Entirety | PANORAMA

Addressing community needs

In order to enable communities to engage in the complex, long term work of the sustainable management of marine resources, their basic needs must be addressed. Working across sectors to enable communities to meet their basic needs creates an enabling environment within which they are able to work towards longer term goals.

The need for a livelihood is addressed through Blue Ventures’ work to rebuild fisheries, and through livelihood diversification initiatives where appropriate. The unmet need for health care is addressed through supporting and strengthening local health systems, and through partnerships with health care providers.

Working in a multisectoral way creates efficiencies through the sharing of resources and opportunities across programmes. It provides opportunities to broaden community engagement and build trust, and experience has shown that it enables communities to better respond to shocks and stressors.

Multidisciplinary teams
Taking a whole system approach to problem solving and developing a theory of change
Strong partnerships with actors from different sectors

Build a unifying vision and integrated program of work with partners, based on shared values and respect for each other’s contribution to the overall goal and with buy-in from the whole team
Capture and share evidence of the added value of working in a multisectoral way
Ensure effective communication with all stakeholders, anchoring messaging in the purpose of collaboration

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Strong local presence, empowering communities and building local capacity

Our strong local presence, and emphasis on working in partnership with communities and local stakeholders to rebuild fisheries, has meant that much of the work has been able to continue in spite of travel restrictions and other disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Empowering communities to sustainably manage their own resources and health services has proven to be a more resilient approach to conservation in the context of this major shock.

Communities have the most to gain from the effective management of natural resources (and good community health services), and the pandemic has served as a powerful reminder of the value of locally led approaches to marine conservation.

Long term local presence
Staff recruited from the local community
A willingness to listen

Invest the time to build relationships with communities, keep putting communities first
Focus on building local capacity for the long term, harness local wisdom, draw upon and help to build social capital

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Planning, reporting and monitoring stakeholder participation and communication

Homepage of the MSPglobal website.

MSPglobal, IOC-UNESCO

News section of the MSPglobal website.

MSPglobal, IOC-UNESCO

This BB aimed to structure the tasks related to stakeholder engagement and communication through the development of:

I) A Strategy for Public Participation based on:

Three pillars: identification of stakeholders; engagement activities; and monitoring and evaluation of participation
A two-way participatory approach: balance between top-down and bottom-up

II) A Communication and Dissemination Plan to set a unified tone and direction so that all activities, tools and materials work in harmony to create a shared vision to raise awareness of the initiative and its results. It also included monitoring of a number of metrics – through various channels and means – to evaluate the overall impact and success of communication and dissemination actions.

Standalone communication and dissemination plans, as well as engagement plans and reports were developed to guide and evaluate each activity implemented. The key messages from these reports were used as web news in order to communicate and report back to the stakeholders.

In the Western Mediterranean pilot, the following engagement activities were implemented:

Institutional workshops at national and regional levels
Training courses for governmental authorities and sectoral stakeholders

Partnership with other ongoing initiatives in the region
Development of a multilingual website, social media accounts and products as the beneficiary countries do not use the same language
Nomination of a governmental representative (National Focal Point) to support the identification of stakeholders and to officially invite them to participate
Development of a Stakeholder Database to include all stakeholders who so wished, facilitating the contact and dissemination of information
Development of a visual identity
A member of the team fully dedicated to communication

Stakeholder Database: When dealing with hundreds of stakeholders, better to build a database with limited number of essential fields to maintain communication
Engagement activities: Start organizing and publicizing well in advance, as well as send reminders frequently (for both face-to-face and online events)
Communications and outreach: Adapt communication to the stakeholders involved; use different channels to reach larger audience; mix digital, audiovisual and print products

Policy Brief on “Public Participation in Marine Policy Development”

EU guide on “Communicating MSP: An inspiring era of cooperation between institu…

MSPglobal website

Planning, reporting and monitoring stakeholder participation and communication

MSPglobal two-way participatory approach.

MSPglobal, IOC-UNESCO

Homepage of the MSPglobal website.

MSPglobal, IOC-UNESCO

News section of the MSPglobal website.

MSPglobal, IOC-UNESCO

This BB aimed to structure the tasks related to stakeholder engagement and communication through the development of:

I) A Strategy for Public Participation based on:

Three pillars: identification of stakeholders; engagement activities; and monitoring and evaluation of participation
A two-way participatory approach: balance between top-down and bottom-up

In the Southeast Pacific pilot, the following engagement activities were implemented:

Stakeholder meetings, especially for the mapping exercise in the Gulf of Guayaquil
Institutional workshops at national and regional levels
Training courses for governmental authorities and sectoral stakeholders

Contacts from previous project developed in the region
Nomination of a governmental representative (National Focal Point) to support the identification of stakeholders, as well as to officially invite them to participate
Development of a Stakeholder Database to include all stakeholders who so wished, facilitating the contact and dissemination of information
Development of a visual identity
A member of the team fully dedicated to communication

Stakeholder Database: When dealing with hundreds of stakeholders, better to build a database with limited number of essential fields to maintain communication
Stakeholder mapping: Actively map stakeholders (e.g., snowball technique) in order to expand and diversify the actors engaged
Engagement activities: Start organizing and publicizing well in advance, as well as send reminders frequently (for both face-to-face and online events)
Local stakeholders: Field visits to identify and engage with local stakeholders, who might be less willing to use virtual channels
Communications and outreach: Adapt communication to the stakeholders involved; use different channels to reach larger audience; mix digital, audiovisual and print products

