Implementation | PANORAMA

Participation throughout the process

This project involves fishermen and other actors in planning their future use of the coastal marine area of the Puerto Peñasco Corridor, but it also seeks meaningful engagement of stakeholders from the onset by engaging them in implementing actions to improve ecosystem management. Many practitioners of CMSP are frustrated with the timeframe involved in moving from planning to implementation. Stakeholders get frustrated too. This project gets stakeholders involved in activities such as cleaning beaches, monitoring resources, analyzing data, distributing materials to their communities and in supporting youth in their community. It shows them what collective action is and how it can be implemented in so many ways. It also serves in building their capactiy for ecosystem management.

CEDO is involved in programs for youth and other community members, such as resource monitoring and beach cleanups and we conduct other activities to engage people. We offer opportunities for stakeholders to be involved in concrete actions that have an immediate impact on their children, their beaches and their understanding of resources. While the long planning process takes place, these actions serve to inspire participants and to show them what they can accomplish by participating and working together.

Fishermen don't understand the time-scale required for an integrated management program. They get impatient and want immediate results, which is why it is important to engage them in the work that needs to be done to develop a functional managment system. Sometimes we forget to remind them of the big picture and the timeline that shows where they are going and what they have accomplished so far. They fear the government will not do their part in this process. Maintaining active engagement of all levels of the government is key, but also a challenge, as individuals are changing. Government is constantly being approached to solve problems in the short term rather than using a more comprehensive, integrated approach and so fishers must be encouraged to wait. Creating spaces for communities to meet with government is important. Long-term funding for such a comprehensive and integrated approach needs to be guaranteed.

Strengthening Capacity for Collective Action and Informed Decision-Making

The fishing communities of the Corridor are isolated from one another and are marginalized from the regional economy. They have few opportunities to interact at that scale. Even within a community there is little social structure. The project created a forum for interaction and collaboration for solving problems. To strengthen capacity to participate in this forum and planning process, we have focused on building fisher capacity to represent their communities in an Intercommunity Management Group. Workshops have been offered on communication, negotiation, and other leadership skills. We developed materials, held workshops and organized exchanges with other fishermen to give them a better understanding of the variety of management tools that can be applied to improve fisheries and reduce conflicts. This is key to setting the stage for informed decision-making and adopting new management instruments. For more comprehensive acceptance of the process, all community members should be informed. Through communication programs, messages on billboards, radio addresses, social media and workshops, the program involves the entire community to understand and support the process.

CEDO has a long history of promoting environmental literacy and culture in the region and has tools and resources that aid in this process. CEDO's ability to communicate in a language that fishermen understand facilitates learning. As a local organization, CEDO can adapt its scheduling of meetings and classes to the rhythm of fishing which is somewhat unpredictable due to environmental conditions. Fishermen and communities are eager to learn, but cannot afford to miss income from fishing.

One challenge is transportation. Communities are isolated from public transportation, and CEDO has tried to provide this, but without adequate resources. Solutions could be found if funds were available to purchase vans. One of the most important components for effective capacity building is to speak the language of your audience and to create experiences for interchange, rather than talking at the public. This creates a positive learning environment both for the facilitator as well as the fishermen. Capacity building is also strengthened through direct participation and opportunities to learn while doing, which we promote as another building block in this process.

Inception phase

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Financial literacy and resiliency

To shift to more sustainable fishing, fishers needed to build up their savings to cushion their households against crises and shocks. Savings clubs were organized across the municipalitiy using the Village Savings and Loan Association model. After 9 months, 4 clubs with 95 members had been formed and clubs had an average of Php 3200 saved per member.

VSLA approach has strong safeguards to promote accountaibility among members; Word of mouth encouraged other fishing households to join.

Wives of the fishermen are critical to building household savings and must be reached out to. It is also important to share stories of what the savings have been used for, such as medical emergencies, or tiding family over during days when weather is bad for fishing, to inspire each other to continue.

