Rio de Janeiro Integrated Ecosystem Management in Production Landscapes of the North-Northwestern Fluminense

The national objective of the proposed project is to increase and sustain smallholder agricultural production, productivity and farm incomes and assist in the sustainable use of natural resources, by promoting the adoption of sustainable land and water management, at the microcatchment level, with full involvement of the farming community.The global objectives are threefold: (i) to address threats to biodiversity of global importance, (ii) enhance carbon sequestration in the agricultural landscape, and (iii) reverse land degradation in public and/or fragile lands.. These objectives would be achieved primarily through promoting the adoption of an ecosystem approach in rural areas compatible with OP 12, and by directly addressing the identified threats and constraints that are preventing the adoption of ecosystem approaches in Rio de Janeiro, which are also identified in other parts of Brazil, particularly in the Atlantic Forest ecoregions (for detailed list of constraints, see Annex II). The alternative project would be implemented in watersheds representative of the four major ecosystems of global significance in of the Atlantic Forest biome situated in the North and Northwestern Fluminense regions of Rio de Janeiro State. These ecosystems are: (i) floodplain forests, (ii) tropical semi-deciduous forests,(iii) tropical moist broadleaf forests, and (iv) coastal ecosystems.