Strengthening Disaster Preparedness

Through the establishment of a dedicated emergency management task force, the refinement of contingency plans, the development of a robust disaster information communication framework, and the implementation of regular drills, the community's capacity for disaster preparedness and response has been significantly strengthened.

A comprehensive community emergency management map was developed, delineating critical infrastructure such as roads, residential buildings, and waterways. The map also identifies the locations of vulnerable populations, including the elderly, children, pregnant women, and individuals with disabilities, while designating safe evacuation routes to provide a clear and actionable foundation for disaster response.

Special attention was given to addressing the specific needs of women during disasters. Preparedness measures included ensuring an adequate stockpile of sanitary products, while drills incorporated protocols to safeguard the mobility and security of women and girls, with a particular focus on mitigating risks of gender-based violence.

  1. Strong demand due to local disaster risks, motivating community engagement.
  2. Capacity-building for local responders, ensuring sustainability of preparedness measures.

Climate risk assessments should identify specific local hazards and community needs, with support from professional teams to institutionalize disaster management.

Storytelling for Climate Awareness

The “Grandmothers’ Climate Stories” series combined group study, film screenings, and lectures with traditional ethnic ecological values, such as reverence for nature. 

Around the theme of “Women and Climate,” women leaders shared the impacts of climate change on women’s health, raised awareness about the link between pesticide overuse and breast cancer risks, promoted the use of protective equipment, and encouraged reduced pesticide use. In addition, women carried out public education on climate-related infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunya, organizing 3–5 person teams to visit households, guide villagers in clearing standing water to curb mosquito breeding, and teach methods and knowledge for disease prevention.

Social support: Traditional authorities such as village elders and local organizations, together with “cultural codes” like ethnic languages, oral literature (folk songs and proverbs), which were used for dissemination to ensure the information was trusted and effectively received.

  1. Leveraging indigenous ecological wisdom​: Explore and respect the traditional ecological concepts of ethnic groups (such as the belief in sacred mountains and the wisdom of crop rotation). Engage in a dialogue and integration with modern climate knowledge to endow the advocacy content with a sense of cultural identity.
  2. Successful climate advocacy in ethnic minority rural communities depends on aligning climate adaptation measures with livelihood improvement, such as promoting resilient crops and eco-tourism.
Explore sustainable cultivation methods

The project introduced water-saving technologies, such as drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers, and established demonstration households. A women’s cooperative for sustainable agriculture was created, supported by RMB 10,000 seed funding and small individual contributions (RMB 200 per household). Members jointly purchased seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to reduce costs.

  1. Monthly peer learning sessions and problem-solving discussions.
  2. Field visits where women host peers to observe and exchange practices.

Family support is crucial—men take over household duties when women attend training, enabling their sustained participation.

Farming Clusters

The clustering of farms is a modality that was adopted for the establishment of new farming activities. A farming cluster is a group of agricultural units adjoined on one site. This was designed to overcome many obstacles that individual farmers face, such as high transportation costs, fluctuating market prices, and a lack of technical capacities to address issues arising during the operation of relatively new agricultural technologies.

The farming clusters in Al Za'atari and Al Serhan municipalities in Al Mafraq Governorate (Northern Jordan), comprise a set of 58 agricultural units adjoined in two sites with a total approximate area of 60,000 m². Such a setup enables selling the products of all farmers at once to large business off-takers, thus reducing transportation costs and allowing all farm to management components to get the same quality of products.

The agricultural units are greenhouses equipped with internal soilless-culture systems and powered by solar energy, while the products are sold through a project spin-off company, named after the project (Smart DESERT Company). All farmers follow the same working steps, and conditions are controlled to the highest extent possible.

Greenhouses are equipped with internal systems for soilless-culture systems that are fully functional and produce various crops. Such a system enables the collection of return irrigation water in basins, providing an opportunity to circulate this water to irrigate the surrounding trees and an open cultivation plot. 
 

