Colombia’s Pacific coast is a world centre of biodiversity facing multiple threats. In this context, we are collaborating with Newcastle University, the Colombian Institute for Environmental Research of the Pacific (IIAP) and the University of Los Andes, Bogotá, to develop community projects that are sustainable, economically, socially and environmentally. Interventions of this sort often fail as soon as funding ends, due to lack of community ownership, lack of capacity, and/or asymmetrical relationships with planners. We are exploring the potential for sustainable business models that might be suitable for community initiatives along the Pacific Coast and to identify funding avenues that could support such initiatives.

One model being explored is the Social-Franchising approach, and, as part of a curated approach (see ), Professor Robert Newbery discusses this in the following video: