TruePATH stands for Transforming Unsustainable Pathways in Agricultural Frontiers: Articulating Microfinance Plus with Local Institutional Change for Sustainability in Nicaragua.

In this project, we analyse the institutional dynamics that generate socially and environmentally unsustainable cattle development pathways. Our research specifically focusses on the agricultural frontier bordering the Bosawas Nature Reserve in Northern Nicaragua and consists of an action-research process in cooperation with the microfinance institution Fondo de Desarrollo Local and the environmental NGO Centro Humboldt.

We aim to co-identify opportunities to affect relevant institutional processes to transform today's detrimental pathway towards more sustainable, equitable and climate-sensible agriculture, less dependent on deforestation and cheap land. The objective is to develop scientific outputs and policy proposals (in particular also for environmentally responsible rural finance) that contribute to change towards sustainability in the Nicaraguan agricultural frontier and beyond.