Integration of local contexts and languages

Incorporating the local context – like environmental and cultural conditions in the regions and local languages – is essential when designing training manuals. This ensures accessibility and relevance of training content and alignment with the realities of the target audience’s environment. 

In India, for instance, the modular training sessions were developed with a specific focus on the available time of farmers and their farming calendar. The developed approach allows the training to be broken down into short, 2-hour modules. This ensures that farmers, particularly women, can participate without disrupting their ongoing livelihood and household activities. The modular setup also enables farmers to select sessions based on the season, such as pond preparation, stocking, or cultivation periods, maximising the relevance and timing of the information provided. Adding fitting illustrations, especially of local commodities and practices, to the training materials enhances comprehension by grounding the content in familiar visuals.

Enabling factors include involving local farmers and experts in developing materials, ensuring training venues and tools are accessible, regularly collecting participant feedback to update content, sharing local success stories to boost motivation, and gaining support from community leaders to encourage attendance and trust.

6. Internal Loan and Support System

The Cooperative provides loans among members to support new income-generating ideas and emergency needs. This internal support system fosters solidarity and economic innovation within the community.

5. Income Diversification and Livelihood Support

With the added income, many farmers have invested in other small businesses, such as dairy and poultry. This economic resilience reduces reliance on unsustainable practices and improves overall wellbeing.

4. Grant-Funded Public-Private Partnership

Support from USAID’s PERFORM project helped scale up the partnership between KHP and the Cooperative. The funding strengthened the business model and increased long-term sustainability and impact.

3. Cooperative Development and Capacity Building

The informal farmer group was formally registered as the Lucheche Cooperative and trained to manage its operations. This empowered the community to organize effectively and take charge of their development.

2. Leaf Biomass Market Linkage

Farmers prune their trees and sell the leaf biomass to KHP for essential oil extraction, creating a sustainable and regular income stream. This reduces the need for environmentally harmful activities like illegal charcoal burning.

1. Community Forestry Model

Kawandama Hills partnered with local farmers to plant Corymbia citriodora trees on their own farmland, encouraging sustainable land use and reforestation. This model protects the environment while giving communities ownership of the process.

Implementing robust protective measures

To effectively resolve wild beasts harming farmers, the Houhe Reserve invested 244,000 yuan, purchasing 63,000 meters of fencing nets for free distribution to communities, and issued 160 sets of prevention alarms; explored installing 5,000 meters of pulse electric fences; annually acquired 50,000-100,000 yuan in wildlife damage insurance, installing real "insurance" for residents' production and livelihoods. Through alarms, fencing nets, and electric fences, effectively warned of black bear presence, blocked bears from entering community areas, alleviating human-bear conflicts.

.1.Social organizations’ attention to "human-bear conflicts," opening purchase and compensation channels for wildlife damage insurance to reserve communities;
.2.High prioritization by reserve management leadership, annually directing dedicated funds for purchasing related materials and wildlife damage insurance.

.1.Alarm installations maintained appropriate distances from residential points, reducing triggered alarms and noise disturbances to residents while effectively warning of wildlife proximity.
.2.Protective fencing requires sufficient coverage area to effectively safeguard residential zones and production assets.
.3.Wildlife damage insurance claim recognition and compensation procedures need optimization toward intelligence—current recognition processes and compensation implementation require substantial manpower with lengthy process completion times.
.4.Alarms and fencing only partially mitigate human-bear conflicts; amid expanding black bear populations, new pathways must be explored to balance wildlife conservation and community development.

Launched the special black bear survey

 The Houhe NNR applied for financial support through multiple channels, and the black bear survey project secured 300,000 yuan from the "Green Mountains Public Welfare Nature Conservation Initiative" fund. Subsequently, scientific staff from the Houhe NNR selected 20 high-frequency black bear occurrence sites to deploy infrared camera traps, installing three infrared cameras at each trap point to capture individual identification markers of black bears. Simultaneously, they collected bear feces, hair, and other trace information to assist in population analysis. Using infrared camera traps, they identified and marked a portion of captured individuals, estimated the black bear population size in Houhe via mark-recapture methods, and concurrently conducted surveys through semi-structured interviews, completing a total of 193 questionnaires.

1.Sufficient funding ensured carrying out team investigations, study tours, and fieldwork;
2.Invited relevant experts from the Chinese Academy of Forestry's Forest Ecology and Environment Institute for on-site guidance, enabling reserve researchers to master relatively mature survey and research techniques and methods;
3.An enthusiastic research team ensured the effectiveness of the work;
4.Full cooperation from community residents who truthfully provided feedback completed the questionnaire surveys;
5.The black bear species possesses distinctive traits – the V-shaped chest patch can serve as an identification feature for individuals.

1.Invited community residents familiar with mountainous terrain to participate in fieldwork, and conducted initial technical training for field staff at the project's outset;
2.During the preparatory phase, utilized monitoring data from past years for preliminary analysis, laying the foundation for subsequent field deployment planning;
3.Community survey sample size and representativeness were limited—193 questionnaires could reflect some issues, but coverage of more villages and diverse stakeholder groups (farmers, tourism practitioners, conservation staff) would yield more comprehensive data;
4.Integration of multi-year monitoring data and long-term monitoring mechanisms need improvement; current data primarily supports short-term research; recommends establishing a black bear population dynamics database, combining GIS technology to analyze human-bear conflict hotspots, providing basis for long-term conservation.

Tourism with an awareness approach

Tourists the visit the different nesting beaches had the opportunity to see the nesting process of sea turtles, as well as witness the release of sea turtles first-hand. These experiences were accompanied by educational information, including the species conservation status, the time of release (at dusk since that is when there are fewer predators in the water), and the importance of nesting beaches.

 

During the newborn turtle’s releases, hotel guests were invited to watch the journey of the baby turtles from the dune to the sea. This activity was highly appreciated and was very popular, and the participation of the security team and ropes was essential to maintain order among the people and the safety of the baby turtles. As a reference for its potential economic impactfor the hotel, considering it as a recreational activity, an estimated 150 people participated in each release. 

Enabling factors

Raising awareness among tourists is essential to strengthen conservation processes and to generate conscious communities in the future. Responsible tourists can act as advocates for protecting sea turtles andin turn, helps inspire interest among future travellers who seek meaningful experiences connected to conservation

 Lessons learned  

Public-private partnerships, understood as cooperation between companies and institutions (public or special), allow the structuring of competitive and sustainable advantages where both are benefited and are the undisputed way to achieve the SDGs.