• The AMPB team met with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations Development Program and the Rights and Resources Initiativeamong others, to coordinate joint actions.

The political coordination of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and ForestsAMPB) toured Washington and New York, United States, from March 8 to 10, in order to follow up on the dialogue initiated with strategic allies and the joint work agreements that emerged at COP26, as well as to explore opportunities for collaboration with former allies of the Alliance based in Washington DC and New York.

Representing the AMPB were Levi Sucre, AMPB Coordinator, and Gustavo Sánchez, President of the Mexican Network of Peasant Forestry Organizations and member of the AMPB Executive Committee.

"There is a positive balance in the fact that we have again activated contacts, but above all because our approach as AMPB, in terms of the four semi-autonomous instances, has had very positive comments and this indicates that our planning at the Mesoamerican level is aligned with the different visions that the cooperants have about community work", commented Levi Sucre, AMPB Coordinator, after the meeting in the United States.

The first meeting was held in Washington DC with Juan Martinez, lead specialist in Development and Social Safeguards at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Martinez discussed the AMPB's governance structure, its work axes and demands, as well as its The meeting discussed the AMPB's governance structure, its areas of work and demands, as well as its achievements in terms of advocacy and outreach as part of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (AGCT).

A key moment was the presentation of the Mesoamerican Territorial Fund (FTM), where the progress, current status and next steps for its constitution were presented. The FTM is a financial mechanism to promote governance and territorial development in the forested regions of Mesoamerica.

Some of the reflections that emerged from this meeting is the importance of understanding the intermediation funnel of funds donated to support indigenous peoples and local communities, which incur high costs in terms of financial credibility and administrative processes.

Some of the questions for the FTM that arose during the meeting had to do with what its goals are and why it wants to achieve a direct transfer fund. One observation that arose had to do with the need to raise a discussion with the donors on the requirements they impose to attract these funds, which should not come from the top down, but the other way around, and to analyze how these decisions are made, making it clear who the owners of the territory are. 

AMPB s political coordination also had a meeting with Solange Bandiaky, president and director of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), with whom previously in Glasgow, during COP 26, a dialogue was initiated to explore bilateral collaborations with the CLARIFI initiative and access to other funds with potential focus on the Mesoamerican region.

After providing an update on the state of the art of AMPB and the actions for capacity building and inclusion of women and youth in the defense of forests and the recognition of their rights, the progress and current status of the FTM was presented, its compatibility with Shandia and the meaning of "territorial investment", understanding what is pre-investment, as well as finding synergies with CLARIFI knowing the current status of the same and reflecting on the 5 issues of demands of the AGCT and its impact on the AMPB. 

During the meeting, RRI suggested an exchange of experiences on the lessons learned from the Tenure Facility for the process of establishing the FTM, in addition to co-constructing a work proposal between CLARIFI and FTM in order to capitalize funds that follow the principles of AMPB and more balanced percentages in the intermediation and operation of the funds. 

RRI also reported on the possibility of leveraging its Investment Strategy Facility to make proposals in Mesoamerica for investment and support those regions outside of Jeff Bezos' land fund beneficiary communities.

AMPB also held a meeting with Nina Kantcheva, Senior Policy Advisor of the Global Programme on Engaging Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Nature for Development-UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and some agents of the Climate and Forests and the New York Declaration on Forests area, to update information on AMPB, its governance, its activities in the region and projects in execution, and to present the FTM. 

During the conversations, the topic of voluntary carbon markets and the challenge of complying with standards that do not fit the reality of the territories, the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and the importance of indigenous peoples and local communities working with these, understanding what they are, how they are constructed and the experience of countries such as Costa Rica to analyze what works and what does not.

UNDP also announced the launch of the Equator Prize and invited the FTM and other AMPB initiatives for nomination.

In this way, AMPB concludes its visit to the United States, evaluating positively the meetings held with the different strategic allies in the search for an approach of mutual collaboration to strengthen the global agenda of climate change and the vindication of the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples.