• Inter-institutional collaboration tackles severe effects of climate change in vulnerable coastal environments, by ensuring adequate planning in the watersheds.
• The technical committee, which includes representatives of all institutions involved, ensures transparency and adequate operation of the project.

ARCAS is a leader in marine data gathering and research in Guatemala. Given the fact that no one else in the country is collecting this data, and we have been collecting it since 1997, our data is incredibly valuable for sea turtle conservation. We have learned that it is very important to have clear conservation goals, to keep the data gathering as simple as possible (be strategic in terms of your budget), to continuously collect data, to be transparent and not hoard data, and provide a platform for the participation of communities and students in research efforts. It is also crucial to get the data into the hands of important decision-makers and community leaders.

Using fishing tools in protected areas was an important challenge in the Mexican Caribbean, and not always well received by the authorities in charge of the protected areas. Nevertheless, due to the technical and legal arguments, the first fish refuges zones were legally established in two biosphere reserves in 2012. This was supported by the intensive work together with the fishermen, several years before the Alliance existed. But when talking about legal and institutional framework, it is not enough to have a bottom-up participatory approach. Some legal changes require high-level work within the public administration. Efforts must be made in balancing both approaches. The Kanan Kay Alliance allowed to combine the bottom-up style with the more top-down approach from the public institutions, providing the arena for the discussion and building on a common goal.

Having leadership and ownership of the fishermen in the Alliance strengthens and helps the initiative. The institutional actors, academics and civil society organizations support collective action based on community empowerment in a way they did not do before, because they respect one basic premise: if the fishermen do not agree to and support the actions, the implementation would not be possible. This approach additionally allows for a more direct communication, an implementation of basic principles of collaboration and a growing trust between the participants.

The local-ecological knowledge that fishermen provide about natural resources, fishing grounds and climate conditions, are fundamental elements to be considered in the design of a fish refuge. When combining local-ecological knowledge with scientific knowledge it is important that a transparent negotiation begins that will enable to have the best science-based conditions with social acceptance.

Then, a community monitoring program is led by organizations members of the Kanan Kay Alliance. Fishermen and women are trained and actively participate in collecting data. Hence, they see results with their own eyes and can then share the information with other members of the community. Once monitoring results have been delivered, during the renewal process, the goals of the fish refuges are reviewed to understand if they meet biophysical criteria for no-take zones and hence, if changes need to be done.

This “bottom-up” approach must be complemented with “top-down” elements to ensure that decision-making reflects the complexity of this process.

Working together as a collective impact platform doesn’t mean that we do everything all together at all times. It is about how to boost the best of every organization, while respecting and understanding the strengths and opportunity areas. Communities must have a clear role in the decision-making, which brings us back to building block #1 about empowering fishermen and building capacities.

By bringing together social, environmental and economic topics for the trainings and not focusing solely on resource management related workshops, we have been able to increase collective impact and sustain it over time. Strengthening the three key aspects to sustainability has been fundamental. We’ve learned that our best strategy is that which provides leadership skills, human development, personal and organizational administration, business plans for fishing cooperatives or fair trade. Fishermen need to be asked and coached to find out their own weaknesses and strengths. Time and resources must be invested to include customers into the fishermen’s projects.

• It is challenging to find the right balance between government and civil society representation in governance structures at the national level. Government actors may feel that majority non-governmental governance structure will exclude them from decision making and civil society may feel that majority government boards will result in inefficient institutions controlled by government.
• Donors have a strong preference for NCTFs governance that is independent from government control, although government may participate in it.
• Finding a balance in NCTFs constitutive instruments and other agreements to different points of views, needs and requirements, and reassure all stakeholders that the governance structure and decision making process will be transparent and inclusive is essential.

• Building political commitment is a lengthy process that requires technical and policy inputs at multiple levels in government from technical staff, to middle/senior management positions and the highest levels ministers/heads of governments.
• Donor’s commitment provides countries with additional security and confidence with regards to their political commitment and knowing that partners are ready to assist.

The usefulness of integrating interdisciplinary information and multiple sources of knowledge for marine spatial planning is well documented, yet the actual framework and practical methodologies for acquiring holistic ecosystem-based information is lacking. We found a participatory GIS approach useful for identifying, collecting, integrating and understanding interdisciplinary information. Practical GIS analyses were applied to produce relevant ecosystem-based information. Additionally, the application of a participatory GIS approach (in terms of both information integration and visualization) proved beneficial in the conduction and presentation of information generated in ways that increased stakeholder understanding, thus supporting marine governance. Despite the overall success of participatory GIS, the maintenance of the MarSIS will require additional capacity building, particularly in terms of GIS skills.