General

Ethiopia is the second largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, sheltering more than 900,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers. Gambella is one of the four regions in Ethiopia which are considered as the country?s least developed regions, characterized by harsh weather condition, poor infrastructure, low capacity of local government, high level of poverty, and very poor development indicators. The refugee influx accelerated the deforestation and degeneration of the ecosystem and had a range of negative environmental impacts and challenges including land degradation and woodland loss. In addition, even though the hosting communities have better access to land and other resource to ensure their food security and livelihood, due to the traditional way of farming that is dependent on rain-fed agriculture, most of them only produce during the rainy season. Therefore, food insecurity and nutritional gaps as well as lack viable economic options to cover their basic needs are some of the major challenges. The project's intended focus is improving the livelihoods of refugees and host communities thereby increasing their resilience and capacity to withstand shocks due mainly to impact of climate change. The project also intends to enhance adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation practices through strengthening the local environmental and natural resource structures, education, awareness, advocacy, dialogues for gender responsive climate resilience and green economy. Increased awareness is expected to trigger improvement in the adaptive capacity of the communities, and local government to effects of climate change; as well as promote adaption and mitigation practices. Access to climate smart energy technologies and promotion of climate resilient crop and animal production will ensure adequate food production, increased connectivity to renewable energy sources and ensure that women and youth have an improved income as well as contribute reducing carbon emissions. Beneficiaries of the project are South Sudanese refugees in Jewi refugee camp and host communities in the surrounding areas well as the government officials and authorities, UNHCR and NGO's working for refugees in the area. The implementing agency is the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

General

Colombia is officially an upper middle income country, but also one of the most unequal countries in the world. Income inequality is huge and land ownership is concentrated in the hands of the few (0.4% own 61% of the land). Indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians are the most disadvantaged, and the provinces they live in, are among the poorest and most violent in the country. The peace agreement between Colombian government and the FARC ended a long armed conflict but did not bring real peace, as the vacuum left by the guerrillas has been filled by paramilitary organisations and the ELN, and violence and the murders of defenders of human rights and land rights have even increased. According to the official statistics, the number of internally displaced persons has already reached almost 7 million. Direct results: the project communities adapt and protect their livelihoods in the face of regional conflicts and climate change. Participating populations, especially women, will take a leading role in conflict resolution processes and contribute to protection, social cohesion and risk management. Beneficiaries of the activities are vulnerable families and communities in the areas of intervention, peacebuilders (especially women), community leaders and local organisations. The implementing partner is Lutheran World Federation (LWF). It is an international actor with presence in its areas of operation, working with local communities and organisations. Its strength are the multidisciplinary and holistic approach, the triple nexus of humanitarian, development and peace work. The trust and credibility gained with other civil society actors, the Colombian authorities and armed actors allows access to conflict areas, facilitates establishing links between communities and local authorities, contributing to the improvement of living conditions for communities and paving the way for advocacy at regional, national and international level. https://www.lutheranworld.org/

General

In Mozambique, peasants produce around 70% of food, mostly from seeds saved from their crops. Traditional smallholder farming is under enormous pressure: population growth and urbanisation reshape markets and diets; climate change brings cyclones, droughts, floods, pests and plant diseases; soil is impoverishing; biodiversity is being lost; and industrial agriculture is marginalising smallholders. As a result of these pressures, the ability of smallholder farmers to maintain their farmland and preserve agricultural biodiversity suffers. Crop yields are projected to fall by 11% in the current decade as a result of climate change. 43% of Mozambicans suffer from malnutrition. Women are more likely than men to be poor. They are also over-represented among those affected by Cyclone Idai, which hit the project area in 2019. The immediate expected outcomes of the project are (i) women and their families adopt less environmentally damaging agricultural practices, such as reducing slash and burn, preserving native trees important for soil fertility, cover cropping, green manuring, organic pest control and composting, (ii) participatory improvement of genetic diversity through smallholder farmers' knowledge, experience and practices, (iii) more families in communities produce complementary products for their diets through agroecological methods and reduce the use of chemical products harmful to the environment, (iv) chronic malnutrition and food insecurity is at least halved through increased production and diversification of family diets; (v) families' disposable incomes increase significantly and they are able to cover education and health costs; (vi) the majority of families have secure production tools and models as they have been supported in legalising their land tenure, (vii) a reduction in production costs, (viii) the adoption of individual and collective strategies in the design and marketing of products of both plant and animal origin, and (ix) more systematic production and higher quality products. The direct beneficiaries of the project are 90 women from three local communities in the districts of Buzi and Chibabava, who participate in the project activities. The indirect beneficiaries consist of their family members, a total of 396 people. The total population of the two districts is around 360 000. The project is implemented by the Associação Acção Académica para o Desenvolvimento das Comunidades Rurais (ADECRU); https://adecru.wordpress.com/.

