In 2016, Kyoto City and the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration launched a crowdfunding program for machiya aiming to tap into a wider range of funding sources. Eligible projects are renovations and utilization proposals of machiya, and since machiya are often used as lodgings or restaurants, projects in this program are mostly interior renovations for hotels and restaurants. Initially, the program provides a maximum of 1 million JPY to cover costs for preparing a crowdfunding proposal. Once the proposal has gathered more than half of the target amount of money, the program fills in the financial gap by maximum 3 million JPY. In fiscal year 2017, Kyoto City announced that the program will accept up to four project proposals. As of March 2018, there is one ongoing project that proposes to renovate a machiya into a traditional-style hotel and to create an open factory next door where visitors can experience the making of traditional goods. 

Together with the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration, Kyoto City established the Kyo-machiya Development Fund in 2005. This fund aims to promote the preservation, restoration, and utilization of machiya based on donations from residents, companies, and external supporters in addition to financing by both the national and local government. Another important aspect of this fund is that it is complementary to Kyoto City’s efforts to preserve machiya and the historic urban landscape. The number of machiya the local government can support is limited due to budget constraints. Currently, around 3,000 machiya are supported by Kyoto City. As illustrated in a gallery photo, the Machiya Development Fund provides support to machiya at the bottom of the pyramid and attempts to pull them up to a higher category, which is then considered for public support by the city. The Machiya Development Fund began with 150 million JPY in 2005. By March 2016, the Machiya Development Fund supported a total of 76 renovations and restorations of Kyo-machiya. The number of inquiries is recently increasing, and currently it is around 500 every year.

This block addresses the work of revising the management plan so that it integrates aspects related to climate change resilience.

It was agreed during the National Validation Workshop held in December 2017 in Lusaka between the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and the Lake Tanganyika Development Programme (the funder of the GMP review) and other key stakeholders that the Nsumbu GMP will be reviewed in 2018 to include climate change aspects by pulling together information from the approved climate change strategy. Further it was agreed that the Park Climate Change Strategy will be annexed to the revised GMP.

As of March 2019, the review of the GMP is ongoing and expected to be completed towards the end of this year.

 Informed by the climate change vulnerability and land use assessment, the framing of climate change adaptation objectives and strategies was undertaken aimed at improving park resilience to climate change.

The climate change adaptation objectives and strategies were reviewed by stakeholders at a workshop held in Lusaka in October 2017.  The workshop was attended by park managers from Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Nsumbu National Park and others. Inputs provided by stakeholders was used to further develop the adaptation objectives and strategies into a park climate change strategy. The strategy included a goal, scope and objectives, adaptation strategies as well as implementation and monitoring plans. key indicators and parameters for monitoring changes in vulnerability and resilience were also included.

Another workshop was held in December 2017 in Lusaka to validate the climate change strategy. The workshop was attended by Ministry of Tourism and Arts and Ministries responsible for Environment, and Natural Resources as well as key Departments and Agencies. Others were representatives from Nsumbu National Park, Nsumbu-Mweru Wantipa Management Area, Lake Tanganyika Development Project. The final park climate change strategy was to be integrated into & annexed to the GMP.

IUCN entered into the Dhamra port project because of concern about the port harming Olive Ridley turtles. As IUCN dug into the problems, however, it learned that the mortality rate of the turtles had already increased dramatically. A report prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India indicated that turtle mortality had increased from a few thousand a year in the early 1980s to more than 10,000 by the mid 1990s. Mechanized trawl fishing and gill net fishing were seen to be responsible for the mortalities.

Local community awareness regarding the value of the turtles was low. To address this, the IUCN team engaged in community sensitizing activities, including creative educational programs, as well as traditional outreach. DPCL also established a community training centre so that local villagers could develop new skills.

IUCN also identified that the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) could be helpful in reducing turtle mortality due to trawl fishing, one of the biggest problems in the areas. The devices weren’t new to fishers in the Dhamra area – Indian NGOs and scientists had tested them with the fishers in the past – but they weren’t being used. The IUCN DPCL team consulted extensively with local fishing cooperative officers and communities to better understand the issues.

Dredging, recognized as a serious threat to the marine turtles, was identified by IUCN as a priority.  IUCN, with experts from the Species Survival Commission’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group designed and developed a dredging protocol to be followed during port operations. These included installing turtle deflectors on all dredger drag-heads to help ensure turtles were not pulled into the dredger. Trained observers were assigned to all dredgers to monitor this process. These observers would check screens on inflow and overflow pipes on a 24/7 basis. These measures (deflectors, screens, and human observers) were put in place to ensure that the dredging was “turtle friendly”. Such measures were the first to have been put in place in the history of dredging activities in India.

Lighting was the second major threat identified because excess glare is known to distract turtle hatchlings as they instinctively move towards brightly lit areas and away from the sea. For this, the IUCN Commission experts provided specific guidelines for the port’s lighting plan, which was adopted by the port authorities. IUCN further supported Tata Steel in identifying the right design for these lights. Today, Dhamra Port is the first and only port in India to have installed “turtle friendly” lighting.

In order to obtain organic certification, farmers require training on installing and using toilets with septic tanks, and household waste management. Co-financing the provision of toilet kits and the replanting of mangroves in shrimp ponds are also required during a pilot demonstration.

Not only do farmers need to be trained, but forest protectors also need to be trained on applicable new technology for mangrove management and protection in order to monitor and audit the contracted mangrove cover. From 2013-2017, the project organised regular training to help transform the forest management system of the Forest Management Boards from one that relied on manually drawn cadastral maps and field measurement to one that is based on digital maps, using remote sensing, GIS, and GPS measurement and monitoring systems.

The project also needs to provide shrimp processing companies with training to establish and maintain Internal Control System teams. This training helps the companies to establish organic farming auditors and monitoring teams of their own. These teams are required to support and supervise the organic farmers over large areas to meet the standard for organic certification.  

The conversation on how the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) can help generate financial resources begin once VSLA constituency is convinced that the marine environment must be protected and that the VSLAs have the capability to support conservation and protection of marine resources. The individual contributions are set and broad goals are identified and integrated in the group’s constitution and by-laws.

FONCET was one of many financial mechanisms that were created for different natural protected areas as part of TNC´s Parks in Peril Program. FONCET started out only for El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve and was the only local fund to succeed. Later on, FONCET started to invest in other protected areas trying to replicate the model.

First donations were used to create strong bases for the organization, carefully selecting, hiring and training high skilled and committed individuals, as well as developing legal and operational manuals, transparent administrative procedures, strategic plans, strong communication, fundraising and technical capacitates, among others. FONCET invests in having the best team since the success of an NGO strongly depends, among other, on the people in charge.

Restoration of the forest has a higher success rate if native trees are used/planted.  Native tree species will allow the forest to recover and conserve natural habitat. This will optimize the supply of forest benefits and ecosystem services; reduce the risks of natural hazards such as landslides; and enhance options for sustainable livelihood.