Documentation and dissemination of results

Entirety

Integrating climate information into local planning

Ecological Drawing exercise - Impacts of climate change on livelihoods

GIZ

Villager presents results of ecological drawing exercise

GIZ

Seasonal (based on seasons defined by the communities according to predominant livelihood strategies with the help of an ecological calendar) and annual temperature and precipitation projections for the near future were developed for specific sites, namely Bash Kaiyndy/ Naryn District in Kyrgyzstan and two villages in the Bartang Valley of the Tajikistan Pamir region. Two time slices were developed to represent 30-year averages - 2020s (2011-2040) and 2050s (2041-2070) - and change factors were calculated relative to 1980-2005 modeled base periods. Presenting the projections as a range most accurately represents possible future climate conditions for decision-makers and planners applying a risk-based approach to climate change adaptation and resiliency. To consider inherent uncertainties in climate models, scenarios for future vulnerabilities are discussed and selected together with the community. Derived from the scenarios, climate change related threats complete the picture of the situation analysis, and future vulnerabilities can be prioritized through rating of conventional and climate change related threats.

Kyrgyz villages have weather station data to support baseline information. Future absolute values could be estimated.
Ecological calendar exercise conducted with local communities to define distribution of seasons according to predominant livelihood strategies
Strong exchange between climate scientist and local implementing partners and community
Strong facilitation skills when communicating future scenarios to the community

Building the bridge between science and local development by integrating local perception into the projection modelling and through participatory scenario planning with the community has been very successful.
When introducing the idea of climate change during workshops, there might be a danger to present climate change as the cause of all environmental problems. Careful explanation and definition of climate change is essential.
Adapting climate projections for the specific audience (e.g. government officials, local villagers) is crucial.
Pre-workshops / discussions with various informants familiar with the project area and local villagers yielded useful information and a more complete picture of the ecological and economic context of the assessment.
Workshops are generally not a productive forum for technical debates about the validity of climate projections and statistics. It is helpful to focus on communicating climate impacts and hazards, rather than technicalities.

Implementation

Subnational

National

Transforming perceptions on ecosystem-livelihood connection

Members of the local fishing community in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit

Ana Elisa Peña Del Valle Isla

Local communities have not always welcomed, in every case, the creation of new protected areas. It is important to raise awareness among local communities about the connection between ecosystems conservation and local livelihoods. To do so, the authorities need to be able to create a sense of identity and belonging towards the protected ecosystems, rather than a sense of exclusion. The solution in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit Biosphere Reserve is a long-term effort with intensive community support and mentoring by CONANP fieldworkers. The strategy has been focused on changing perceptions of the community. This approach has had the additional effect of influencing the institutions that govern the protected area, generating a better shared understanding of effective and sustainable support for both mangrove rehabilitation and local livelihoods. In this way, the community and CONANP´s staff have joined forces to ensure that local needs are met by rehabilitating the mangroves from a more territorially, and livelihood, coherent perspective, rather than an administrative one. Changed perceptions have become a more important driver of positive community action than just payments for ecosystem services or subsidies.

a) Existing cooperatives to lead change processes on behalf of communities;

b) capacity to monitor benefits from diverse initiatives;

c) good management of the NGO network and permanent presence of field workers for capacity development;

d) financial resources to nurture fishermen’s organizational capabilities up to the point where they are self-organized;

e) open-minded government authorities.

a) An important factor in changing minds of local communities is the involvement of women and children in awareness raising, planning and negotiation activities;

b) creating alternatives for migrating from the reserve helps to underscore the importance of maintaining local ecosystems;

c) being able to demonstrate quick and tangible benefits as a result of ecosystem maintenance or through the introduction of sustainable practices helps enormously to convince communities. Strengthening sustainable fishing practices can provide this type of quick results.

Creation of conservation association unites local communities

The nine communities surrounding Mbe were helped to come together to form a single community organization to represent their interests and promote conservation. In the past, these communities have not always cooperated readily and there is some historic distrust and rivalry. The Conservation Association of the Mbe Mountains (CAMM) was created with a written constitution and officers elected to a General Assembly, Management Committee, Board of Trustees and a Technical and Supervisory Stakeholders Group. Regular CAMM meetings now promote dialogue and have improved trust between the nine communities. CAMM also represents local interests and perspectives when dealing with local and state government. WCS facilitated legal registration of CAMM in 2013 and is supporting capacity building of CAMM and construction of a headquarters.

