The objective of this building block is to provide technical teams with the biological parameters necessary to determine the current state of an ecosystem (level of degradation) and the desired state (healthy), in order to determine the appropriate restoration measures to be implemented in that specific ecosystem; for example, we will use the case of the Guatemalan dry forest.

The characterization of the ecosystem is done by documentary review and geospatial analysis, identifying the general-initial conditions of the ecosystem and its associations. Distribution / Climate / Soil Quality / Topographic Elevation / Flora Diversity / Fauna Diversity / Dasometric Characteristics of the Reference Ecosystems. For the dry forest, 3 associations were identified: 1) thorny scrub, 2) high dry forest and 3) riparian forest.

The definition of the levels of degradation is done by plot survey, comparing the successional states of the reference ecosystem with the dasometric characteristics obtained from the plots. In the case of the dry forest, three levels of degradation were identified: 1) pioneer succession, 2) secondary forest and 3) degraded forest.

The experimental monitoring system consists of a set of parameters to track the behaviour of the species, visitor mobility practices, and risk detection:

• GPS transmitters: they are programmed for data collection and with a download scheduling; there is a zoning around the nest.
• Axis Station software: Axis Loitering Guard tracks moving objects and triggers alerts (e.g. a user exists the trail for x amount of time), sound alerts, and notifications when a threshold is exceeded. Axis Fend Guard detects interaction events (e.g. the bird leaves the next, two users leave the trail).
• Alerts for potential mortality, potential territory expulsion, absences at the nest, users near the nest, and noise thresholds.
• Other data related to trail usage by user type and the Bonelli’s eagle breeding process.
• Annual reports on raptor spatial mobility, semi-annual reports on interactions and critical events.

The purpose of this building block is to develop agroforestry systems management policies in line with coffee growing and link them to the country's forestry development policies, responding to the challenges of the market and applicable international legislation.

In essence, it is necessary to promote incentive policies (economic and/or commercial) that stimulate agroforestry in coffee plantations at the same time, the value chains in the forestry sector as small timber.

This requires two main elements:

1. The ability to adjust forestry programs to accommodate agroforestry elements, without undermining coffee production but maintaining the spirit of the forestry policy.
2. Encourage intersectoral dialogue around the issue of agroforestry in coffee plantations, in order to identify points of technical and political coincidence.

To illustrate this building block, the case of the Forestry Incentives Program of Guatemala -PROBOSQUE- is used; which made adjustments to the modality of forestry incentives in the agroforestry modality, changing parameters to include the cultivation of coffee, having a greater impact.

The objective of this building block is to provide developers and implementers of ecosystem and landscape restoration projects with a tool for collecting key information in the field to measure the impact of proposed restoration actions.

The steps for its implementation are:

1. Survey of management units: provides complete information on the sites selected for restoration actions and includes; name and sex of the producer, correlative number and code of the management unit, administrative boundaries, geographic coordinates, area and legal status of the management unit, predominant land use and a photograph of the site.
2. Survey of the management subunits: provides complete information on the specific restoration measures to be implemented in the selected sites and includes; the codes of the management subunits, coordinates and areas of the management subunits, current land use, future land use, restoration measures and practices to be implemented.

By executing this process, information is available that relates restoration actions to the improvement of ecosystem services in different parts of the landscape.

SAGE Findings:

1. Little involvement of fisherwomen in LMMA decision-making, discriminated against because of mosquito net fishing.
2. Lack of recognition of community rights to participate in LMMA decision-making.
3. Major deficiencies in the process of complaints and follow-up of cases related to invasion of the reserves by the entire community due to the lack of inspection instruments.
4. Deficit of collaboration and coordination, it does not share reports and plan of activities between different actors.

Recommendations:

1. Involve mosquito net fisherwomen at all stages of LMMA establishment and prioritize opportunity costs for them.
2. Disseminate information on rights to participate in LMMA decision-making to all community.
3. Encourage community to report offenders and follow up on cases related to the invasion of the reserves. 
4. Promote regular meetings to share reports and activity plans between actors.

