Building Conservation Capacity

April 22, 2022

Our latest initiative in the BOSAWAS biosphere of Nicaragua, Local Knowledge; Global Goals, allows individuals to document environmental and human rights information and to collect data about their surrounding environment, ecosystems, and lands. This inclusive initiative is in line with the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which confirms that rights-based approaches that focus on capacity-building of marginalized groups, while leveraging indigenous and local knowledge and citizen science must be prioritized for climate adaptation and a climate-resilient future.

Initiating the use of Mapeo software, a mobile app that works in remote and offline environments, in the BOSAWAS will enable local indigenous communities to engage in monitoring and documenting the world around them. Mapeo was co-designed and developed with Indigenous communities to provide support in documenting threats to their land, which in the BOSAWAS include illegal mining, territorial encroachment – including slash and burn land clearing, and deforestation.

The use of the Mapeo software in the BOSAWAS builds on the digital skills developed through our Technology and Training for Quality and Equality in the BOSAWAS project and will allow technology-trained students in the BOSAWAS to participate in citizen science and connect them to conservation efforts worldwide. This new initiative aims to further the goal of empowering marginalized communities in the BOSAWAS to leverage technology to defend their rights.

Mapeo will allow individuals to take and map photographs, to record GPS points of significant places and occurrences, to collect evidence of threats to the land (environmental or man-made), to document wildlife and patterns, to map sites of historical significance, and to record climate impacts, to name but a few of the applications.

Documenting activities and collecting data will support community action, reports to authorities, the launch of media campaigns, and the creation of maps for land claims and territorial conservation.

Your Earth Day support of this initiative will go toward making it simple and easy for communities to document environmental and human rights information and to collect data about their land. Thank you for fostering advocacy and leadership; it empowers communities to become their own voice for change.

#EarthDay2022

Bosawas Central America and the Caribbean Climate Change conservation cultural identity Education environment In The Field indigenous peoples Indigenous Peoples Nicaragua Technology