The use of scientific data and analysis provides a sound and sustainable basis to develop scenarios and provide information for the design of sustainable plans, projects and activities. Given specific knowledge may not be always a working tool, particularly when GIS and scenario and data analysis is referred to, it is important to ensure and to include the need IT and specialist that may build knowledge, capacities and awareness in all development and biodiversity practitioners.

For this the project supported the technical contribution of a specialist and developed a series of power point to explain and to train the beneficiaries on its use and on the use of the provided scenarios, as development and ecosystems-based planning tools.

Technical financial cooperation was provided to four projects in the country's Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), mobilising both public and private investment funds. Two calls were made to access non-reimbursable funds through the Urban Green and Biodiverse Fund (FRUV), administered by Fundecooperación para el Desarrollo Sostenible (Fundecooperación). Fundecooperación made non-reimbursable resources available to four public-private initiatives whose objective was to promote initiatives in the GAM that would have an economic impact on the beneficiaries while integrating the sustainable use or conservation of biodiversity.

Four organisations (Coopecabañas R.L., Parque la Libertad, Asociación de Desarrollo de Cipreses de Oreamuno de Cartago (ADICO) and Coopetoyopan) received support and technical advice to co-design a business plan under a positive economic recovery approach with nature, with achievable objectives and sufficient profitability, or a business idea that complies with this, based on the capacities of the entities executing the project proposals and existing opportunities. 

The technical and business capacities of the organisations financed were strengthened to facilitate the implementation of the projects, which contributed solutions that will improve urban wellbeing and contribute to the conservation of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica.

In addition, around 150 people benefited directly from training in green recovery, nature-based solutions, e-commerce, composting, and logistical and operational improvements to their organisations. The key is to provide financial support together with technical training.

Capacity building took on various forms - while the development of networks and institutions was important for the successful design, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of activities, so too was the provision of technical guidance for restoration measures.

In addition to direct wage support through restoration activities, community capacity building was the other pillar of green recovery activities. To provide the communities with alternative livelihood options to diversify their income, alternative sustainable livelihoods that the region could offer were designed, considering their impact on the ecosystem. These sustainable livelihoods were either already in place on a small scale and needed to be standardised or scaled up or were completely new to the region.

Training programmes on these alternative sustainable livelihoods were carried out. These included birdwatching, honey production, handicrafts, eco-guiding, and participatory videomaking. The activities also brought in youth development by equipping young people with newer skills and thus contributing to their future employability.

Such training programmes (participatory videomaking, homestay operations, etc.) were also taken up in the other pilot areas of Pong and Renuka along with Bhitarkanika and Pong to build alternate skills.

Green recovery measures which invest in ecosystem restoration and management (e.g. wetland restoration) offer opportunities for creating employment for local communities through surplus labour in the short-term while building medium to long-term resilience through healthy ecosystems. 

During the pandemic, with unprecedented challenges to lives and livelihoods, there was widespread economic and social disruption, with an increased risk of people falling into extreme poverty and further exploitation of available natural resources. In these scenarios, marginalised communities such as farmers, fishers and urban workers who had to return to their villages were most at risk of poverty, malnutrition, and disease.

Waged and self-employed workers were expected to rely on natural resources as market chains were affected by the pandemic. Moreover, wise use of natural resources was not a priority in this crisis and thus foreseen that ecosystems would be (over)exploited. Designing and implementing measures to restore ecosystems would therefore be useful not only to meet the immediate needs of the population, but also to safeguard future interests and build the economic, social, and climatic resilience of communities and other ecosystem dependants. 

With this in mind, two of the pilot sites (Bhitarkanika in Odisha and Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu) have implemented green recovery activities, which support direct wages through ecological restoration activities.

Recognizing the ongoing threat of APL forest conversion by the palm oil sector, Kalfor identified the need to develop sustainable alternatives for revenue generation, employment, and livelihoods. Despite conservation efforts, only 56% (197.152 ha) of APL forests in four pilot districts have enhanced legal protection, leaving the majority at conversion risk. The project emphasizes finding sustainable uses for these forests that offer economic incentives for conservation. 

For APL (Non-State-Owned Forest Area) forests, lacking legal protection and reliant on voluntary conservation, quality data on forest cover is crucial. The Kalfor project addressed the need for accurate forest cover data in APL areas. Initially, the existing data was unreliable.  MoEF through KalFor facilitation, improved data accuracy using high-resolution remote-sensing from LAPAN collaborating with provincial universities This revised data, showing a total HCVF area of 347,922ha in four districts, provided a solid foundation for decision-making and highlighted the project's commitment to accuracy and empirically-driven, evidence-based practice. 

A sustainable entity is needed to organize the carbon certification scheme, as carbon certification projects run at least for 10-20 years. The role of public decision makers is restricted to providing enabling conditions for carbon projects. Thus, the local coordination and not-for-profit entity "Soil-Carbon Certification Services" (SCCS) has been set up to coordinate the certification of the climate effectiveness of the soil conservation measures. It manages the marketing of said certificates, the MRV system required by the standardization body and finances and controls the quality of SLM extension services implemented by local partners and NGOs.

The implementation of this solution has only been possible thanks to a unique cross-sectoral partnership established in the framework of the Tech4Nature initiative in Spain. The partnership was composed of local authorities (Diputació de Barcelona), park technicians, rangers and managers (Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac), nature conservation experts (IUCN Med), IT company (Huawei), GPS specialists (Parés&Bosch), and camera monitoring specialists (Miranatura). The partnership is continuously expanding, and it is expected that research teams and universities will join the partnership in the near future, bringing in their expertise and experience.

The skilled laboratory experts of AUT got extensive training in the specific sensitive PCR-based detection methodology in Germany (Karlsruhe) and Tirana (Albania). The methodology not only allows the detection of viruses and AMR, but also enabled the AUT to enhance the curricula for PhD students and researchers. Furthermore, results and information obtained from Albania extend the data bases of international institutions like WHO.