Yoro Biological Corridor – Report #1
The following Yoro Biological Corridor Meeting Report marks a significant point in the Corridor’s development, as there is a recognized crisis (45% of protected Honduran Forest Parks have been deforested in the last 10 years) and it has become critical to find a more efficient means for stakeholder engagement (i.e. conference call meetings at a distance).
The Yoro Biological Corridor is is an effort to link eight Honduran national parks threatened by conventional coffee production. The legal establishment of the corridor by the Government of Honduras will seek to promote and build on the forest protection and restoration efforts of the park co-Managers, including our Cafe Solar® team.
Meeting Details
Who: MDI + DIBIO (Directorate of Biodiversity) + MGC presenting to 32 mayors/municipal districts
What: High Level Multisectoral Stakeholder Engagement Meeting
Why: To achieve legal establishment of the Yoro Biological Corridor (which has an area spanning 32 municipalities)
Where: Online on GoToMeeting platform
When: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 @ 12:00pm EST
Meeting Summary
The plan: To provide a unified presentation to the 32 Mayors of the Yoro Biological Corridor for the first time via online meeting platform. The main purpose: To advance the process for the legal establishment of the Yoro Biological Corridor.
Presentations were given by: Richard Trubey (MDI), Raúl Raudales (MDI), Kelly Diaz (MDI), Rene Soto (DIBIO), Martin Murillo (MDI), Fabiola Rodriguez (MDI). Not all mayors were able to connect; however, this new online format will now be used as a model for education and cooperation at a distance, and the meeting recording will be quickly disseminated to all those who could not connect.
What Made This Meeting Significant?
A forest corridor involves and affects so many people/stakeholders that finding ways of connecting them efficiently has historically presented a major multi-sectoral challenge. Now that meeting online is more widely accepted, we are using an online meeting platform to expand and accelerate the reach. These presentations are being recorded and will be posted to the Mesoamerican Development Institute (MDI) website for more efficient stakeholder engagement.
This Stakeholder Engagement process has been active for four years and started with a handful of participants (more than 150 presentations to date). This new online conference format is necessary in order to efficiently address the urgent need for the legal creation of the Yoro Biological Corridor. The initiative is spearheaded by MDI Honduras S. de R.L. and its Off-Grid Carbon Neutral Facility—which is scheduled to be operational for the 2021/2023 harvest. The new facility will be the value generating hub for the Yoro Biological Corridor. Currently MDI is exporting Cafe Solar® from the pilot facility operating in the town of Subirana, Yoro for the last 8 years.