Sustainable Rural Development Project for the Ngobe-Bugle Territory and Adjoining Districts

The aim of the project was to improve the economic and social conditions of the indigenous communities and small-scale farmers among 6,000 households in the country's western regions, including all districts of the Ngöbe-Buglé comarca (indigenous territory) and the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí and Veraguas. Its objective was to improve disadvantaged people's economic and social integration and their access to marketing opportunities in agriculture and microenterprises, and to labour markets, at local, regional and national levels.

With regard to land and natural resource governance, the project included activities to improve fallow (a cultivating technique) for shifting agriculture and reforestation, and to improve practices for soil and water conservation. It supported trainings to improve land and water rights, micro watershed management and rural waste disposal through specialists in natural-resource and land-use conflict resolution.