During the past 4 years (2010-2013), Community Development efforts related to the Tairona Conservation Project have centered on a number of key aspects aimed at ensuring sustainable operations and visitor experience; education, capacity building and training; and environmental conservation.
Grants from the Fondo Patrimonio Natural, USAID Colombia and Citifoundation were used to create all community development activities. These included designing and implementing a joint natural and cultural heritage conservation curriculum at the trail head school and setting up an Ecological Club with the students; Wilderness First Aid and Whitewater rescue training for all guides; silvipasture training for ranchers; building 26 firewood-saving stoves in lodges and indigenous houses; building a new indigenous owned and operated lodge structure; installing black- and gray water treatment systems at 6 lodges; building a 90-foot-long suspension bridge over the Buritaca river; instituting a biodiversity evaluation aimed at assessing visitor impact on wildlife; setting up trail signage; and producing a wildlife guide for the trail.
All activities were co-designed and developed with indigenous and campesino participation, ensuring that the activities and projects were truly appropriate and relevant, addressing needs and problems that had been identified years ago but had remained unresolved.