Based on these recommendations, the project is implementing bivalve aquaculture, prioritising women’s involvement to address opportunity costs. We are supporting annual district, provincial and national stakeholder meetings. We are supporting CCPs with equipment for improved LMMA enforcement. We are strengthening CCP skills for communication and equitable governance through training by AMA.

Data Collection, Data Analysis and Data Synthesis:

Organised groups of actors from different social backgrounds gathered for this process, which was facilitated using the local language and a translator was engaged to assist with the translation. To take into account the level of education of participants, we defined the appropriate means of communication. People participated according to the same interest group or social status (Community Fishery Council, fishermen, fisherwomen, government, influential members and income generation alternatives, among them). In the first phase, discussions were done separately and later discussed in plenary; after the discussion participants reached consensus, it is this consensus that was considered as the final response. To ensure that the selection of members taking part in each target group was inclusive, it did not take into consideration party affiliation, religion, social level, gender. During the meetings we also explained the importance of the SAGE process.

Analysis and identification of actors/stakeholder:

In order to understand the stakeholders in the project area, all actors in the district who are capable of supporting the establishment of LMMAs were ranked by capacity to contribute to its implementation. The ranking was from 1 to 3 points (1 – low, 2 – medium and 3 – high). Only the stakeholders that had a score of 3 points were selected, namely, government, Community Fisheries Council, fishermen, fisherwomen, influential members (community and religious leaders) and alternative income generating activities groups.

Stakeholders were then engaged through the SAGE/IMET methodologies, through the introduction and background workshops and through partaking in the assessments themselves.

Profile of the study sites:

Characterization of the study site which includes the type of habitat we are protecting, the species, the type of reserve we are implementing which are temporary and permanent reserve (temporary for short-lived species, in this case octopus and for the purpose of increasing household income, and permanent reserve or restocking for biodiversity conservation for generations to come, but the same may cause overflow of fish into the area where fishing is allowed) dimensions of the reserves, legal framework.

The first part of this project was training participants on SAGE. To make the SAGE more applicable to our situation, we chose six of the most important principles that are relevant to the LMMA:

1: Respect for resource rights and human rights of community members

3: Effective participation of all relevant actors in decision making

4: Transparency, information sharing and accountability for actions and inactions

8: Equitable sharing of benefits among relevant actors

9: Achievement of conservation and other objectives

10: Effective coordination and collaboration between actors, sectors and levels

The SAGE methodology is a participatory process, conducted with: Community Fisheries Council, fishermen, livelihoods group, community and religious leaders, district and provincial government.

The IMET was supported by two consultants from the National Administration of Conservation Areas. Various actors were invited: a) National Fisheries Administration, Provincial Service of Economic Activities, Provincial Directorate of Environment, Provincial Directorate of Tourism; b) District Service of Economic Activities, Maritime and Lake Police, Administrator of Quirimbas National Park and Justice Authority; c) Community Fisheries Councils, fishermen, community and religious Leaders).

Following two funding calls, a total of 17 projects were selected. The projects represent a very wide range of different approaches and solution ideas for pursuing the Alliance's goals, depending on the respective context.

To increase the visibility of the projects and to foster knowledge exchange they are invited to present their ongoing work, intermediate goals and preliminary results to the Alliance community through posts on the website or at online events.

The aim is to establish practices, rules and/or standards to reduce risks to the environment, human and animal health in trade in wild animals and wild animal products in selected partner countries in global biodiversity hotspot regions. Among other things, risk assessments, the design of educational measures in different formats (digital and non-digital campaigns, training courses, etc.) and the scientific monitoring of the implementation of good practices (e.g. impact assessments) are to be promoted. The Alliance brings the relevant actors together across sectors and use concrete findings to formulate adapted regulations or or supports the institutionalization of relevant practices.