The Biological Education and Gender Empowerment Program applied to the Amazon Project is 6 years old and has had continuous activities with different actors in the villages of the municipalities of Mapiripán, San José del Guaviare and Inirida under the approach of two lines of work; biological Education and community work (Gender Empowerment).
In 2013, the Biological Education Program (BEP) began in Colombia with the support of the Guanacaste Conservation Area of Costa Rica, who created the program and have over 25 years of successful experience. However, since 2011 the PEB has been working in the training of children in different educational centers in the area. The program objective in Colombia is to support the conservation of the northern Amazon, which is part of the Natural Reserve El Jaguar and the Natural Bird Reserve Águila Arpía of ProAves, integrating the community with the conservation project.
As some of the results of the PEB during the 6 years of the initiative, (2011 to first quarter of 2016), we can highlight the following achievements: i) Biological Education Program in Educational Centers: to date a total of 2,334 children between 4 and 15 years old have been trained in the following departments: first, in the department of Meta, municipality of Mapiripán, the villages of: Caño Siria, Puerto Siare, Esteros Bajos, San Jose, Caño Minas, Casco Urbano, La Orqueta, Inspection Puerto Alvira, El Anzuelo, Rincon del Indio and Vereda Esteros Altos. For a total of 1,579 children trained in Meta; second, in the department of Guaviare, in the villages of: La Fuga, Puerto Nare, Caño Negro and Charras a total of 315 children have been trained and, finally, in the department of Guainía Raudal in the village of the Mapiripana, 440 children have been trained.
Likewise, the total number of schools that form a part of PEB is 17; of which 12 belong to municipality of Mapiripán in the Department of Meta, 4 the municipality of San José del Guaviare and one in the municipality of Inirida, Guainia department. As for coverage results 82 students who completed the first phase of biological education have been certified. By the end 2016, the proposed goal is certify 800 students in 3 departments.
ii) Gender Empowerment: the work is aimed at establishing the gender empowerment approach to youth and women in mitigating climate change projects to meet the challenge of effectiveness, sustainability and positive impact to each region; and for these initiatives to effectively contribute in the construction of sustainable development, measures and / or strategies that facilitated the empowerment of the communities involved and the local population, through workshops and training with productive activities that aroused interest, were considered in the environmental awareness.
In addition different component courses on sexual and reproductive rights were performed as strategy with the support of the Profamilia Organization with which it was possible to train 30 women between 12 and 35 years of the municipality of Mapiripán around issues on sexual and reproductive rights.
Finally, on the issue of empowerment, ProAves Foundation and the National Apprenticeship Service (SENA) established an alliance for work, which aims to support the activities and proposals under the Young Rural Entrepreneurs Program, guided by the SENA and promotes the realization of training activities aimed at the creation of sustainable productive units in the region. For this reason we are looking for 30 young people in the municipality of Mapiripán in Meta, with an age range between 15 and 22 years, to train in the development of productive projects and acquisition of technical and entrepreneurial skills; whose purpose is the creation of sustainable rural production units and generating income, competitiveness of the Colombian countryside, offering rural tourism services and that they can be provided with monitoring through rural technical assistance.
As a result of this process today there is a group of 12 young people who formed a production unit called “LLanokoriche” which is aimed at promoting tourism in the municipality of Mapiripán. They are supported by ProAves and are currently managing the search for resources to strengthen their work plan.
With the support of :
