Agriculture and Biodiversity in Mexico (AgribioMex): Mainstreaming biodiversity in the productive activities of rural landscapes

1. The project objective is to mainstream biodiversity in rural landscapes by implementing sustainable policies and practices in the agriculture sector in six rural landscapes in Mexico: 1) Northwestern, state of Sonora; 2) North Pacific, states of Jalisco and Nayarit; 3) Northeastern, states of San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon; 4) Central, Mexico City, State of Mexico, and Morelos; 5) South Pacific, states of Guerrero and Oaxaca; and 6) Southeastern, states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. The selected landscapes have a high biodiversity value, but they lack regulations for protecting biodiversity, and the natural resources in these areas are under considerable human pressure. Project landscapes include diverse ecosystems, such as dry grasslands, pine and oak forests, and tropical dry and humid forests.
2. This project has an advantage over others of its kind: the consortium of institutions that are getting involved all have experience and previous work in the aforementioned landscapes.
3. The project will be executed through four components, building on existing government agricultural development programs, to achieve three key outcomes: 1) Policies and regulations of the agriculture sector incorporate biodiversity and sustainable land use considerations; 2) Land use plans and extension programs incorporate biodiversity management and sustainable land use practices; 3) Blended finance mechanisms in the agriculture sector include biodiversity and sustainable land use criteria and 4) Monitoring and evaluation and Knowledge management.
4. The six landscapes comprise approximately 8.1 million hectares, of which 3.6 million hectares are Priority Biodiversity Areas (PBAs). Within the 3.6 million hectares of PBAs, the project will promote three types of interventions:
• Direct impact: best practices implemented in 889,106 hectares for improved management for biodiversity conservation.
• Direct impact: restoration (active and passive) in 63,000 hectares to contribute to Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
• Indirect impact in the landscapes: public programs and incentives (at least in the Fertilizers and Production for Wellbeing Programs), by requiring that the incentives provided by these two programs in the rural landscapes apply biodiversity criteria, impacting 2.6 million hectares with some agricultural activity distributed in the six rural landscapes.


Project Objective: Mainstream biodiversity in productive landscapes by implementing sustainable policies and practices in the agriculture sector