sustainable development

Biodiversity conservation together with both adapting to, and mitigating impacts of, climate change are directly linked to sustainable development. This linkage runs through all international agreements on sustainable development and the environment, and is explicit in the Millennium Development Goals. WLT’s projects, however, are also designed to assist sustainable development in more immediate and tangible ways.

Cloud forest, Ecuador.
© Andrew Smiley

The WLT restoration ecology projects are built around the needs and objectives of our partner organisations. These are all local non-governmental organisations and the income from these projects helps strengthen their infrastructure, reinforcing their overall influence on the ground as well as furthering their work-programmes and conservation agendas. Strong and active local institutions in civil society are a powerful positive force in sustainable development. 

The opportunity for capacity building is also built into the projects, equipping partners with both the knowledge and resources to carry out these activities independently in the future. This may consist of technical support, specialist knowledge, training in research techniques, specific equipment including for monitoring purposes, development of fire prevention systems, and provision of additional staff and/or infrastructure – indeed whatever is appropriate. The need for such support can be addressed during both the design and the implementation phases of a project.

Our local project partners usually have their own local partners – community groups, other local NGOs, local government offices. The capacity building extends equally to them, widening the benefits to all.