among communities living in and around threatened habitats. EcoLogic partners with local organizations to promote community-based management of forests and coastal ecosystems, often at the level of microwatersheds; direct water sources and the land cover that helps recharge and clean the water. Since 1993, EcoLogic has provided direct technical and financial assistance to over 5,000 rural communities and has helped to protect 2,000 water sources throughout Latin America.[1]
EcoLogic Development Fund is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower rural and indigenous people to restore and protect tropical ecosystems in Central America and Mexico.
Latin America is home to some of the greatest biodiversity of plants and animals but also some of the poorest people in the western hemisphere. EcoLogic is motivated by the belief that resource use associated with conditions of poverty (slash and burn agriculture, clearcutting, overfishing) places tremendous pressure on fragile ecosystems. Similar threats are posed by ecologically unsustainable activities in mining, agribusiness, and oil exploration. It is the balance between human needs and environmental imperatives that EcoLogic finds most compelling in addressing the future of the planet.[2] In its 2007 State of the World's Forests report, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization found that in the last 15 years, Latin America has lost over 158000000acres of forest. Central America alone has lost 19%, the largest percentage for the region. This habitat devastation accelerates the loss of species, endangers critical sources of safe water, and contributes the massive release of greenhouse gases that exacerbates global warming.[3]
One approach that EcoLogic uses to address the anticipated challenges of climate change is to plant and protect trees that store the carbon dioxide our society produces (CO2 sequestration). Tropical forests have been identified as especially effective areas to serve this function. EcoLogic's conservation efforts in the heavily forested areas of Latin America are leading the way in the introduction of sequestration as a solution to local conservation efforts and global environmental well-being.[4]
EcoLogic takes a people-centered approach to the conservation of tropical and semi-tropical habitats, holding that conservation efforts too often impose restrictions that fail to take into account the needs of people living in and around threatened areas. A goal of long-term, effective stewardship requires understanding and integrating local needs. Additionally, EcoLogic recognizes that local people are often excluded from important decisions regarding their land, resulting in resource extraction from which they see little benefit. Thus, EcoLogic employs a strategy of community-led resource management by encouraging those closest to the land to steward resources that meet their needs and in ways that are ecologically compatible.