Training sessions equipped beneficiaries with skills in beekeeping, value addition, nursery management, and restoration. This empowerment enhanced local ownership, enabling community members to independently manage and sustain project components like nurseries and apiaries. The trainings were guided by the needs identified and supported through inclusive decision-making, ensuring relevance and community buy-in.

A participatory project committee process and platforms like the SMAG ensured diverse stakeholders, including government, NGOs, and local communities, contributed ideas. This inclusive approach empowered all participants to have a say in shaping activities, fostering collaboration and accountability. Inclusivity built trust and reinforced the outcomes of the needs assessment by incorporating a wide range of perspectives into project planning and execution.

This building block emphasizes the critical role of engaging men and boys in addressing GBV within the fisheries sector. Recognizing that gender equality requires collaboration between men and women, this initiative targets the predominantly male-dominated fisheries sector to foster a more inclusive and supportive environment. By involving men ie: fishermen, law enforcer, male stakeholders, landowners, transportation providers, and traditional leaders—in awareness raising, training, and GBV Watch Committees, the intervention seeks to transform negative attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate GBV, including exploitative sex-for-fish practices. It also leverages the influence of traditional leaders to drive societal change, ensuring that men play an active role in avoiding backlach and safeguarding women and addressing the interconnected challenges of resource depletion, illegal fishing, and GBV. 

The GBV Response mechanism at community level was establish to prevent and respond to the GBV cases and fishing illegalities which occours in the fisheries sector due to the lack of reporting structures and long distances from the fishing communities to the formal GBV response structures through the establishment of GBV Watch Committees. The GBV Watch Commitees provide awareness in the fishing camp and fishing communities about the exploitative sex for fish practices. They also respond to GBV disclosures at community level, the committees also link survivors to proffessional services and operate as safe space in the community among other functions. 

This building block is to explain how I developped an App that allow fishers to contribute to marine science knowledge in Africa. 

Initially we gave fishers a pre-printed form to report opportunistic sightings they encountered. However, the form was getting lost most of the time. 

We decided to move to a digital solution. The existing App by then required internet to work and was just too complicated for fishers. So we thought we shoud develop an App that will be more userfriendly for fishers. 

We wrote the  algorithm (workflow) of the App and then contracted an Indian development company to write the code. 

Later we had to bring the development of SIREN back to Cameroon to reduce the cost of developement. 

We work with volunteer around the world that will continuously support with the development of the SIREN

Relevant ecological processes and incidents that are of interest in environmental change research typically occur in remote areas beyond the reach of terrestrial communication infrastructures. Data generated in the field using animal tags in these regions can often only be transmitted with a delay of days or even weeks. To overcome this delay and ensure no delay in the early-warning system, GAIA develops a satellite communication module for the tags as well as a nanosatellite operating in low earth orbit (LEO): In order to be able to transmit collected data and information directly from the transmitting node to the LEO satellite (Low Earth Orbit), a high-performance satellite IoT radio module will be integrated into the new tags. This guarantees immediate, secure and energy-efficient transmission of the extracted data. The communication system is based on the terrestrial mioty® technology and will be adapted to satellite-typical frequency bands such as L- and S-band for the project. Typical communication protocols, which are sometimes used in the IoT sector, are usually designed for small packet sizes. Further development of the mioty® system will therefore also aim to increase the data rate and message size to enable application scenarios such as image transmissions.

Programs like eco-classrooms, guided tours, and school collaborations raised awareness, while immersive experiences, such as observing salmon in their natural habitats, fostered public engagement.

Following habitat restoration efforts, including the removal of silt traps and reforestation along riverbanks, the salmon were reintroduced to five historical streams. Technologies, such as mini radio transmitters, were used to track the salmon’s behavior and assess the suitability of their restored habitats.

A comprehensive artificial breeding program was established over four years, producing 10,000 fish annually for conservation and reintroduction. Challenges included low genetic diversity and habitat-specific requirements.

Shei-Pa National Park has included the Qijiawan River catchment in its protected area, with conservation plans focusing on habitat preservation and breeding programs.