Implementation

Local

Fisheries reform, one coastal town at a time, Business Mirror, April 2, 2017

Organizational Development and Capacity-building

There are several critical organizations within the community that need to be developed or strengthened. The campaign must ensure that the fishery councils, the management bodies, and the fisher associations are organized and well-functioning. They are trained on topics like Adaptive Fisheries Management, Management Essentials, Volunteer Management, and Team Building.

Openness for cooperation and learning.

The functioning and support of fishery councils, the management bodies and the fisher associations is necessary for the success of the fish forever campaign.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

Community Engagement & Behavior Change

The campaign team at each municipality uses a mix of creative materials and community mobilization activities to inspire and educate fishers and their families about the benefits of working together to manage their fisheries better. In the ‘Readiness’ phase, the messages are focused on getting the fishers to become registered fishers, comply with basic fishing laws, and participate in meetings. In the second phase after the managed access areas are legalized, the messages focus on building compliance for the rules of the MAA+S and continued monitoring of their catch.

Strong sense of place and identity among fishers on the island; Active support of municipal and village leaders; Motivated and efficient staff.

Many commonalities exist between sites, so the campaign was able to use materials adopted from the other municipalities that have also pushed for basic fisheries management. Local adaptation, especially of mobilization activities, helped to make the campaigns more site-specific and ‘ownable’ by the community.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

Participatory Managed Access Design & Implementation

Using the data from profiling, fishers and community leaders are engaged in a series of workshops that guides them through a) defining their community goals for fisheries and conservation, b) zoning and marking off their municipal waters, c) evaluating their reserves, d) delineating areas for managed access, and e) agreeing on the rules within their managed access areas. When these have been agreed on, they are codified in policy and institutional arrangements for ongoing implementation.

Buy-in of the mayor and local legislative council helped drive process in communities, and previously designated management areas served as starting points for further spatial planning.

Inputs from first stage were critical for building trust for this stage. It was important that all discussions and agreements during the workshops would be shared with communities in feedback and consultation sessions before proceeding to the next stage of the design process.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

Creating a rooftop farmers network

Involving children in rooftop farming activities

GIZ

A rooftop farmers network established with all participating community members/ households focused on creating a community of practice. As people are more likely to lose interest and get demotivated, creating a support system where beneficaries can exchange, share experiences, challenges, thoughts, and even dreams has proved to keep people motivated and also strengthen social ties between community members.

A platform for regular exchanges that mobilizes the rooftop farmers

Regular exchanges focusing on different topics to spark the farmer's interests
visits could be integrated in these exchanges
ongoing communication, especially during extreme weather events is cruicial. A whatsapp group was initiated to keep participants in close communication with Hub Enablers, and to also share photos of unusual plant conditions

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Entirety

Local

Rooftop farming methodology & technique

Watering a rooftop vegetable patch

GIZ

A hydroponic technology system was set up on the rooftops. The model consists of 3–4 water beds, directly attached to on each rooftop. They are made of wooden frames, plastic sheets, foam panels and cups filled with peat moss and pyralite substrate. The 15-cm deep water is supplied by a water pipe through an electricity connection from downstairs and maintained by a water pump and water filter. As an alternative, the project installed boxes filled with soil, having the advantage that no electricity is needed for water circulation. The biggest challenges for the rooftop farmers were irregular water supply and electricity cuts, as well as the hot summer temperatures which negatively impacted the growth of the plants.

The choice of which crop to grow heavily relied on the feasibility and market study; finding the right balance between a crop that has a high demand in the market and used most by the people, a crop that yields high returns to strengthen income generating opportunities, and a crop that can withstand environmental and climatic conditions of the area.

Monitoring: A monitoring system should gather data on e.g. food production, income, farming activities, economic costs/benefits, etc. Measurements should be conducted in order to assess the actual microclimatic impact. Technical setup: The hydroponic model is relatively cheap and thus affordable. However, other factors (maintenance, water and electricity consumption, usage of organic waste and grey water, impact on microclimate conditions) should be considered for upscaling. Other technical options aside from the hydroponic system should be explored. Remaining technical bottlenecks have to be tackled by on-site experimentation. Impact: the microclimate rooftops should be protected from direct solar radiation, enhance cooling-off through evaporation and enable a higher effect by spatial clustering and a bigger implementation area.

