Mexico has been attaching great importance to the protection and sustainable use of its biodiversity as it is recognised as one of the megadiverse countries in the world. In its National Development Plan 2007-2012, the Mexican government expressed its objective to conserve and integrate the biodiversity of the country. In 2000, Mexico approved a national biodiversity strategy. In 2010, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas CONANP) published its updated climate change strategy for protected areas in Mexico.

In the context of the implementation of this strategy, the Sierra Madre Oriental (SMO) has been identified as national biodiversity hotspot with priority for protection. Nevertheless, it is highly fragmented so that the elaboration of an innovative concept for its conservation and sustainable use in the corridor is necessary. The approach shall consider the conservation of the protected areas as well as of the connecting areas between them.

Supported by German International Cooperation (GIZ) in the framework of the “Biodiversity Protection Programme in SMO in Mexico”, the CONANP as main counterpart of the programme seeks to establish an eco-corridor in order to connect undamaged natural areas and to permit a sustainable development for the local community holistically considering economic, environmental and social needs. The objective is to improve governance structures through an improved cooperation between different sectors and levels, the introduction of land use planning and consultation mechanisms, and the training of key actors in the coordination of their activities. This “good governance” approach is complemented by the strengthening of economic instruments to encourage the biodiversity protection and sustainable use of natural resources. In order to fortify positive impacts in the SMO corridor and minimize negative ones, support is given to CONANP and other national actors that provide financial resources for the analysis of their economic instruments and appropriate readjustment.

In cooperation with federal and state level institutions as well as the private sector it is intended to develop innovative and efficient economic instruments for the protection of the natural resources as well as a strategy and instruments for the greening of development programmes. This means that the programmes shall incorporate the value of the ecosystems as well as the cost benefit relation of its use and transformation in their decision making processes, applying the TEEB approach as reference. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the ecological potential, advisory shall be given to key actors for the development of replicable instruments and sustainable land use practices. The funded services consist in the advisory, education and training of local actors and multipliers to secure the functionality of the applied measures as much as to introduce pilot projects for innovative economic instruments.

Within the framework of this programme the consortium integrated by GITEC Consult GmbH as leader and The Nature Conservancy TNC is carrying out the Component 2 “Sustainable Use and Economic Instruments”.

Services Provided

For the optimization of the economic instruments the following services are provided:

• Establishment of the baseline on economic instruments applicable in the bio corridor and contribution to the monitoring system;
• Analysis of the existing economic instruments, its access mechanisms and operational regulations, impact estimation;
• Design/adjustment and introduction of accessible and replicable innovative economic instruments;
• Design/adjustment and introduction of environmental compensation mechanisms (e.g. PES & REDD+) and submission of innovative payment for ecosystem services (PES) schemes, e.g. referring to climate change;
• Suggestion of sustainable production diversification schemes and value chains (e.g. SFM, tourism, agricultural products);
• Development of a strategy and criteria for the greening of development and financial programmes and access to them applying the TEEB approach: (i) identification and thematic differentiation of the development and financial programmes; (ii) identification of ecosystem services at risk as well as of its users; (iii) preliminary valorisation of CESMO’s key ecosystems services; (iv) evaluation and presentation of the cost benefit relation of transformations in prioritized intervention zones; (v) analysis of the political and legal framework; (vi) proposals for the greening of development programmes in the CESMO;
• Advisory for an improved articulation between sectors and government levels (multisectoral and multilevel governance) for the application of economic instruments;
• Advisory to and sensitization of key actors in the environmental management of the territory; development of coordination mechanisms;
• Development of training programmes: training modules for environmental economics and TEEB; training in sustainable production with focus on ecosystems; creation of learning platforms.