This initiative drew largely on the use of technology to protect the Indio-Maíz tropical rainforest reserve and its biodiversity (at the same time alleviating poverty) by raising awareness and stimulating action through participatory media activities involving peasant farmers. A number of ICT tools - from modern satellite technology and Geographical Information System (GIS) to simple radio broadcasts - have been used as part of this project in order to effect social change in a number of strategic areas including titling and territorial rectification, improved municipal administration and services, provision of needed social infrastructure, support to production and marketing, and support to community organisations and community development.

Based on experiences with the GIS system in other regions of Nicaragua, a simple GIS system was implemented in El Castillo - to be used as a tool for decision-making, land-use planning, land-use classification, and monitoring of natural resources, as well as for the establishment of a land tax system based on a cadastre system. For example, satellite images have been used to verify that the Indio-Maíz reserve is secured and that no settlers are inside. Satellite images have also been used to verify that the expansion of the agricultural frontier has been contained with stable land occupancy in the bufferzone. Moreover, satellite images have contributed to the verification of the decline and stabilisation of deforestation. The data from such images, which the Municipality of El Castillo has collected in their GIS system, have been transferred to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources headquarters, which apply a more extensive GIS system for monitoring the agricultural frontier and the use of natural resources.

Capacity building has been a common feature in these and other programme activities; according to organisers, a "bottom-up" approach has been used with success. Use of the "training of trainers" concept in connection with farming, management and marketing, and so on "has improved organization of the communities and farmers interest groups. The production of simple radio broadcast has been an efficient tool in this context." With regard to the latter, 7 technicians provided training in communication to 56 voluntary promoters, who were elected among 420 farmers. The training included lessons on how to, in turn, train peasant farmers in producing radio broadcasts. With the use of this "campesino a campesino" concept, the promoters communicated skills and their own experiences to other farmers in their community via the local radio station "Radio Tropical"; this strategy is a response to the observation that it is very common that the peasant farmers in Nicaragua listen to (cheap) transistor radios while they are tilling the soil.

Sustainable Resource Development, Environment, Natural Resource Management, Economic Development.

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, stretching from Mexico to Colombia, is one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world. There has been an effort to conserve and protect the tropical forest in the Río San Juan area along the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica - in particular, the still largely untouched Indio-Maíz Biological Reserve and its surrounding bufferzone. Recent years have witnessed a sharp rise in the local population, as economically poor families have immigrated from other parts of Nicaragua; the interaction between poverty, lack of employment opportunities, and resource degradation has resulted in a high rate of expansion of the agricultural frontier towards the still largely untouched areas of tropical rain forest.

The farming system applied in the bufferzone in El Castillo, as elsewhere in Nicaragua, was of the traditional slash and burn variety, accompanied by the production of the traditional combination of annual crops and only a few perennial crops. This system breaks the closed nutrient cycling inherent in rainforests, giving opportunity for the leaching of nutrients, erosion and rapid conversion of organic material. The main disadvantage of traditional farming is that most farmers do not have access to fertilizer, which is simply not available, too costly or impossible to transport to the fields. Farmers often do not possess knowledge regarding the rainforest ecosystem or the limits to the shifting cultivation technique necessary to manage the land in more appropriate ways. Moreover, many farmers still seek to become cattle ranchers, which could tempt them to expand the extensive livestock-breeding model, causing environmental damage in terms of gradual decline of soil fertility in areas of deforestation. According to organisers, the farmers in El Castillo needed proposals and training in farming systems more compatible with the rainforest ecology. Furthermore, organisers suggest that - after harvesting the agricultural products - access to the market was often a major problem because of lack of transport facilities, poor or no roads, and problems regarding the storage of harvested crops. The farmers also lacked working capital for cultivating larger areas. No bank or other credit institutions exist in El Castillo.

A survey has shown that many of the farmers in the Municipality of El Castillo have listened to the local radio broadcasts several times and that several farmers also have participated in workshops. By promotion and implementation of sustainable agro-forestry and forestry techniques among farmers, the income for many families has increased and their living conditions have thereby improved. (Instead of growing maize as the primarily crop, cocoa trees have been planted.) "It would have been impossible to change the traditional slash and burn farming system in the bufferzone in El Castillo without informing the farmers via radio broadcasts." (Ms. Alicia Paucar, Danida Advisor, January 2005).

In part due to such strategies, organisers claim, the Biological Reserve Indio Maíz remains largely intact in spite of a series of incursions by illegal settlers. "It is probable that had it not been for the externally funded projects in the area, among which the Danida project plays a prominent part, the Indio-Maíz Reserve would now have been in a process of gradual destruction."

In addition, the project has reportedly strengthened the institutional capacity of the Municipality, and a municipal tax system and municipal cadastre have been implemented. The tax revenue levied by the municipality has increased, which is important for the sustainability of promoting social and productive development. At the same time, a problem concerning the property of the land has apparently been solved: Before Danida entered the region in 1993 many of the farmers did not have deeds of their lands. The GIS system has enabled farmers in the area to register exactly who owns what and where, and thereby to provide each farmer with a land deed - which, in turn, gives him or her the chance to obtain bank loans for investments in farming.