General

The indigenous communities in Kenya have continuously been losing their living areas for activities like forestry, agriculture and mining, or expansion of conservation areas. In addition, outside communities have taken over lands belonging to indigenous peoples. Through these processes, the communities' cultural tradition and natural resource base have been eroded. In this project, the Ogiek, Sengwer, Endorois and Elmolo communities have joined forces in an effort to strengthen their biocultural continuity and push for the rights of indigenous peoples locally, nationally and internationally ? utilizing among other things the international conventions and treaties supporting the rights of the indigenous peoples. This project strengthens the communities' land rights and the protection of biodiversity with the help of community biocultural protocols. They document the cultural structures, management systems and procedures based on the communities' traditional knowledge, their territories and natural resources, assess the challenges facing these, and outline legal and political instruments to strengthen the protection of the community interests. During the implementation of the project and on the basis of its outputs, the understanding of the legal rights of the communities in question and their cultural characteristics will also be increased among key stakeholders (such as the government authorities, the research community and civil society actors). The Ogiek and Sengwer are traditionally hunter-gatherer communities, the Endorois nomads and the Elmolo fishermen. The project presentation is partly a continuation of a project previously supported by Siemenpuu in 2020-21. In this project, for the Ogiek and Sengwer, the aim is to utilize the biocultural protocols prepared in the previous project in the rights related advocacy work. The protocol of the Sengwers is also updated based on the current situation of the community. The biocultural protocol of the Endorois community drawn up in 2019 will be updated. Regarding the Elmolo community, a community protocol will be prepared for them. The project will be implemented in Nakuru, Narok, Baringo, Uasin Gishu, Kericho, Nandi, Trans Nzoia, Elgeyo Marakwet and Marsabit counties. The project is estimated to have approx. 6,000 direct beneficiaries, half of whom are women. The project is implemented by Ogiek Peoples? Development Program (OPDP); https://ogiekpeoples.org/.

General

In 2020-21, Siemenpuu supported the drafting of the biocultural community protocol (BCP) of the Sengwer indigenous people of Kenya as part of a joint project of the organizations of two other hunter-gatherer peoples of Kenya (the Ogiek and the Yiaku). With this support, the basis for the continued work related to the legal, cultural and livelihood foundations of the Sengwer were strengthened. This Sengwer Indigenous Peoples Programme?s (SIPP) project promotes BCP?s use as a tool to protect the interests and rights of the Sengwers of the Embobut and Kapolet forests. In the project, training based on the biocultural protocol of the Sengwer community is given for Sengwer advocacy work, defending land rights and protecting and restoring forests ? also considering the challenges brought by climate change. The training target groups are the representatives of the communities as well as key local level and sectoral government representatives in the project areas. Community representatives are identified and trained to carry out campaign and advocacy work related to human and land rights and climate issues at the county, state and UN level. The project will establish 8 nurseries for both local and non-native tree species with nutritional, economic or agro-forestry potential. The project aims to plant 40,000 trees for restoring natural forests or to utilize the trees in the households. In order to prepare the basis for this work, GIS mapping is carried out on local forest areas and their restoration needs. In addition, information is collected on the effects of climate change in Sengwer communities and their prerequisites for tackling the climate change challenges. The direct beneficiaries of the project are estimated to be around 2,000, of which 500 are women and 400 are children. Indirect beneficiaries are estimated to be around 50,000. They are people in the project areas who benefit from the improved condition of the forests, the climate change mitigation and resilience measures and increased flow of water downstream. It is estimated that there are approximately 33,000 Sengwers in Kenya.