Rare uses social marketing expertise to design behavior adoption campaigns, leveraging social science evidence to encourage sustainable fishing practices, empower local advocates, and build momentum for plans for community-managed fishing areas including no-take marine reserves. These campaigns are tailored to the local context, and can take the shape of celebratory events recognizing the importance of fishers, public messaging through billboards, radio and TV programming, SMS text campaigns, and more.

Community-Managed Access and Reserve (CMA+R) areas are a spatial fisheries co-management tool in which communities and governments work together to identify locations for restricted fishing. Managed Access areas allow communities to set rules and restrictions on fishing, such as disallowing destructive gear, establishing seasonal fishing bans, or limiting the number of fishers allowed to fish in the area; and they enable communities to participate the surveillance and enforcement of these rules. Reserve areas are no-take zones where fishing communities agree to never fish, thereby protecting critical habitats and allowing fish stocks to recovery. The two types of protected area work together, allowing communities to sustainably fish from CMA areas adjacent to Reserves whose ecological integrity feed the fishery. “Networks” of multiple CMA+R areas across a coastline have the same positive feedback effect over a wider geography.

Enabling policy establishes the conditions that make fisheries co-management legal, designs of "Managed Access" areas with no-take reservers implementable, and data-based management functional.

This management plan has been developed following the BMP-S norms and standards however in addition it also addresses the need of South African citizens for the long-term access to medicinal plant species for health care.  The plan has been conducted for six medicinal plant species naturally occurring in Ehlanzeni District of Mpumalanga Province, Alepidea cordifolia, Bowiea volubilis, Dioscorea sylvatica, Haworthiopsis limifolia, Siphonochilus aethiopicus and Warburgia salutaris. It has been developed by a wide array of stakeholders including conservation authorities, horticulturists, researchers, law enforcers, users of traditional medicines, those involved in the traditional medicine value chain (traders, and Traditional Healer Practisioners) and Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) interested in supporting rural livelihoods. 

• We provided refresher training on ecological services of the seagrass;

• We trained representatives of local fishers on monitoring protocols (Seagrass Watch methodology (McKenzie et al., 2003));

• We conducted the assessment of seagrass beds with trained fishers collecting data on the location of boundaries/edges, species, percentage of cover, sediment type and depth;

• We collected data using paper-based records and entered data into a computer database before analysis.

• We worked with the community to assess perceptions of the status of seagrass beds and local threats;

• During a local community meeting, we drew seagrass bed boundaries onto a projected satellite image with the guidance of the participants;

• Along with representatives of local fishers, community/association leaders and village elders who have a good knowledge of the zone, we collected GPS coordinates of seagrass beds (perimeter points aligning with community maps created in the previous step);

• We then projected the collected GPS coordinates onto satellite images for validation by the local community during a second meeting.

Captive reared birds tend to use the same type of nest in which they were raised. Based on this theory, nest boxes were installed along cliffs and a working quarry adjacent to the release site. Ronez, the quarry owners, paid for a UK expert to visit Jersey to help plan, design, and install the boxes.

The first nests, in 2015, were inside quarry buildings, not the boxes. Boxes began to be used as competition for nest sites increased. When two nests failed due to being built on dangerous machinery, staff installed boxes and successfully encouraged the pairs to nest in them, allowing quarry staff to continue operations.

Nesting activity is closely monitored allowing staff to estimate incubation, hatch, and fledge dates based on pair behavior at the supplemental feed and/or from direct nest observations. Chicks are ringed and DNA sexed in the nest where feasible. Alternatively, fledged chicks that visit the supplemental feed site can be trapped in the aviary when called for food, ringed, and immediately released. This option was used in 2020 and 2021 when COVID-19 prevented access to the quarry.

The recently revised Jersey wildlife law gives full protection to chough nests. Staff are now working to increase public awareness and offer nest boxes as mitigation when choughs nest on private property.

Between 2013 and 2018, captive-bred choughs were soft-released in small cohorts replicating normal family group size.

The plan was to release chicks shortly after fledging although sub-adults (< 4 years old) were used for the first release. Captive breeding at Jersey Zoo was not successful until 2014.

Cohorts acclimatized and socialized in the release aviary for a minimum of 2 weeks and trained to associate a whistle with food, enabling staff to call birds back to the aviary if needing re-capturing. Each cohort was initially given a set amount of time outside then called back in for food and confined until the next release. Duration outside increased day by day until reaching full liberty. Staff followed any bird that failed to return attempting to lure it back if feasible. If it had gone to roost, staff would return at sunrise to retry.

All birds were fitted with leg rings. Tail-mounted VHF transmitters were fitted to all birds released between 2013 and 2016. Initially, they received three supplemental feeds a day, as in captivity, reducing to once a day. This continues to the present day permitting close monitoring.

Jersey Zoo’s Veterinary Department conducted pre-and post-release faecal screening to monitor parasite levels, administer wormer if necessary, and have also treated physical injuries.

Paradise Park loaned two pairs of choughs to Jersey Zoo in 2010 to begin a captive breeding program. To establish a wild population, it was estimated 30 to 50 juveniles needed to be released over a 5 to 7-year period. Any shortfalls in numbers would be supplemented by importing juveniles from Paradise Park.

Jersey Zoo transformed two aviaries into dedicated breeding aviaries and created a display aviary to house the flock over winter mimicking natural behavior. Nest boxes were fitted with cameras for remote monitoring. Nestlings are susceptible to aspergillosis and nematode infections in captivity. Cameras allow staff to monitor for clinical signs and intervene as soon as possible to ensure survival.

Paradise Park, with decades of experience breeding choughs, provided guidance, training, and financial support. Jersey staff spent time behind the scenes at Paradise Park to learn about chough husbandry reciprocating once the release was underway with staff from the UK visiting Jersey.

Despite releases ending in 2018, Jersey Zoo continues to breed chough in captivity providing a backup in case there is a renewed need to release. It also allows a conservation message to be communicated to the public through educational talks at the display aviary. Surplus juveniles are returned to Paradise Park’s breeding program.

Social Mediation (SM) is a conflict resolution tool used for conflicts in a social context, placing individuals and communities across the world at the forefront, in turbulent times. The project uses theoretical concepts around group dynamics, identity, social change and transitions, proposing concrete solutions for the tensions deriving from the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic which divide people in renewed ways. Training workshops use a ‘train-the-trainers’ approach, allowing for multiplier effects and encouraging the spreading of the methodology in communities across the globe. At the same time, all participants and network members and stakeholders learn from each other through a two-way interactive process. We also envisage the preparation of a Global Social Mediation Manual, with the direct and active contribution of our partners, offering solutions based on their local context, which may be adapted and applied to other similar contexts across the world.