Sectorización para la vigilancia y control

En base a sesiones de trabajo con el personal guardaparque, conocedores del territorio, la Reserva Nacional Matsés ha dividido su área en sectores según su vulnerabilidad a las amenazas, para implementar las acciones de vigilancia que permiten el seguimiento de amenazas actuales o potenciales. Esto ha permitido redireccionar los esfuerzos para no vigilar exclusivamente el interior de la RNM sino la zona de amortiguamiento y paisaje asociado donde se originan las amenazas.

Considerando que las amenazas no son uniformes en el espacio se propuso la sectorización en función a criterios de: a) amenazas, b) accesibilidad al área protegida, c) centros poblados, d) recursos de interés y e) zonificación. Estos criterios permiten diferenciar los sectores según la vulnerabilidad del ANP.

En el caso de la Reserva Nacional Matsés, se han identificado ocho sectores, tres de ellos tienen un nivel de vulnerabilidad bajo, ya que no se han reportado amenazas, son de difícil acceso, no existen centros poblados y la zonificación del área protegida restringe ciertos usos a pesar de la existencia de recursos de interés. Otros tres sectores, tienen un nivel de vulnerabilidad alto, se han reportado amenazas y existen centros poblados colindantes, cuentan con fácil y múltiples accesos, cuentan con recursos de interés que vienen siendo aprovechados, y la zonificación permite el uso de recursos bajo ciertos lineamientos. Finalmente, los últimos dos sectores, tienen un nivel de vulnerabilidad medio, principalmente porque si bien cuentan con amenazas y centros poblados cercanos al área protegida, además del aprovechamiento de recursos, la accesibilidad es limitada.

Kelp Forest Foundation - filling the gap in the science around cultivated kelp forest

Giant kelp is drastically understudied given the benefits it can deliver. The promise of cultivated kelp and its ecosystem services need to be quantified and unlocked to speed up the expansion of kelp cultivation at scale. This will help mitigate climate change and create sustainable products which will displace the current more environmentally damaging products.

 

The Kelp Forest Foundation was set up to help address the gap in science and knowledge around giant kelp forests’ ecosystem services – and to ensure this new knowledge is publicly available to companies, governments, regulators, not-for-profits, academics, and other stakeholders in order to accelerate the awareness and application of cultivated kelp forests as a powerful nature-based solution.

The initial research will be undertaken in and around the Kelp Blue' s cultivated offshore kelp forests in Namibia but later on it will continue in other global locations.

The foundation will be adding to the research done by other organizations such as Oceans 2050 and Bigelow Laboratory. KFF will sponsor MSc's and PhD's from Namiban universities such as UNAM and NUST and is working with international universities such as University of Cambridge, University of Portsmouth, Utrecht university to create carbon pathway models and co-supervise students.

It is important to prioritize the most important questions first and focus resources towards answering them. 

Accessing ocean-based technology to collect the relevant data which is both user-friendly and affordable can be challenging.

Hortimare - an essential partner for Kelp Blue.

Hortimare, a Dutch-based company, is one of the few companies in the world specialising in the genetics, breeding and propagating of seaweed. Hortimare works with Kelp Blue to create starting material, increase yield and research on best growing techiniques of the Macrocystis pyrifera specie.

Holtimare has a state-of- the art lab in The Netherlands as well as a highly trained experienced team which specializes in seaweed breeding and propagating. Hortimare is an external technical consultant that is helping Kelp Blue set up and develop a hatchery in Namibia and to train a local workforce to run it. They also work together with Kelp Blue in sourcing, collecting and cultivation methods. They are also co-creating a giant kelp seedbank for future use.

The breeding of kelp seedlings is an essential first step in the cultivation of seaweed. There is no public Macrocystis seed bank so Kelp Blue has had to work with partners around the world to sustainably collect spores from wild kelp beds and transport them back to The Netherlands where Hortimare then optimizes Kelp Blue's hatchery system and seeding technique to get to predictable and consistent yield. They share all the information that is needed to make the farm successful. This as a win-win for both parties. Hortimare gets more and more reliable data and knowledge to be able to develop a certain standard and Kelp Blue can translate their findings to predictability of operation.

Sustainably sourcing material, a breeding programme and a property set up hatchery are the cornerstone of any seweed farmer's project.

Showcasing key results through a simplified and interactive storytelling tool

This Building Block aimed to develop a multilingual storytelling tool to showcase both existing conditions and scenarios for the pilot in the Western Mediterranean. The objective was to present the data and information in a simplified and interactive way, and as such to turn complex concepts into notions easily understood by all stakeholders.

  • Professionals with previous experience in developing an online storytelling tool with spatial data visualization

  • Technical reports with the necessary data and information published in advance

  • Teamwork: Those involved in the development of the reports need to work in close collaboration with those responsible for developing the tool to ensure that the key results are properly selected and displayed

  • Structure: Organize the story through different themes, titles, taglines and sections

  • Be concise: Limit the size of the texts to the key messages. If the user is interested in learning more, reports with the full information should be available

  • Technical terms: Whenever possible, avoid using difficult and/or technical language (including acronyms) that might be incomprehensible for a wider audience. If it cannot be avoided, better to add the meaning

  • Responsive web tool: Depending on the type and format of the content, it might be difficult to ensure that the tool is sufficiently responsive across different internet browsers, resolutions and electronic devices

  • Beta version: It is recommended to develop a beta version (pre-release) and then ask some users to play with it before the launch

Showcasing key results through a simplified and interactive storytelling tool

This Building Block aimed to develop a multilingual storytelling tool to showcase both existing conditions and scenarios for the pilot in the Gulf of Guayaquil. The objective was to present the data and information in a simplified and interactive way, and as such to turn complex concepts into notions easily understood by all stakeholders.

