Capabilities:

• Natural Resources Management Assessments
• Community-based NRM and Forest Co-management
• Policy Reform Assistance, Environmental Governance
• Training and Capacity Building for Rural Producers and Community-based Organizations
• Biodiversity Needs Analysis and Tropical Forest Conservation
• Forestry Sector Reforms, Capacity Building for Reforestation, Forest Resources Management
• Sustainable Financing Strategies for Natural Resource Institutions and Protected Area Management

Select projects include:

Improving Management and Productivity of Natural Resources
IRG is working in Senegal to strengthen community-based organizations, support policies that clarify local rights and responsibilities in natural resource management, train communities in sustainable land use, and develop non-traditional agricultural and non-timber forest products. IRG also manages a small-grants fund to support pilot activities, cover start-up costs of small enterprises, and to enable the participation and collaboration of local entities in rural production and NRM. Over five years, IRG’s guidance has helped increase revenues from natural resources and non-traditional agriculture by $2.5 million and an additional $2.6 million in exports from over 8,712 enterprises and entrepreneurs in a range of value chains. Besides raising productivity of resources, local communities have engaged in formal co-management relationships to increase investment and local benefits of and cooperation in natural resource activities. Senegal: USAID/Wula Nafaa Project

Improving the Management of Protected Areas
IRG builds on the successful efforts of two predecessor projects, the IRG-implemented Nishorgo Support Project and the MACH project, to scale-up natural resource co-management at the policy and operational levels of the Bangladesh government in its field management. IRG is engaging senior ministry staff in Bangladesh’s environment, forestry, and fisheries agencies, providing them with technical expertise in natural resources inventory and mapping, biodiversity assessment and management methods, economics, adaptation to climate change, and water resources and watershed management. IRG is also expanding the geographic area under co-management to ensure nationwide, long-term success. Bangladesh: Integrated Protected Area Co-Management

Promoting Effective Resources Management in Watersheds
IRG recently completed implementing the five and a half year Integrated Watershed Resources Management project in Honduras to improve the management of critical watersheds and support economic growth through the sustainable management of natural resources. IRG worked closely with north coast municipalities, chambers of tourism, and indigenous communities to develop and implement a north coast ecotourism strategy, branding the area as the Costa Esmeralda. IRG has developed 27 community sub-watershed management plans. In each plan, improvements in forestry, agro-forestry, and agricultural practices have been identified and are under implementation. IRG is helping 169 producers improve agricultural practices of non-traditional agricultural and forestry products as part of the project’s CAFTA Support Component. The agro-forestry systems developed included local forest species, rambutan, plantain, and pineapple. Honduras: Integrated Watershed Resources Management in Honduras

Countering the Negative Effects of Degraded Resources
To assist Madagascar in achieving effective management and control of its forest ecosystems, USAID contracted IRG to provide technical assistance, training, and grants. The project focuses on restructuring and revitalizing public sector environmental and forest institutions that are critical to improving the forest management systems. Foremost, IRG is helping revitalize the Malagasy Forest Service to ensure sustainable forest management. Additional areas of involvement include: developing mechanisms for sustainable finance, formulating and securing adoption of applicable environmental policies, and strengthening environmental sector management capacity. Madagascar: Support Sustainable Environment and Forest Ecosystems Management

Supporting NRM Legislation and Information Networks
IRG managed and staffed a Partner Support Unit for USAID/Tanzania’s NRM Program, responsible for development and maintenance of NRM information and communications networks; facilitation of NRM program reporting; the establishment of a NRM policy framework; and support for training, field studies, and data collection. IRG supported the adoption of NRM policies and management practices of wildlife resources in collaboration with agriculture and livestock stakeholders. IRG collaborated with the government, business stakeholders, and donors to build consensus for sensible policy approaches based on analytical studies. These analytical products included studies on economic opportunities of wildlife areas, opportunities for farming and gaming, removing impediments to community-based wildlife management, and entrepreneurship potential of wildlife management areas. Tanzania: Natural Resource Management Program

Achieving Significant Impacts in Natural Resources Management
IRG clarified the roles of various interested parties in both the public and private sectors, developed broad-based articulate constituencies for resource management at the local level, and rationalized and informed both planning processes and policymaking by providing clear examples of successes elsewhere. The NRM program emerged as a policy think tank among donor projects and NGOs on a number of NRM issues, including forest industry restructuring analyses, national NRM governance reforms, and decentralized governance and appropriate institutions, especially for forestry and protected areas management. Indonesia: Natural Resources Management I, II, III

Linking Communities and Environmental Conservancies
Under the Namibia (Living in a Finite Environment) LIFE projects, IRG played a primary role in building the institutional capacity of Namibia’s nascent nature conservatories with the support of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) through the Namibia Association of CBNRM Support organizations (NASCO). Technical assistance was provided for conservancy management plans and for developing linkages between emerging Community Land Boards and their interactions with communal area conservancies including training, enhancing communication among NASCO partners, sharing best practices with the FRAME project, and developing a sister-college relationship between Namibian and US universities to promote CBNRM research. The scope of LIFE was later expanded to assist Namibia’s conservancies become democratically directed from its membership, driven by income-generating enterprises beyond wildlife and tourism, and given the legal authority to integrate management of an expanded number of natural resources. Namibia: LIFE I, II, and LIFE Plus