The communities needed to trust each other and work together towards a single purpose. Significant time was needed to establish this trust, since there are frequent disagreements among the communities. Presence of an NGO to facilitate the process was critical to success. The initiative also had support from influential local politicians and businessmen as well as the Cross River State Forestry Commission – government agency responsible for the management of wildlife and forests within the state

To fully secure local land tenure the nine communities, or CAMM, require a certificate(s) of occupancy from the state government. A benefit sharing formula was required since the communities do not own equal areas of forest within the Mbe Mountains.The nine communities don’t yet trust each other fully and there are periodic disputes, which are best resolved by CAMM. Within each community there are often a number of men known as elites who typically act for selfish interests rather than for the common good. As CAMM has become stronger it has been able to reduce the influence of these elites. The influence of the Chairman of Boki Local Government Area has also helped. The penalties against poaching are low and not always enforced by CAMM. Stricter penalties may be required, legalized as local government bylaws. The CAMM constitution is large and cumbersome and needs to be streamlined. Levels of capacity within CAMM are low - needs close mentoring and long-term financial support from WCS.

Review phase

Evidence-based problem solving

CONANP has been forming an alliance with local universities, research centres, and NGOs, to ensure that problem solving and regulations, are guided by scientific studies and hard evidence. Examples of key products or interventions, include: 1.“Forensic ecology” activities to understand the causes of mangrove salinization resulting from the construction of road infrastructure in the 1940s, and alternatives to reverse its effects in a practicable and cost-effective manner. 2. Scientific calculations of the capacity of local water bodies to support new tourist water-borne activities 3. Market research for new non-extractive productive activities.

Identify which academic actors can support key interventions Effective contacts and history of collaboration (academia, civil society & government) Effective inter-sectoral communication: not only between government and academic sectors, but also, and most importantly, being able to communicate research questions and results to local communities. Financial resources to leverage support from the academic sector and NGOs.

The role of intermediaries between the academic sector and communities is of utmost importance for the success of this type of building block. This role can be most ably played by individual consultants and NGOs who have the capacity to effectively interpret and communicate the results of scientific knowledge to local people. The intermediaries need to be able to facilitate the flow of traditional knowledge and local information back to the academic sector. It is very important to ensure that studies are properly carried out within the local context and with the maximum of relevant information available. It is of enormous help for a governmental agency to be able to assign, to the collaborative activity behind this building block, skilled staff who can judge the relevancy and quality of the scientific knowledge being offered by the academic community. Not all scientific knowledge is of the same quality or practical relevance.

Implementation

Instructional guideline for supporting façade greening

The Guide "Leitfaden Fassadenbegrünung"

The guideline for façade greening was prepared by the Austrian Association for Building Construction and by the University for Soil Culture on behalf of ÖkoKauf Wien, the program for the ecological procurement of the city of Vienna. The guide was presented in February 2013 within the framework of a conference in the Vienna University of Technology. It offers valuable specialist information to architects, planners, developers, public institutions, as well as interested citizens and serves as a decision-making aid when choosing the ideal type of greenery for different facades. Contents include general information (e.g. target groups, scope, definitions, advantages of a green façade), as well as information on various facade greening systems, their ecological and technical functions and design possibilities. A system overview, funding options and a checklist serve to help users prepare and plan façade greening by examining the necessary conditions and prerequisites. Finally, the guideline highlights best practice examples from the Vienna area and further references to literature and regulations.

It was necessary to draw on the various facets of appropriate knowledge to develop the guide, including e.g. engineers and an association for greening buildings. Financial resources for the content creation, print and publication were planned in the annual project budget from the environmental department – MA22. There were no additional funds. The drafting of the guide was politically desired and was integrated into the political program.

There was a high demand for the guide - the first edition (3000 copies) was already out of print within the first year after publication. A new edition will be published in early 2017, which will be complemented with additional shorter information brochures (folders, leaflets, etc.).

Review phase

Info

Securing sufficient funds for a multi-purpose EbA solution

Partly built up new real estate properties along the lake shore

Nadine Gerner, Emschergenossenschaft

As this solution serves various goals and meets several objectives, it was possible to secure sufficient funding from diverse parties, domains and funding bodies to cover the entire implementation of the project. In the case of the creation of Lake Phoenix, this included funding for water management from the water board; funding for ecology from the ecological funding program by the federal state; funding for urban development from etc. The water board, for instance, provided the amount of money that was already budgeted for the construction of a flood retention basin. This basin was not needed anymore, as the lake solution already provided the required flood retention function. Some additional potential funding sources were not even used in the end, because it would have slowed down the marketing of the real estate and would have tied the project to certain restrictions, which were not desired by the decision-makers.

Given that the solution serves various goals, funding was able to be secured from a range of parties, sectors and sources. The marketing of real estate properties along the new lake shore was a financial aspect considered from the project’s start in order to make the project implementation financially partly self-supporting. The project consortium took great care of timing, for instance regarding the deadlines of the various funding programs.