  • Professionals with previous experience in developing an online storytelling tool with spatial data visualization
  • Technical reports with the necessary data and information published in advance
  • Spatial data organized in a geodatabase with metadata
  • Teamwork: Those involved in the development of the reports need to work in close collaboration with those responsible for developing the tool to ensure that the key results are properly selected and displayed
  • Structure: Organize the story through different themes, titles, taglines and sections
  • Be concise: Limit the size of the texts to the key messages. If the user is interested in learning more, reports with the full information should be available
  • Technical terms: Whenever possible, avoid using difficult and/or technical language (including acronyms) that might be incomprehensible for a wider audience. If it cannot be avoided, better to add the meaning
  • Responsive web tool: Depending on the type and format of the content, it might be difficult to ensure that the tool is sufficiently responsive across different internet browsers, resolutions and electronic devices
  • Beta version: It is recommended to develop a beta version (pre-release) and then ask some users to play with it before the launch
Alliances

Various alliances had to be build to ensure the success of the programme. Collaboration was necessarry between the following stakeholders: 

  • Local and provincial government and administrative authorities
  • Social groups like youth clubs, women groups, agriculture committees
  • Forest and land protection committes 
  • Local, regional and national private sector businesses 
  • Various experts, researchers and scholars in this sector

Since this solution involves multi-level activities from planning, implementation, conservation, monitoring, marketing and promoting, it becomes essential to bring all the stakeholders together and interlink them through common goals and their ascribed responsibilities by the state and the society. 

- Stakeholders don't always have the same interests and goals

- Conflict between the stakeholders in the alliances are common because of their interests 

- The thoroughness of legal aspects while dealing with the local bureaucracy is needed

- The awareness of greater good has to be evoked to all the stake holders, time and again

 

Value chain logic

The scope of the Ocean Economy, considered in the Portuguese Ocean Satelite Account (OSA), aggregates activities in two main areas: "established activities" and "emerging activities” which, in turn, are divided into groups. It considers nine groups, eight of which correspond to established activities (groups 1 to 8). The last group (group 9) includes new uses and resources of the ocean, which congregates emerging activities (see figure). The adopted criterion for the classification of economic activities as established or emerging obeyed the international logic of maturity level of the markets, namely what is followed in the EU, in the study “Blue Growth” for the purpose of international comparisons.

 

Overall, we adopted a value chain logic considering, inter alia, the level of industry disaggregation permitted by the National Statistical System. Given this restriction, the methodological option was to consider Maritime and Marine Equipment Services as independent groups, including cross-economic activities in other groups.

  • Mature statistical systems with quality and detailed data
  • Broad discussion with several stakeholders on the concepts, definitions, and aggregations of the account
  • Very good articulation among entities
  • Time consuming activity in the first exercise due to its pioneering character (pilot exercise)
  • Difficulty in obtaining information on emerging activities
  • Results compensate the effort: this organization of data allowed illustrating heterogeneity of the different groups (dynamic, productivity, resilience, etc.)
Benefits generated to communities and livelihood improved

Community forestry in Nepal has brought a number of benefits including an increase in income. It has helped to fight against illegal logging by putting clear rules in place on timber access and a strong system of forest monitoring. Community livelihoods have also improved with easier access to firewood and fodder and better health care and energy access, for example through money from ecotourism and subsidies for renewable energy.

Community forestry shows traits of political, financial, and ecological sustainability, including emergence of a strong legal and regulatory framework, and robust civil society institutions and networks.

A continuing challenge is to ensure equitable distribution of benefits to women and marginalized groups.  

 

The immediate livelihood benefits derived by rural households bolster strong collective action wherein local communities actively and sustainably manage forest resources. Community forests also became the source of diversified investment capital and raw material for new market-oriented livelihoods. 

 

Communities empowered and trusted

Conservation oriented community forestry is essentially a participatory process that requires strong technical assistance on both policy and implementation. Expanding the property rights of local communities over resources and empowering them with knowledge, information, resources, technologies, and required skills for forest management and institution building are basic building blocks for the community forestry. Gender and equity concerns are addressed from the program design so that the poor, women, and marginalized receive fair benefits from the program.

Legal rights over the resources, institutions, capacity, trust, and leadership,

It evolved from the community level, and is based on traditional uses of the forest by communities. This bottom-up approach is a great strength of the Nepalese model as it gives ownership and leadership to communities to decide both where to create a community forest and how to run it.

Environmental Guide: Wildlife Friendly Roads

This guide is the tool used to collect wildlife data on roads to identify the impact and recommed measures for Costa Rica. It can be inpmenented on new road projects and for existing roads. Since 2015, this guide is used by Costa Rican Government to implement masures on new road projects. We started implementing it on exisitng roads since 2020. 

1. Government participation;

2. Funding for the data collection;

3. Legislation requesting measures to reduce development impact on wildlife;

4. Inclusion on the Environmental Impact Assesment;

5. Funding for the implementation of measures to prevent or reduce road impact;

In many countries of Mesoamerican region, guidance is needed to reduce road impact. So this document can be adapted to local characteristics and to legislation of the country to start the implementaiton of measures on roads for wildlife;