Implementation

Local

Combining approaches: EbA and new technologies

The experimentation with nopal is not the only type of experiments being undertaken in the reserve. Working under CONANP leadership, students and teachers from a local high school (CBTa-22) are adapting an innovative bio-digestor, to convert nopal into high-grade fodder for the cattle and milk industries outside the reserve. The goal is to replace the water-guzzling alfafa-based fodder with nopal-based fodder to reduce the water demand pressure on the wetlands from sources outside the PA, as well as within it. The building block demonstrates the potential that reserves have to act as agents of adaptation beyond their own boundaries. The design of the bio-digestor was made by Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo; the CBTa-22 students are experimenting with it and a mix of urea and nopal needed to increase the quality of the fodder. The nopal needed for the bio-digestor has come from the experimental sites set up as part of Building Block II. First results of the bio-digestor created a sludge that was unpalatable for the cattle. Since then, they have been working on combining the sludge with other types of fodder, and on developing pellets more palatable to the cows.

a) CONANP as a facilitator and promotor of the bio-digestor experiment;

b) Alliance formation between government, producers and technical colleges and universities;

c) Local producers who are willing to provide cattle as tasters for the fodder produced by the bio-digestor;

d) Teachers and student driving forward the research and experimentation over a number of years (six years, to date)

e) Good technical understanding of bio-digestor development.

a) Experimental, technical innovations require a commitment of resources. Being able to make alliances with a technical college can provide the necessary resources to maintain the innovation process over time;

b) CONANP as an intermediary between the bio-digestor developers and the cattle producers, is invaluable especially when volunteer producers are needed to provide cattle that will test out the fodder.

c) This building block demonstrates that PA staff can be a key agent of adaptation outside its own boundaries, so as to reduce pressures on itself.

d) In the specific case of Cuatrociénegas, it is a salutary lesson for other PAs that the area is investing its own resources (as well as that of the local college CBTa-22) to come up with innovative solutions for fodder production and water demand management (experimented on within its own boundaries), for adoption by businesses outside its boundaries.

Implementation

Local

Experimenting new methods, ideas, and approaches in limited area

It is crucial to experiment with new management ideas in a controlled manner, to ensure that adaptation measures will work as expected, and replicate them. In the context of integrated water demand management, and with the objective of adapting to climate change by supporting local producers to shift from alfafa production to that of nopal for human consumption and cattle fodder purposes, CONANP has set up a six hectare experimental site to a) find out how well such an adaptation might work out in practice for the producers (and their cattle), and b) to use the site as a demonstration of how a successful adaptation to this production strategy can work for other producers in the PA. If the experimental area is successful, it will be easier to spread this adaptation measures among other producers and areas of the PA. The experimental site can provide reliable scientific guidance and the data needed to support adaptation decisions, in times when lack of knowledge and change aversion can prevent the implementation of this type of adaptation measures.

a) Local producers who are willing to be forerunners and modify their practices in an experimental trial;

b) Willingness of the PA’s staff to invest (time, money and effort) on innovative, but potentially unsuccessful, experimentation;

c) Technical understanding of materials needed to create the growing tunnels under which the nopal grows;

d) Monitoring and evaluation to assess the experiment, and to be able to make technical adaptations where necessary.

a) High quality technical support to producers is essential in order to reduce the slope of the learning curve for the local producers;

b) Many lessons have been learned with respect to the technical aspects related to the use of materials for tunnels. Special mobile growing tunnels have now been developed to respond to changes in weather conditions related to temperature and winds, and to allow producers to move or remove the tunnels when necessary;

c) Communicating the results of the experiment is very important to promote producers’ buy-in. A critical mass of convinced producers is needed to open up commercially viable markets for new products (i.e. nopal for cattle fodder & human consumption);

d) Calculating risks and forming strategic alliances (producers, government and non-state actors) are crucial factors for a successful implementation.

Implementation

Local