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Principal Investigator: Dr. Alexander Travis
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Alfonso Torres
Contact Information: E-mail: ajt32@cornell.edu - Phone: 607-256-5613
Sponsor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID-SANREM)
Grant Number: 19024D-425632
Title: Developing a Participatory Socio-Economic Model for Food Security, Improved Rural Livelihoods, Watershed Management, & Biodiversity Conservation in Southern Africa
Annual Direct Cost: $228,891
Project Period: 01/01/06-09/30/09
Unsustainable agricultural and natural resource management practices and unsound economic strategies contribute significantly to food insecurity, limitations in livelihood opportunities, and diminished biodiversity throughout southern Africa. In Zambia, a market-driven approach called "Community Markets for Conservation" (COMACO) is being developed to improve biodiversity conservation through improvements in food security and livelihoods. This community-owned enterprise implements sustainable agricultural practices at the level of individual farms using extension support, marketing, and pricing strategies organized around COMACO's regional trading centers to increase small stakeholder profits. Preliminary data show that these market incentives are sufficient both to foster sustainable agricultural practices and, via explicit linkages to behaviors aimed at sustainably managing instead of depleting biodiversity, to increase wildlife populations, making future game-based economic opportunities possible. Due to preliminary successes, COMACO has been invited to expand into Malawi and possibly Mozambique. Through broad stakeholder consultations, our multi-disciplinary team has identified key research issues regarding soil, crop, food, veterinary, and social sciences that are needed to optimize this model. Targeted research and training of host country nationals will inject new technologies and generate critical knowledge needed to scale-up the COMACO approach within Zambia and across southern Africa to improve food security, rural livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation.
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