Draped in lush tropical rainforests, flanked by pristine beaches, and dotted with smoldering volcanoes, Costa Rica has become a beacon for nature-loving tourists and adventurers. It stands out from its neighbors as a prosperous and booming ecotourism destination, and this is no accident. Rural migration in the 1980s, followed by policies and outreach that shifted the cultural mindset to forest conservation in the 1990s, has made Costa Rica a positive example of governance that balances development needs with natural resource management.

One of these policies is for payment for ecosystem services, a practice Winrock has been supporting globally for more than 20 years. Costa Rica rewards land owners who maintain forest cover through its National Program for Payment for Environmental Services (Pagos por Servicios Ambientales – PSA), funded in part by a tax imposed on fossil fuel consumption. Having committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2021, Costa Rica has also been developing its Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program, where the “+” covers sustainable forest management, conservation and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Knowing that international donors will pay for performance in reducing emissions and enhancing removals of atmospheric carbon through REDD+, Costa Rica hired Winrock to develop the approaches and systems that can monitor how well it is protecting and restoring its forest ecosystems.

While Costa Rica’s consistent commitment to conservation is unique, its challenges in monitoring the impacts of policies that affect forest resources are not. Restrictive policies banning deforestation for establishing agriculture led many of Costa Rica’s land owners to gradually thin their forests, degrading them to the point where they were designated unproductive lands that could be legally cleared. This gradual, and often subtle, degradation of forests makes it difficult to accurately monitor land use practices and their resulting GHG emissions, both very important aspects of REDD+ programs.

While detecting drastic changes in land cover like deforestation is relatively straightforward, measuring forest degradation, as well as the incremental enhancement of carbon stocks within forests, has remained a significant challenge for many countries seeking to develop REDD+ programs.  And that’s where Winrock gets involved. To help Costa Rica maximize potential international financing from its REDD+ program, Winrock is helping the country expand its existing forest cover monitoring system to detect changes beyond deforestation and reforestation.

Costa Rica’s monitoring system now uses an open source tool developed by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called Collect Earth, which allows analysts to rapidly evaluate a vast library of high-resolution satellite imagery compiled by Google (and its Google Earth Engine enterprise) for signs of forest degradation. Winrock’s work has helped Costa Rica assess the applicability of this technology and design a system that detects evidence of different types of forest canopy cover changes over time.

By monitoring these subtle canopy cover changes, Costa Rica can better understand the impact that management practices have on its forest ecosystems and better target public policies that support its conservation trajectory. In this way, the nation can secure the results-based financing it needs to conserve and restore its forests.

For the past four years, the CLEAR II team, represented by Winrock and its partners Verité and Lawyers Without Borders, has been working steadily to fight child labor. CLEAR II, which stands for Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labor, aims to increase the capacity of host governments to reduce child labor. As part of the team, my role as the labor specialist has been to provide technical support to the ministries of labor in Nepal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Belize and Panama on ways to improve the enforcement of child labor laws.

A CLEAR II training session in Nepal. Photo by Pramin Manandhar.

I visited each of these countries several times to meet with inspectors and other stakeholders in order to understand their challenges and assess how the project could best support them. Subsequently, I developed a curriculum designed to help overcome some of these challenges and strengthen efforts at identifying, eliminating and preventing child labor. The curriculum includes 25 lessons and 18 exercises covering topics such as definitions and legal frameworks; techniques for identification, rescue and rehabilitation; the importance of collaboration and coordination; addressing risks of child labor in supply chains; formalizing the informal sector; and outreach and awareness raising.

Inspectors at a CLEAR II training in Nepal. Photo by Pramin Manandhar

There are currently five editions of the curriculum, each customized to focus on the laws, policies and economic sectors relevant to each individual CLEAR II country. During the development of the curriculum, ministries of labor in each country reviewed the contents and provided input to ensure the accuracy and appropriateness of the materials. The goal is that once trained on how to use the curriculum, ministries will make it part of their regular training programs and use it to train not only inspectors but also other government enforcement personnel, trade unions, employers, and civil society organizations that are working to end child labor.