  • Day-to-day follow-up for operation and maintenance needs
  • Market linkages
  • Post-harvest activities
  • The soilless-culture systems have proved to have higher productivity and lower water consumption compared with traditional protected agriculture. 
  • The farming clusters' modality significantly reduces resource consumption and maximises production. 
  • Hands-on agricultural skills are optimally taught on-site.
  • Selection of crops should consider agroecological conditions in the target area and the market demands. 
Knowledge Management and Sharing
Knowledge, attitudes and practices improved, and knowledge management structures enhanced to broaden participation in the conservation and sustainable use of GRFA. Through the construction of provincial database on agrobiodiversity and APPs and websites for the 3 GRFA varieties, WeChat official account of the project, preparation of annual timelines of the project, broadcasting activities through Hainan TV, and meetings and exchange activities etc. The effective communication among the stakeholders and with the C-SAP Program projects has been expanded, and the understanding of farmers and other key stakeholders on the value of the endemic GRFA varieties and importance of in-situ conservation and utilization, and more importantly, farmers’ access to information, has been improved. As a result, stimulating wider participation in the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in Hainan.
1)Participation of local media is crucial for the knowledge management and dissemination of the project. 2)Through activities such as the Shanlan rice planting ceremony, the establishment of farmers‘ field schools, science popularization for students, the construction and operation of community seed banks, livestock competitions, and cooking competitions, the confidence and identity of ethnic minority cultures has been enhanced, public awareness raised, contributing to conservation and utilization of GRFA.
Awareness raising activities targeting young people can be combined with multiple fields such as science popularization education, art education, and farming culture education.
Mainstreaming and institutional capacity strengthening
Demonstrated approaches mainstreamed and capacities strengthened to facilitate upscaling of conservation and sustainable use of GRFA. The purpose works in 3 ways: 1)Strengthen capacities based on capacity building needs analysis and capacity training plan, including designing training courses (615 people, 31.22% women) for various target groups such as institutional staff, women (jointly with Women’s Federation of Hainan Province) and youth (jointly with the Youth League of Hainan Province). 2)The concept of agrobiodiversity conservation and utilization as well as the practices have been incorporated into the 14th 5 Year Plan for Agricultural and Rural Modernization of Hainan Province. The guidelines for best practices for the conservation and sustainable use of GRFA have been included in the local annual work plan and will be brought into the local 15th 5-year plan for agricultural and rural development, thus enhancing the mainstreaming of the incentive approaches in the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity conservation. 3)Replicate success based on pilot demonstrations, e.g. two new regions with two more traditional varieties, that is, Hainan camellia and Hainan big leaf tea, were selected for upscaling.
Full and equal participation of all stakeholders, and understanding and support of key approaches by relevant units at local governments is important for implementation and replication.
Effective knowledge transfer of good practices is important for replication and scale up.
Strengthening institutional and policy framework
The policy and regulatory framework for in-situ conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity has been enhanced at the provincial level, including through 1)Provincial level and county/city level GRFA coordination committees have been established that facilitates the planning and implementation of approaches for the sustainable use and conservation of varieties. 2)Development of policies such as the Provincial Strategy and Action Plan of Conservation and Utilization of Agrobiodiversity in Hainan, as well as provincial and county/city level Implementation Frameworks approved by governments. These policies have been integrated into 14th Five-Year Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas; The strategy and action plan for conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in Hainan incorporated into the Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation in Hainan (2023-2030). 3)A guideline for allocation of eco-compensation funds and introduction of eco-compensation schemes for in-situ conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity was developed, based on piloting of the eco-compensation implementation plan. In addition, the project has been successful at securing CNY 1.64 eco-compensation funding allocation by the Department of Finance.
1)Establish an inter-agency, trans-sectoral coordination mechanism at provincial, county/city, and demonstration landscape levels to promote the full and equal participation of all stakeholders. 2) In the process of piloting eco-compensation schemes, it is crucial to initially gather farmers' compensation expectations, then timely adjust compensation methods and amounts according to actual conditions during implementation, and finally conduct independent third-party evaluations after execution.
Multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms promotes project implementation, experience sharing, strengthens inter-agency collaboration.
Using funds to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations while promoting tree planting and ongoing maintenance in an integrated way

Funds raised were used both to cover reforestation costs and to create hundreds of green wages and jobs. On the one hand, Costa Rica aims to reach 60% of forest cover by 2030, and seedlings require ongoing care to ensure they survive and thrive. On the other hand, the socioeconomic conditions of already vulnerable communities in the northern region of the country worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic.

