Fondo de Recuperación del Paisaje del Maule

A movement based on the mobilization of local communities to restore landscapes and build community resilience 

Meet Fondo Maule 

Fondo Maule

The Fondo de Recuperación del Paisaje del Maule (Fondo Maule) will be structured as a micro-fund, that will provide smallholder farmers access to funds to carry out restoration activities on their own, private land, in accordance with the best practices combining local and scientific knowledge.

It will work with communities to fund shared value initiatives based on landscape restoration. By working with smaller private landowners, the Fondo Maule will be supporting them to diversify their land uses, and livelihoods and create more resilient mosaics.

The Fondo Maule will work in Empedrado, a county located in the Maule Region. The Maule Region is one of Chile ́s 16 main administrative divisions and the region hardest hit by recent fires. The 2017 fires, described as the worst in Chile’s modern history, affected around 280,000 hectares, or nearly a tenth of the total area of this region. Empedrado is situated in a forest landscape, which has largely been degraded by these fires.

Fondo Maule Objectives

The objective of the Fondo Maule will be to restore the forest landscape and make it more resilient to such disturbances in the future while supporting local communities to flourish economically and socially.

These restoration activities will target areas degraded in the recent fires and will focus on three main restoration activities:

  • Restoration of 2,000 hectares of natural forest, by planting native tree species and facilitating natural regeneration. Native forests in the Maule region are dominated by Acacia Caven in the drier regions and Nothofagus glauca and Persea lingue in the coastal areas.
  • 750 hectares of sustainable and regenerative agriculture – this will be influenced by farmer preferences of which crops to cultivate.
  • Planting 750 hectares of commercial tree species for responsible community-led plantations as a source of alternative sustainable livelihood for the local community. Commercial trees in the region are primarily Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus globulus.

Fondo Maule Approach

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El tamaño objetivo del Fondo Maule será de 8,5M€, desembolsados en 5 años, para apoyar la creación de una cartera de proyectos de propósitos múltiples mediante el uso de un enfoque ascendente innovador diseñado para identificar y preparar proyectos para oportunidades de financiamiento. Estructurado con una plataforma de múltiples partes interesadas en el paisaje, que posiciona a los grupos de interés del paisaje en el centro de cómo se identifican y desarrollan los proyectos, al tiempo que garantiza a la población local participar en la supervisión y acceder a asistencia técnica a través de:

  • Destinar 7,5M€ a la línea de inversión para proporcionar financiación anticipada a proyectos de restauración forestal y uso sostenible de la tierra
  • Allocating 1M€ to the Fondo Maule structure, covering the origination, technical assistance, fund management and monitoring work.

Examples of potential projects for Fondo Maule

  • Assisted restoration of native vegetation - Regeneration of native forest to originate associated productive activities such as apiculture.
  • Enabling conditions for food security of rural households – create grasslands to secure pasture for ovine stock via improvement of irrigation system.
  • Post-fire management of pine natural regeneration for production - Creation of pine tree plantations through the management of natural regeneration of pine initiated after the 2017 fires.

Note: This list only provides context, other project ideas will be welcome as long as they are in line with the objectives of Fondo Maule

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Who will be able to apply?

Communities and organizations that work on forest landscape restoration for the protection, recovery and improvement of the socio-economic development of Empedrado. The selected proposals will receive technical and financial support to make project ideas a reality.

Fondo Maule Partners  

Diálogo Forestal Chile, Arauco, CMPC and NGPTA are the Fondo developers who have joined forces to support social development and restoration of the forest landscapes in Empedrado:

The idea of the Maule Fund arose as a result of the international meeting organized in November 2017 by NGP with the support of the Diálogo Forestal Chile, Arauco and CMPC in the Maule Region to address the issue of fire prevention and restoration of forest landscapes, in which about 40 people from more than 10 countries participated, such as representatives of forestry companies, non-governmental organizations, academia and officials.

Do you want to know more? 

To know more about ​Fondo Maule, related work or for information, contact us on: fondomaule@newgenerationplantations.com

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