The Se buscan Héroes campaign is designed to promote and recognize the contributions of individuals and companies to the financing of natural protected areas.

Its web page describes its partners, the sites where it works, the risks and threats it addresses, its work logic and what is done with the donations. It also thanks all the companies that contribute to the cause and has a module to receive donations.

On Facebook, it maintains a fresh, fluid and very graphic communication with its more than 19,500 followers to position the brand and recognize the partner companies.

Uses various public spaces to make brand presence and promote donations, including the installation of donation boxes in hotels and billboards in public places.

Organizes events to launch the campaign and recognize contributors.

This building block is led by Paralelo 28.

The initiative has explored multiple fundraising strategies and mechanisms such as wristbands, souvenir sales, donations on the website, placement of ballot boxes in hotels, etc. To date, the tourist wristband has been the most successful.

The bracelet

In Islas Marietas a donation of $40 per tourist was agreed upon. Tourist service providers (TSPs) make a donation proportional to the number of tourists projected and in return get the corresponding bracelets and donation receipt. Tourists receive their bracelet when they sign up for the tour.

In sites such as Cabo Pulmo and Loreto this mechanism did not seem adequate and we are testing other options.

Other mechanisms

• Limited edition sharks, manta rays and stuffed booby birds for sale online and at events. In some cases PSTs buy them in volume.
• Module on the Paralelo 28 website for online donations.
• Installation of urns in hotels to facilitate donations from tourists. In one of the cases it is accompanied by a communication campaign of the hotel.
• In Cabo Pulmo, some PSTs and stores agreed to make monthly donations of between 1,000 and 2,000 pesos.

This building block is led by the PSTs, the local organization and Paralelo 28.

For the continuity of the project, we need sustainable finance. Forena is currently partnering with Lux* Resorts and Hotels, Kolos, Rotary clubs, PWC(PricewaterhouseCoopers), Abax, IBL Together(Ireland Blyth Limited), HSBC(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) and Porlwi by nature (Ciel Group). It feeds into the overarching project to regenerate the total 11 hectares of the mountain ecosystem.Tree planting and clean up events were done with those stakeholders and their employees. These activities support the revival of the ecosystem of Citadel and Petrin, the reduction of soil erosion and desertification and allow the connection with nature and healthy living. In this way, the stakeholders get to know how their money is being spent for the reforestation of Citadel and Petrin.They are contributing to the conservation and preservation of the native forests of Mauritius indirectly. Protecting nature should not only reflect the work of non-governmental organisation but also that of stakeholders involved which would not have been possible without them.

FORENA alongside Friends of the Environment(FOE) are currently running the 'Restoration and Valorisation of the Citadel of Port Louis' project, under the Tourism Authority, with a team of experts comprised of architects, historians, archaeologists, and ecologists of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF), that envisages the historical restoration and valorisation of the Citadel heritage to be used for tourism, education and leisure purposes.

FOE  has been active in the organisation of environmentally important conferences and seminars. They have renovated and now assume management of the Martello Tower Museum and, through the Heritage Trust, continue the rehabilitation of cemeteries. Members have been participating on many committees for the environment over the years. 

MWF works for the conservation and preservation of the nation's endangered plant and animal species. They collaborate with local and international partners, with the long-term aim of recreating lost ecosystems by saving some of the rarest species from extinction and restoring the native forests. 

The unique features of TMG’s expenditure profile compared to all other local governments are found to be more capital investment and the existence of an adjustment cost that contributes to fiscal balance among the 23 special wards. Capital investments are spent on urban infrastructure such as roads and bridges, schools, and social welfare facilities. TMG continued to invest in large-scale public facilities as part of the economic stimulus despite the sharp drop in tax revenues after the crash of Japan’s bubble economy during the 1990s. Consequently, it faced a serious financial crisis. The government made concerted effort to reduce expenditure under a fiscal reform scheme for about a decade. Once the fiscal balance was recovered, construction-related expenditure has continued to increase over the last decade.

Under unstable economic circumstances, earmarked taxes enable the TMG to keep stable and multiple-year resources for large-scale capital projects. Among more than 13 kinds of local taxes, two are earmarked for urban capital improvements. City planning tax, which accounts for 4.7% of the total revenue, is levied on land parcels and properties in the urban development promotion areas and collected together with Fixed Assets Tax (property tax). The revenue is specified to use for urban development and land readjustment programs. Another earmarked tax for urban capital improvements is Establishment Tax, which accounts for 2.1% of the total revenue. This tax is levied on offices with large floor areas and/or with a large number of employees in the 23 special wards and four cities of Tokyo. The revenue is to be used specifically for improving urban business environments.

Agreements are established between the tourism sector (service providers, hotels, sectoral groups, tourism promotion offices, etc.), civil society organizations (CSOs) and government to design and implement a collection mechanism.

Agreements are established indicating the collection and accountability mechanisms, as well as the roles of the partners.

Each year an annual operating program (POA) is developed with its corresponding budget, which specifies the items and amounts to which the investment will be allocated. The AOP is developed by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and Pronatura Noroeste (the local CSO), and presented to the board of Bahía Unida (the TSP association) for approval.

Technical and financial reports are presented every two months to the Bahía Unida board.

This building block is led by CONANP and the local CSO.

For the creation of a new open space where people can get together, the local government coordinated open-air dining spots through a unique two-step management system allowed by the  revised Local Autonomy Act. In the first step, the government built two one-story houses (Photo 1 and 2) to be used for cafes inside the park by special permission from the governor. Meanwhile, the government designated a public interest incorporated association as the permitted operator of the new buildings. In the second step, the association contracted out the café operation to two private companies selected from 15 applicants through a competitive bidding process. Selection criteria of the operating companies included consistency to the park’s basic revitalizing plan as well as profitability and quality of services to be provided to park visitors. Notably, with this two-step management a part of the profit from these two cafes can be efficiently reinvested to maintain and upgrade the park environment.

Ueno Park is flexibly managed to meet its historical background and current needs. To cover part of the expenses to manage urban parks, TMG allowed some private entities to run their businesses such as a restaurant and make a profit inside the park. While the Urban Park Act of 1956 prohibits any kind of private business activities in urban parks to avoid uncontrolled development, the government identified restaurants and small shops as part of the park facility that can be built, operated, and managed by private operators to meet public interest under government controls and allowed them to continue their commercial activities. This actions by TMG follows the Urban Park Act that allowed local governments to grant third party use or occupation of property, and construction and management of facilities. Consequently, several restaurants and small shops exist as park facilities in Ueno Park.

A village based participatory approval process allocates individual reforestation sites to households, along with defined use-rights & obligations using the following steps:

1. Application to local forest authorities by smallholders through voluntary user groups
2. Consultation on village level to exclude disputed land upfront & for taking unanimous decision on the future reforestation sites allocation. Results: minutes & sketch plan
3. Verification by communal decision makers & endorsement by a communal decree
4. Assigning land to the village afforestation body based on a specification document
5. Mapping of individual wood lots; plot owners receive individual map with GPS coordinates signed by the mayor of the community
6. Registration of sites by the land office; official verification of the reforestation site based on sketch plan, the communal decree and the enrolment into the local tenure plan.

Forest authorities register the transfer of use rights for an indefinite period, including equal access and benefit sharing for the participants. Smallholder households involved in the afforestation scheme own ~3 ha. This enables them to produce about 2.6 t charcoal per year for 27 years without further investment.