Policy Brief on “Public Participation in Marine Policy Development”

EU guide on “Communicating MSP: An inspiring era of cooperation between institu…

MSPglobal website

Co-operative farming for sustainable livelihood

Brooms made by the beneficiaries

Bighnaharta Nepal

An institutional support is required for the beneficiaries to promote the products they make through this solution, in local, regional and national markets. Since a single farmer cannot meet the quantity demand of the market and the distributors look for bulk quantity, a functioning co-operative has to be formed at the local level. This cooperation serves the purpose of collecting the products, negotiating the price with the distributor, supervising the manufacturing and distributing the profits.

There is a high demand for brooms and associated products in the local, national and international market and distributors always buy in bulk. By applying cooperative farming methods, it will be easier for a single farmer to supply their product and get a reasonable rate for it. Instead of approaching single farmers, distributers negotiate prices with the cooperative committee, which also guarantees more stable and profitable prices for their members.

The leadership of the cooperative committee should be entrusted to persons in the community who are knowledgeable about the market.
The co-operative should be made bipartisan and fair to everyone.

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

Planning phase

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Governmental Approval

Collecting coral data

Simon Dowling

Some of our programs involve coral transplantation. In Thailand it is illegal to touch or damage coral, so we had to seek approval for some of our programs.

To receive approval from the government involves first submitted a proposal for a coral reef restoration zone. Including with this proposal are the techniques for transplantation, the people involved and their experience and qualifications, and a long term plan for monitoring and maintenance.

The DMCR has fully approved our restoration related activities and we conduct transplant research and provide them with that data.

Coral restoration experience
Long term plan
Proposal to government
Assessment and approval

This is a long process to get approved. Being able to show that our programs are successful and being assessed and approved took over 2 years of communication, submissions, and assessments.

To be able to obtain permission requires a group of committed volunteers that have relevant experience and are willing to participate in the program for a long term period of time.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Review phase

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4. NATURE-BASED LIVELIHOODS

Under this UCRT builds strategic partnerships with ethical investors and organisations skilled in nature based enterprise development. Community benefits are then increased through building capacity to engage in natural resource based enterprises, such as eco-tourism, carbon projects, or easements. UCRT also supports the economic empowerment of women so that they are in a position within their households and communities to be stewards of their land and natural resources.

In order to enable the success of these building blocks participation is essential. We believe that empowerment is crucial for equitable engagement and representation for effective resource management. Conflict resolution is also a key piece of the process We meditate conflicts in order to gain stronger participation and for collective action in the sustainable management of community connected land.

NATURAL RESOURCE BENEFITS—the ultimate aim of UCRT’s efforts is to enable communities to benefit from their sustainably managed land and natural resources in order to improve their livelihoods. There are several key steps to this—building local capacity, strengthening governance institutions, securing rights and tenure, improving management, and finally generating benefits. We identified that UCRT needs to engage in all aspects of this process, or, through their foundational work on capacity building, governance, and securing rights are they delivering enough critical impact that only they can provide.

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT— Capable women are often prevented from holding leadership positions due to their poverty. The entry point for these activities will be women in the Women Right’s and Leadership Forums that UCRT already works to strengthen. UCRT will build its internal capacity in order to directly assist women to develop nature-based livelihoods. UCRT will also work closely with partners who already have skills in naturebased enterprise development to bring additional knowledge, skills and opportunities to the WRLFs.

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3.COMMUNITY NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

UCRT works to dually support the rights and wellbeing of communities and the flora and fauna of northern Tanzania by helping communities adaptively improve and strengthen their management systems and practices. This is done by facilitating village formulation of land use plans and natural resource management by-laws and building community capacity to sustainably manage the rangelands across village borders.

SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT— Building on the development of land-use plans and bylaws, UCRT expanded its approach by:
• Ensuring communities protect connectivity between migratory livestock routes;
• Integrating scientific knowledge with customary management approaches to improve pasture; and
• Mainstreaming information related to climate change impacts and population growth.
UCRT now works with elected Grazing Committees comprised of Traditional Leaders and build their knowledge and skills on rangeland management at the village level, by communicating relevant scientific knowledge in ways that can be understood in a traditional context. UCRT helps them engage with other Grazing Committee representatives from connected villages to develop cross border grazing and land use agreements. These cross-border MOUs between villages with communal grazing CCROs supports livestock and wildlife mobility and ensure resources are shared fairly and sustainably beyond village borders.

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2.GOVERNANCE

UCRT builds the capacity of local governance institutions and the communities they serve to understand their rights, roles and responsibilities. Communities are supported to put in place governing structures to support sustainability of land and natural resources. Also capacity building is carried out to ensure that these governing structures are transparent and accountable. This also promotes the rights of women to take leadership positions and have their voices heard in decision-making processes. UCRT engages in advocacy and policy dialogue to help shape supportive conditions for sustainable community-based natural resource management. As part of the management process, communities come up with natural resource governing by-laws to support enforcement and implementation of practices to support sustainable ecosystems. Also for pastoral groups, grazing plans and calendars are set to ensure a holistic approach in the use and to sustain natural resources for now and the future.

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