Introduction

 

GFC has produced this free toolkit to help communities who are being asked to accept or engage in a market-based conservation project. You can use it to help defend your community and your environment from potential threats.

The toolbox explains how various market-mechanisms work and what impacts they can have, with five case studies on:

• Carbon sinks in Colombia
• Certification in South Africa
• Ecotourism in India
• Bioprospecting in Costa Rica
• Biodiversity offsets in Paraguay

It also contains guidance on a wide range of international treaties and non-legally binding instruments that could be used as tools to defend your rights, as well as:

• Tips on using national laws and constitutions in your country, and donor countries’ aid policies.
• Some advice on dealing with UN bodies, the World Bank, corporations and private NGOs
• Guidance relating to projects involving OECD or European countries
• Background information on trade and international finance and how they impact on in environmental  policies
• Information about the way in which market-based conservation mechanisms impact on women

It also contains:

• An extensive library of documents that can be downloaded
• Links to other resources you can download, watch or listen to
• Contacts for specialized organizations that can help you

This repository and its accompanying CD-Rom include many documents from other organizations and from intergovernmental organizations. Whilst these are freely available on the web we have downloaded some of them to the CD-Rom so that they can be accessed by community activists who may not have access to the internet. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the organizations concerned.

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