In Nepal, inspectors participated in a three-day Training of Trainers. Photo by Pramin Manandhar

Now that the curriculum is finalized and translated into Nepali, French and Spanish I have been hitting the road and rolling it out in various countries. The first stop was Nepal, where inspectors participated in a three-day Training of Trainers (ToT) to learn how to present the lessons and lead exercises. After three days, they themselves led a two-day training for social mobilizers working in the field with children at risk. The inspectors were nervous at first but quickly absorbed the material, even personalizing some of the lessons to make them more relevant to their audience.  Since then, they held a second training for municipal employees in Panauti, an area outside of Kathmandu, which was well received. They have committed to using the curriculum in the future by developing a plan to train new inspectors and others who work on child labor issues.

Cox, center, with participants at a Training of Trainers in Burkina Faso.

More recently I traveled to Burkina Faso to deliver a ToT to 27 inspectors representing each of the country’s 13 regions. These inspectors were also quick learners, and by the end of the training felt confident presenting the material to others. After the ToT, each regional representative created a training plan for how he or she will share the material with other government agencies, local NGOs, trade unions and companies.

Inspectors at a training session in Burkina Faso.

The next stop is Belize at the end of November, followed by Liberia in December and Panama in the new year. The CLEAR II project will close in mid-2019, but the curriculum will live on as inspectors share techniques and strategies for eliminating the worst forms of child labor.

For more information about the DoL-funded Clear II project, visit: https://winrock.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Winrock-CLEAR-II-Handout.pdf

Lake Village, Arkansas. It’s small, it’s rural. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. I first visited it as a Winrock employee 11 years ago. The people there welcomed me with wide open arms and made me a part of their family. I’ve shared many a dinner with Mayor JoAnne Bush and her family in their home. I’ve walked through abandoned buildings and dreamt of their promise. I’ve picked up nails at construction sites. I’ve listened to the mayor’s aspirations and defeats and strategized about how to move forward. I’ve had some of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my professional career in this town. (To view a video about Lake Village, click here.)

Lake Village sits on the shores of Lake Chicot, the largest natural oxbow lake in North America.

Soon after I started working at Winrock, Mayor Bush called our office to talk about an opportunity to renovate the dilapidated Tushek Building and turn it into a new municipal center. She said, “Linsley, I’m going to renovate that building, and you’re going to help me do it. My answer was, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”

We identified some funding sources, brought together $2 million, and made it happen. The new building houses all the city services. If you need to pay your water bill, see the fire chief or the chief of police, you go to one building and get all services you need.

The Tushek Building during renovation.

When the police chief moved to the municipal center, the building that housed his office became a 24-hour fitness center free and open to all. If you live in Lake Village you pay nothing to have access to treadmills, Zumba, spin classes, all sorts of activities. A trail system connects the fitness center to the community garden, which operates at full capacity.

What’s so great about Lake Village isn’t just the big things, though, but the small ones, too. Renovating the building on Main Street required a lot of money and took a lot of time. But the city also engaged with high school students to do walking audits of the town’s sidewalks, to walk around and note where improvements needed to be made. Students presented their findings to the city council and the council voted on what could be improved. It was an innovative way to improve walkability in the community.

The Tushek Building after renovation.

I grew up in small town Arkansas, so it means a lot to me to make changes in small communities like my home. My town had 1,200 residents, and the people there were hopeful. They came out and planted flowers on Main Street, they came out and ran for school board. That’s the life I knew as a kid, the life I saw my parents lead and the life I think so many people around the world really want. But you can’t do that if you don’t have economic opportunity or access to health care. You can’t do it if you don’t have a job or broadband. These are things that make rural communities thrive.

Winrock’s U.S. Programs doesn’t create cookie-cutter programs; we do what works for each community. We bring tools, experience and training to local communities. We find funding and help the community implement projects. We build capacity, which means we work with municipal leaders to build up their ability to take projects to the next level. Since I’ve been at Winrock, we’ve worked in roughly 75 communities with populations of 10,000 or less in Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The legacy I hope we leave is that the capacity remains with the local leadership. It’s not that Winrock has all the answers. It’s that we grab onto the local spirit, give people hope and help create places where people can and want to live. It makes me smile to think about all we’ve been able to accomplish. And I’ve loved every second of it.