Local mechanism of engagement in rural landscapes in the Nicaragua-Honduras sentinel landscape: examples of a local farmers' organisation and a multi-actor platform

Landscape approaches have been encouraged as a means of addressing the intricate challenges related to natural resource management and the well-being of land users/farmers. The study presents two mechanisms applied to territory development: first, a multi-stakeholder platform to improve governance in a natural reserve area (space/geographical dimension); second, how a local cooperative can become a learning network and address land-use and landscape management issues. The study evaluates the planning tool interventions of a local project, aiming to enhance landscape governance and value-chain collaboration in Nicaragua's biosphere reserve. We interviewed 403 residents and 29 cocoa cooperative members to evaluate their view of the tools/methodologies' effectiveness in natural resource management and cocoa farmers' resilience and well-being, respectively. Factorial analysis showed that the people of "Peñas Blanca" were aware of the multi-stakeholder platform managing the reserve. Generally, they had a positive opinion of the platform and its ability to balance economic and cultural values with conservation. The local cocoa cooperative has faced a financial and organisational crisis in recent years, with only a small number of members using the cooperative to sell their cocoa beans. This is due to decreased productivity and quality of the cocoa beans for some individual farmers, which impacts their ability to commercialise the beans with the cooperative. However, current access to social and cultural capital is supporting the resilience and adaptive capacity of the cocoa farmers in the territory. The studied cases provide evidence of the effectiveness of multi-sectoral and community-led organizations in integrating economic, ecological, and social objectives in a territory supporting landscape governance with sectoral approaches as valuable entry points.