CIFOR and its research partner Fundación Natura Bolivia (Bolivian Nature Foundation) were winners of one of four Innovative MarketPlace Awards presented at the December 2006 CGIAR Annual General Meeting in Washington. The award recognizes successful andinnovative partnerships between Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) and CGIAR centers.

CGIAR Chairman and World Bank Vice-President, Kathy Sierra (right) and USAID's Franklin Moore (left) congratulate Fundacion Natura Bolivia's Maria Teresa Vargas and CIFOR's Michael Hailu for winning an Innovative Market Place Award at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting in Washington.

CSO-CGIAR partnerships can strengthen research programs through access to local and regional knowledge and by giving voice to local stakeholders to ensure research priorities improve people's lives.

CIFOR and Natura’s partnership on a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme dates back to 2001. Locally known as the “bees-for-water” project, the scheme is having both environmental and livelihood benefits. “Bees-for-water” is pioneering the use of compensation mechanisms to improve watershed management. Upstream landowners conserve water producing forest, in return they receive artificial bee hives and training in honey production as an alternative income source. The PES payments come from both international donors and the local municipality representing the downstream irrigators who directly benefit from the improved watershed management.

The mutually supportive and long term relationship between CIFOR and Natura played a vital role in the scheme’s success. Both partners benefit from sharing each other’s skills and resources. On the one hand, CIFOR provides Natura with access to international research fora, and assists in publishing results and designing the scheme’s implementation. On the other, Natura provides CIFOR’s researchers with local knowledge and facilitates their relationships with actors on the ground.

CIFOR researcher Sven Wunder sees the relationship with Natura as “a showcase of how CGIAR-CSO partnerships can be highly rewarding for both sides. The long-term and close nature of CIFOR and Natura’s partnership allowed us to implement the different project stages with greater depth and rigour.”

María Teresa Vargas, Executive Director, Fundación Natura Bolivia agrees, “We have found that the deeper the relationship with CIFOR, the more productive it has become”.