IRG works in non-industrialized countries to sustain the natural resource base underpinning and transitioning agricultural activity, helping to grow rural economies and improve lives. Our technical experts offer strategic planning, policy analysis, and capacity building assistance to foster sustainable production and enterprise and market development. We are a leading advocate of participatory approaches to community-based natural resource management with applied and refined co-management of forest, energy, pasture, wildlife, coastal, and freshwater resources worldwide.

Overall, we strive to help public and private organizations manage valuable natural resources in ways that are environmentally sustainable, equitable, financially viable, and supportive of economic development.

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 the Management of Protected Areas
IRG is developing a working model of co-management for government and community interests to improve environmental conditions and meet conservation needs through a program funded by USAID. Forest preservation and the management of open water are key initiatives and IRG’s Nishorgo project, launched in 2003, has made notable strides in developing transparent co-management agreements that allow for a local voice and build on efforts to increase the amount of protected areas. Bangladesh: Co-Management of Tropical Forest Resources (Website)

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

Achieving Significant Impacts in Natural Resources Management
IRG implemented the initial NRM program in Indonesia in 1997 and subsequently implemented NRM II and NRM III, which was completed in 2004. During the course of the project, IRG clarified the roles of various interested parties, both public and private sector, 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 Decentralization Implications and Institutions, especially for Forestry and Protected Areas Management. Indonesia: Natural Resources Management

Preserving and Sustaining Fragile Ecosystems
BIOFOR addressed ecosystem issues by providing technical assistance to government agencies that helped develop leadership capability, policy improvements and implementation, and sustainable management of Peru's biologically diverse areas, fragile ecosystems, and tropical forests. Peru: Biodiversity and Fragile Ecosystem Conservation and Management (BIOFOR)