Establishing the diverse benefits provided by a solution is an important step in the planning process, as it highlights the various sectors and stakeholders who can potentially be involved in and benefit from the solution. Drawing attention to the potential benefits, and underlying this with a sound scientific evidence base with which to approach these parties, can facilitate the successful generation of funds from a range of sources. Innovative financing approaches can also act as ‘self-sustaining’ and generate funds during the course of the project to fund some of the foreseen activities.

Review phase

Entirety

Top Down - National and International initiative

EcoPeace annual Conference Nov 2016 with government support

Meeting

Basin commissioners and representatives from around the world at EcoPeace's 2016 conferenct

Top-Down is the process to create broader political awareness of the issue. It includes advocacy for national and international support. Commonly a concept paper that explains the problem initiates this process with further research to support and document the issues. It is important to appeal to the news media, as their attention is necessary to heighten the political awareness of the issues and to convey the information to the public, resulting in the creation of a broader public demand for action. Media attention mobilizes national and international engagement and can foster domestic and international resource mobilization. In our experience, public opinion plays a decisive role in dictating the political agenda to local leaders as well as national decision makers.

Strong community engagement and public initiatives create the demand for political action. It is important to create an environment in which it is politically safe to discuss the solutions, if the solutions are truly in the national self-interests then politicians will more easily embrace the change and even lead it. Good relations to media and the international community can facilitate government involvement.

In an unsteady political landscape, environmental issues are held hostage, used as pawns in the overarching political conflict and within the framework of the official peace process. In order for the initiatives to produce a real change, a careful balance must be maintained: to achieve the explicit approval of officials without losing momentum to the tedium of politics.

Bottom Up - Grassroot initiative

Community involvement

Children at EcoPeace

Local stakeholders learn to become environmental leaders. They learn about their water reality. When people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet and engage with similar groups of stakeholders from other communities across the conflict. The common ground for these cross conflict meetings is the safeguard of the shared watershed and the communities engage in productive meetings to identify solutions. Together they identify projects that speak to the self-interest of both sides. Through this process, the communities gain the capacity to advance solutions even within a turbulent political environment. In most cases, the combination of a strong youth program and outspoken adult leadership creates the political will of mayors and other municipal leaders to get involved.

The local community's leadership needs a respected leader from the local community to provide the best leadership. It is important that a regional project manager with strong project experience mentors the local leader.

Local leadership from the local community is especially important in a conflict situation to secure the trust that the leader acts in the community’s self-interest. Walks in the nature and along shared water bodies provide the best opportunity for communities to understand their water reality. Only when people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet other communities. Community members voice an appreciation and need for an organization as EcoPeace to facilitate cross border meetings to ensure that the meetings provide a “safe-place” for the local communities to discuss issues effecting cross-border and neighbor communities. Participants were free to talk about their realities while using constructive means to seek solutions. Meetings and collaboration on environmental issues delivers a capacity to create and sustain strong networks of cross-border communication with long-term impact beyond the cross-border initiative.

Ecoranger programme and DEA land user incentive programme

The DEA NRM land user incentive programme, along with co finance from CSA donors, allows CSA to fund alien clearing in priority catchments. Eco rangers then employed to work with farmers, on rotation grazing, they control grazing of livestock and ensure rotational grazing is enforced. They keep areas alien free, they help protect cattle through mobile kraaling and also gather data on cattle and biodiversity and monitor veld condition and determine when an area needs to be closed from grazing. They also ensure compliance with rested areas and report those not compliant. They also ensure protection of biodiversity against poaching. Also ecorangers play a crucial role in ensuring that alien invasive plants do not come back and are responsible for pulling out seedlings that grow back. It is their responsibility as well to rehabilitate degraded areas where erosion dongas are beginning to appear. Incentives for land owners include not only ecorangers but also vaccinations and access to markets through auctions. Springs and streams that have dried started flowing again after these approaches have been implemented.

•Traditional leadership as well municipality played a crucial role during implementation, without their support this would not have been successful •A process of community mobilization around the importance of sustainable land management and catchment management •Funding from DEA NRM for wattle clearing allowed rangelands to be made available •Funding by DEA NRM and donor funding for rangelands management by ecorangers ensured non return of wattle as well as ensuring sustainable and product

•Livestock condition improves within one year of this approach. •Market access for rural communities makes a huge difference to livelihoods and their engagement in the programme. •Wattle cleared areas have to be constantly monitored to ensure regrowth is combated. •Community engagement has to be ongoing. •Financial resources are very critical for the implementation of this EbA initiative due to poverty levels in these communities. •Implementation work should be based on indigenus knowledge systems (assisted in the design of the rotational grazing patterns) •The focus on rangelands for the benefit of rural livestock was critical. •Improving benefit of broader community through redmeat market access was key in order to get buyin from the broader community.

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