Empowered lives. Resilient nations.
UMBRELLA GROUP OF NAGHADEH NGOS Iran
Equator Initiative Case Studies Local sustainable development solutions for people, nature, and resilient communities UNDP EQUATOR INITIATIVE CASE STUDY SERIES
Local and indigenous communities across the world are 126 countries, the winners were recognized for their advancing innovative sustainable development solutions achievements at a prize ceremony held in conjunction that work for people and for nature. Few publications with the United Nations Convention on Climate Change or case studies tell the full story of how such initiatives (COP21) in Paris. Special emphasis was placed on the evolve, the breadth of their impacts, or how they change protection, restoration, and sustainable management over time. Fewer still have undertaken to tell these stories of forests; securing and protecting rights to communal with community practitioners themselves guiding the lands, territories, and natural resources; community- narrative. The Equator Initiative aims to fill that gap. based adaptation to climate change; and activism for The Equator Initiative, supported by generous funding environmental justice. The following case study is one in from the Government of Norway, awarded the Equator a growing series that describes vetted and peer-reviewed Prize 2015 to 21 outstanding local community and best practices intended to inspire the policy dialogue indigenous peoples initiatives to reduce poverty, protect needed to take local success to scale, to improve the global nature, and strengthen resilience in the face of climate knowledge base on local environment and development change. Selected from 1,461 nominations from across solutions, and to serve as models for replication. PROJECT SUMMARY KEY FACTS
Working in the areas surrounding Lake Urmia – the Equator Prize Winner world’s second largest hyper-saline lake and the 2015 largest inland wetland in Iran – the Umbrella Group of Naghadeh NGOs addresses water management Founded issues that include wetland restoration, adaptation to droughts, farm irrigation, and sedimentation 2001 in canals. Although previous efforts to restore the Location rapidly disappearing Lake Urmia focused on the lake itself, this partnership of seven community NGOs Naghadeh Plains, Western Azerbaijan, Iran took an innovative approach by instead focusing on the restoration and conservation of satellite Beneficiaries wetlands surrounding the lake. The initiative has Seven communities with 600 active members engaged in restored over 1,600 hectares of satellite wetlands this initiative where previous government initiatives had failed. Their work has improved the livelihoods of local Areas of focus farmers, strengthened water access, enhanced Community-based adaptation to climate change, environmental health, and built social capital conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial and/or among communities in the region. The restored marine biodiversity satellite wetlands have also restored the ecosystem functioning of degraded Lake Urmia, benefitting Sustainable Development Goals addressed globally important biodiversity and the surrounding population.
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B AZARBAYJAN-E CASPIAN Van TURKMENISTAN