Eco-Friendly Leather Tanning and Manufacturing knowledge is an upgraded concept of curing naturally hides and skins from livestock. The initiative targets  vulnerable women who are illiterate and have limited opportunities as well as skills. 

Training has been tailored to specifically reach these target beneficiaries using simple instructions and toolkits as well as a more practical approach. The training has been conducted in Maasai language mostly and Kiswahili in other cases. The simple methods of measurements and cutting has proved to be adaptable and understood even among the illiterates. For most women, this has been one of the only formal skills they have received in their lives. Most importantly, during the training a set of skills were identified among beneficiaries and nurtured in the followup sessions. 

The first Learning exchange done where women from Kenya traveled to Tanzania and learned in an established Leather Center was a remarkable turn and it created a huge impact in how they received the initiative. They were very eager to have more women in their country trained and benefit  from the activity. The knowledge and skills offered have changed the mindset and transformed the livelihoods of women.

The Leather Tanning and Manufacturing for women has been made successful through stakeholders engagement and partnerships. Among the key stakeholders includes the government representatives who have played a key role from building the concept, selecting the beneficiaries, participation in the training and making follow-ups for the leather centers. Access to a building to be equipped has been possible through this collaboration. The District Community Development officials have taken a clear role to monitor and supervise the women groups, assist them in registrations and even provide access to market during any events/fairs organized by the government.

Other key stakeholders include private companies, lodges, individuals in the areas who have provided markets for women’s produced goods. 

The implementing partners to the project including ZSL and SORALO have been supportive in ensuring that the solution is rolled out successfully in Kenya as it was in Tanzania. They carried the role to ensure that OIKOS EA is introduced in the communities in Kenya and they have enabled good flow of communication with the government in the project area.

A stakeholders workshop was conducted to share assessment results, address questions from the 2nd workshop, and discuss an action plan for mitigating identified negative impacts. Actions, activities, and timelines were discussed for each impact.

Based on the collected data, TT successfully engaged donors in funding projects aligned with reducing the negative impacts.

To mitigate the Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) negative impact, TT has constructed a 33km Elephant exclusion Fence and 8 additional 10% fences,  reducing HWC by over 80%.

To address the lack of water, TT provided 110 dam liners, each with a capacity of 56,000 L, resulting in the harvesting of over 6 million litres of surface run-off water.

In support of schools, TT is offering scholarships to 9 students and has constructed and equipped a Science and computer laboratory in a local secondary school.

To overcome information barriers, TT established a BULK SMS platform and grievances log to facilitate communication on key issues, ongoing projects, and address grievances between TT and communities.

TT is currently developing a SAPA review scheduled for July 2023 to assess the impact and change in perceptions resulting from the implemented interventions in communities.

The purpose of the community engagement was to increase partnership and community involvement in the management of the USNFR. This led into achieving conservation goals and also increased benefits to local communities through:

• Meetings with Village Natural Resources Committees (VNRCs) which resulted in exploration of the means of collaboration, and a way forward in intervening the issues faced by them.
• Conducting Community Benefits Assessment (CBA) to assess the perceived benefits of the forest reserve by local communities, which revealed that a majority of respondents agree that using the forest reserve brings them benefits.
• The results of CBA led into the solution to facilitated access to non-timber forest products and social services provided by the USNFR through special permits supervised by VNRCs.

Field missions associated with IMET only take a few days to conduct. It is therefore important that the project team be adept at using the IMET prior to the field mission. Building the technical capacity of the team will enable smooth implementation and reduce the risk of overrunning timelines. In our project, we underwent a series of capacity development sessions. During project design, we underwent several online training sessions organised by BIOPAMA. These meetings provided the knowledge and skills needed to conduct the data collection and analysis within a short period of time. Equally important is ensuring that the computers to be used  are up to date in terms of specifications. Thus, capacity development includes technical and logistical aspects of the project.

Involving people directly in the reef restoration effort and being actively part of the solution is crucial for its overall success. With the help of local dive operators, Reef Renewal Bonaire trains volunteers that participate side-by-side with the staff in day-to-day field activities. Trained divers are pivotal in sharing RRFB’s vision with the wider community and becoming natural ambassadors for reef preservation and restoration. 

Educational programs and tailored experiences are organized for schools, youth groups, local businesses, and authorities aimed at involving them in different levels of restoration efforts, while allowing them to see the results of the project, firsthand. 

Furthermore, located in shallow water, the nurseries and outplanting sites are easily accessible by divers, snorkelers, and surface explorers, becoming an attraction not only to visitors of the islands but also to local community groups.

In June 2019, RRFB started the first larval propagation project in Bonaire in collaboration with SECORE International. The goal of the partnership is to establish a technical cooperation in which RRFB provides local knowledge, manpower, field logistics, and a facility, and shares all field trial results, monitoring data, and qualitative feedback on methodologies and technologies provided by SECORE Int. In return, SECORE Int. provides techniques, methodologies, expertise and training sessions on larval propagation. This partnership's knowledge was crucial for successfully implementing larval propagation techniques in Bonaire. By consistently sharing results and lessons learned, the technique was improved, leading to greater success and scalability for future project replication.

We established 5 nurseries in the network of opened channels and raised 5600 propagules, mostly red mangroves but also black mangroves. Recently we have studied the white mangroves to assess their importance and have done a pilot on white mangrove propagation. Most of these propagules grew out into healthy saplings and have been outplanted in 5 events. Afterwards, the outplants have been monitored by interns. A successful nursery will increase mangrove plants available for reforestation efforts, emphasizing the need for an ecosystem-based approach to building resilience on the island.

An excellent communication plan/network with different stakeholders was initiated across different levels. From the inception of the project, the community and other stakeholders were constantly capacitated on how the project is going. A relay of relevant vulture conservation and policy issues was achieved to the target stakeholders within the communities and KAZA TFCA.

The water in the mangrove forest needs to refresh and be of good quality (salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH) in order for the mangroves and the organisms that are part of the mangrove habitat to flourish, like fish, sponges, anemones and mangrove oysters. The force behind the water circulation is the tidal flow; there is no river feeding the mangroves. The water moves through the roots as sheet flow, the channels and the lagoons. The growth of roots and accumulation of sediments reduce the capacity of the system to bring water in a timely fashion to all parts of the mangrove forest - especially the part farthest removed from the open ocean is most under stress.