Details
Odielca highlighting the leadership role that women (“mujeres”) can take in promoting sustainable ranching during the training workshop with cattle ranchers in Panama
Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles and events posted prior to July 1, 2020, refer to the School's name at that time.
Summary
Odielca Solís is a cattle rancher, founding member and secretary of the Association of Livestock and Agrosilvopastoral Producers of Pedasi (APASPE) in Panama’s Azuero Peninsula. With knowledge from ELTI courses and technical support from ELTI, Odielca has established a model agro-silvopastoral farm, which is part of a network of demonstration areas within ELTI’s training landscape in Panama. Odielca is also a trainer in many of ELTI courses and aspires to be a pioneer in demonstrating that sustainable ranching and agriculture practices can support livelihoods in and around her community.
Odielca received support from ELTI to train two rancher cooperatives from the Darien Province of Panama who received funds from the Small Grants Programme to implement their own sustainable ranching projects. ELTI provided mentorship to Odielca in the development of a curriculum and training materials for her to facilitate a training workshop with ranchers of the cooperatives. More than 100 ranchers attended the workshop and received guidance from Odielca on how to implement sustainable ranching and forest restoration activities on their farms. These cooperatives will serve as examples of sustainable ranching techniques to even more ranchers in the region and their members may become trainers like Odielca to promote forest restoration and conservation in the Darien Province.