The International Model Forest Network was announced in 1992 by Canada’s Prime Minister at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.
Model forests promote the creation of voluntary alliances for the establishment of a neutral forum in which all values and interests found within the forest are represented in order to achieve a sustainable forest management.
The experience accumulated throughout these years has proven that “working through voluntary alliances leads to conflict minimization among the interested parties, to the creation of new ideas related to sustainable economic development, to poverty relief, a new conception of the relationship between conservation areas and communities living within them or next to them, and a more centered application of existing resources”.(http://www.ribm.net/es/ev-96131-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html)
In 1994, three model forests were created outside Canada: two in Mexico and one in eastern Russia, thus beginning the network that benefits all forest members of the International Network.
The International Model Forest Network Secretariat was created in 1995 in the International Development Research Centre (IDRC),with the objective to facilitate the development of a global model forest network.
From this moment on, the initiative spread around the globe, creating in turn regional networks inscribed in the International Network.
The Ibero-American Model Forest Network (RIABM), previously known as the Regional Model Forest Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC-Net), was constituted in 2002, inspired by Canada’s proposal presented at the Earth Summit. Its current host is the Tropical Agronomic Center for Research and Teaching (CATIE), which is part of its Directory along with member country representatives as well as representatives from prestigious organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Model Forest Network Secretariat (SIMFN) and CUSO.
The network currently counts with more than sixteen forests, in different stages of development, distributed in ten countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Spain, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Mexico http://www.bosquesmodelo.net/new/
During the development of the project in Bolivia, the FCBC, by means of scientific studies, detected a large area of the Chiquitano Forest in northern Paraguay. This area of the Chiquitano Forest is found in the Department of Alto Paraguay, specifically in the recently created Municipality of Bahia Negra.
Other investigations carried out by different environmental organizations support the presence of this transitional ecosystem in Northern Paraguay, identifying flora and fauna species found in a Chiquitano ecosystem in the zone.
In response to this, on April 12, 2007, the Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano (FCBC) and IDEA signed a framework agreement in which they agreed to “work on the joint mission of integrating their contributions in response to the current and complex regional socio-economic dynamics and their structural impacts on the environment and biodiversity conservation in general, and the Chiquitano forest in particular”. (FCBC-IDEA Framework Agreement)
Both institutions commit to contribute with their experience and institutional, technical and scientific capacities within the framework of inter-institutional coordination and the project titled “Forest Conservation and Development for the Chiquitano Forest (Bolivia and Paraguay)”. (FCBC-IDEA Framework Agreement)
This project is co-financed by the European Union (80%) and the FCBC (20%), within the framework of the European Tropical Forest Research Network in developing countries, which counts on the participation of partners in Bolivia, Paraguay and Costa Rica for its execution.
The execution of this project, by means of the components carried out by IDEA, jointly with FCBC, Fundación DeSdel Chaco and all other partners and strategic partners, will lead to the creation of the first binational model forest: the Bolivia-Paraguay Chiquitano Model Forest.
