The vast majority of farming families who deforest do so for self-sustainability by developing agricultural activities that ensure their income. It is essential to jointly identify other economic activities that value and protect biodiversity.
Impulso Verde’s productive activities in Nariño include beekeeping and the production and processing of aromatic and medicinal plants.
Impulso Verde has been leading a community and sustainable beekeeping project with several nursery network associations in the Andes region of Nariño since the end of 2019.
The objective is to develop a sustainable production system that allows communities to obtain supplementary income through the local marketing of honey, pollen and other bee products.
These activities began within the framework of the “economic alternatives to deforestation” project co-financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) with three associations: Sinchimaki, Pumamaki and Manantial de Vida, which chose to produce, transform and market products based on aromatic and medicinal plants.
At the beginning of 2020, Impulso Verde signed an agreement with the foundations Envol Vert and Forestever, NGOs dedicated to forest and biodiversity conservation in the Caribbean and the Amazon, respectively.
The project called “Restoration of forest ecosystems, alternatives to deforestation and strengthening of civil society with indigenous communities, Afro-descendants and/or victims and displaced persons of the internal conflict in Colombia” was co-funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and lasted 3 years, from 2020 to 2022.
Within the framework of this project, three inter-area exchanges of practices were carried out during the year 2022 in the Caribbean, Amazonas and Nariño, respectively. Representatives of the communities traveled to participate in these events which allowed them to discover a different ecosystem, exchange experiences and knowledge about agro-ecological or forestry techniques, transformation of natural products and cultural dynamics.