#Footprints4ourFuture addresses these two challenges in an integrated way. Each tree planted comes with a five-year maintenance plan to ensure its survival. This plan is implemented by local workers who plant and prune trees, improving the living conditions of vulnerable populations and providing a sustainable source of income beyond the period of the pandemic. This approach also contributes to raising local awareness and promoting community ownership of reforestation efforts.

Community interest and willingness to carry out green jobs, along with the long-term availability of funds for the five-year maintenance plan, are key factors for success.

Biodiversity conservation and restoration initiatives have a higher likelihood of success when combined with financial support for vulnerable participant populations. This approach allows initiatives to address both socioeconomic and environmental issues simultaneously, besides encouraging local community participation and fostering openness to environmental education.

Furthermore, reforestation and other environmental activities should prioritize ongoing maintenance, as it ensures that the initial investment yields long-term results.

Combining a variety of donation options and marketing strategies to promote contributions

Donors can contribute to the campaign through different packages/amounts: “My Footprint” (one tree for 15 USD), “Family Footprint” (10 trees for USD 150), “Small Business Footprint” (100 trees for USD 1,500), and “Corporate Footprint” (1,000 trees for USD 15,000). 

These packages can be purchased on the campaign’s website, that launch to a national account for FUNBAM. It is also possible to contribute by directly making bank transfers to an account in dollars or Costa Rican colones, or quickly donate using SINPE Móvil, the country’s instant mobile money transfer system. Companies and organizations, as well as Embassies made the transfer through this modality under a signed agreement with FUNBAM (the executing agency). Initially, it was also possible to donate through UNDP’s international platform, which was later removed since outreach activities were nationally focused.

Moreover, through a partnership with the corporate hardware store Ferretería EPA, customers in seven physical stores are invited to donate their spare change and complement to plant a tree, reaching those who may not have been initially aware of the campaign. 

Finally, for the 1,000-tree corporate package, meetings were arranged with potential partner companies to encourage collaboration. Embassies such as Spain, Italy and others also used this modality. 

The effective promotion of the campaign has gone hand in hand with the success of these various donation platforms. The marketing strategy has included social media, Google and TV ads, as well as support from the national television program Más que Notícias through specials and interviews.

The availability of technology, human expertise, and funding to sustain the online donation platform are other enabling factors. 

  • It is important to align the campaign with larger impact, policy or institutional goals (in Costa Rica, to achieve 60% forest cover by 2030).
  • Engaging high-level champions, such as former Vice President of Costa Rica Epsy Campbell, fosters mobilization for the campaign.
  • Delivering with credible public organizations (FONAFIFO, UNDP) contributes to building public trust in the campaign.
  • It is fundamental to include measures for transparency and traceability of funds and results (georeferenced trees, and donor and results report).
  • Comms, comms, and more comms support campaign’s success:
    • Clear graphic design throughout the campaign (logo, social media, life stories, press, presentations, face masks, videos, storyline, and alliances).
    • Investment in a designer, a PR specialist, and dedicated time for campaign execution.
  • It is necessary to effectively mobilize resources through a diverse outreach and marketing strategy with target audiences:
    • The donation page by itself is limited in mobilizing donations. It is more effective to engage funds, bilateral donors, and private and public companies through one-on-one meetings and interactions. 
Creating the necessary incentives to foster the success of green bonds

Following the development of the legislative and regulatory framework for issuing green bonds, it was also necessary to create incentives that enhance their attractiveness for both issuers and investors. With BIOFIN’s advocacy and in close collaboration with the Working Group, two key incentives were established.  

First, investors benefit from a 15% exemption in withholding tax on green bonds listed on a Zambian exchange with a maturity of at least three years. This measure encourages investment in projects with positive environmental outcomes and accelerates resource mobilization. It also motivates potential issuers, who can expect stronger investor demand and, consequently, higher returns on their bonds.  

Second, the SEC introduced a 50% reduction in green bond registration fees in Zambia. By lowering issuance costs, this measure further strengthens the attractiveness of the market for issuers.  

A key enabling factor is the support of government and regulators for developing a green bond market and their willingness to design and approve such incentives. 

Recently developed green bond markets might be perceived as too risky by investors who are more familiar with traditional bonds and other investments. Creating incentives for both issuers and local investors is crucial to navigate their risk tolerance and to stimulate the market in its early stages.