Use of social networks and non-traditional media to publicize the initiative

The communication strategy to disseminate the importance and actions of the CPY must be inclusive and innovative, through the creation of a brand and key messages to transmit each year to cyclists, participants should easily identify the main objective of the initiative.
In this sense, we create advertising products such as: press conference, advertising, infographics, maps, posters, jersey, buff, medals that are disclosed during the promotion and the development of events through digital platforms and social networks: website, facebook, twitter, etc. .).
Another space to spread the concept of cycling is that during the tour there are strategic stops for hydration, healthy and natural snacks for cyclists; These spaces are used by local governments and communities to promote the products of their agrobiodiversity and bioemprendimientos.
To socialize the concept of sustainability, during the advertising campaign on social networks, it is indicated that the food will be delivered in sustainable containers (banana leaves) and that the hydration will be delivered in its reusable bottles (plastic bottles should not be used).

Define a clear concept that we want to spread among cyclists.
Maintain the commitment of local governments to promote the products of their agrobiodiversity.
Establish the appropriate communication channels to reach the target group.
Use a registration website for the conceptualization of the event: yawisumak.cicloviajerosec.com / www.ciclorutadelagarua.com
Have a creative graphic designer and aware of the objective to be transmitted.

Having a concept of the bike-trip encourages interest and increases the participation of cyclists.
The dissemination of CPY concepts in advance during the promotion of the event is essential to sensitize cyclists.
The website and social networks are key platforms to have a national reach.
Having a good quality photographic record allows the participants to identify themselves in social networks, tag and share the photos and the message of the event once the event is over.

Preserving Craftsmanship

Kyo-machiya are unique structures, built with an unusual architectural skills and craftsmanship. For keeping the craftsmanship intact, while renovating a Kyo-machiya, various people and organizations pool in their knowledge, including citizen’s groups who take the perspective of the property owner, local financial institutions, and real estate agents.

 

Community Collaboration University, under the aegis of Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration organized Kyo-machiya Revival Seminars. They provide opportunities to learn more about Kyo-machiya, such as - how it constructed, where the traditionally used materials are sourced from, how to manage and maintain it, how to inherit and rent it, and how to make it a better place to live in. These seminars give opportunity to learn about Kyo-machiya as an architectural form familiar to residents and how it can be revived.

  • Revival seminars that provide opportunities to learn more about Kyo-machiya as an architectural form familiar to residents and how it can be revived.

While such efforts have been arduous, special training from architects and craftsmen well versed in traditional Japanese structural design and carpentry, have helped in overcoming the challenges successfully. The trainings have created a platform for the future generations to learn from the machiya architecture and apply some traditional techniques to contemporary work.

Supporting Kyo-machiya Crowdfunding

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. 

  • Collaboration of Kyoto City and the Kyoto Center for Community Collaboration to set up the supporting program for machiya crowdfunding.
  • City’s financial assistants to prepare crowdfunding proposals and fill in the financial gaps.
  • Utilizing an existing crowdfunding platform for renovation and utilization of machiya.

The increase in the number of funding options for renovation has increased the momentum in the restoration and use of Kyo-machiya. Innovative mechanisms involving private funds has decreased the dependence on national and municipal taxes, giving Kyo-machiya an independent identity and perhaps longer sustainability. 

Kyo-machiya Development Fund

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.

  • An initiative by the city and its partners to establish an innovative development fund to preserve, restore, and utilize machiya and the craftsmanship.

At the end of the day, fate of the projects is decided by the funds. This is truer for heritage conservation projects, which may not always find priority position in the list of infrastructure projects to be implemented. As governments' budget is limited, many owners of culturally important buildings and houses look for alternative funding sources to preserve their inheritance; otherwise they would demolish the structures and sell off the land. Innovation in financing has encouraged the machiya owners to retain the structures and not convert to other businesses or condominiums. This in turn has helped in keeping the heritage of Kyoto downtown intact and impacted the tourism of the city positively. 

Reviewing of the Park General Management Plan to include climate resilience aspects

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.

Key enabling factors in this BB include:

  1. Stakeholder awareness on climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for protected areas
  2. Effective facilitation of the GMP review process by qualified experts
  3. Effective stakeholder participation in the review process

To better integrate climate change aspects, emerging lessons show that its is critical to: 

  1. Rivise the protected areas management planning framework  to include climate change. This would allow for the integration of climate change during the GMP development, rather than the review process
  2. Review existing biodiversity threats to include climate change.
  3. Revise management objects to capture climate change resilience.
Development of a park climate change strategy

 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.

  1. Participation of stakeholders with knowledge on climate change variability and change and biodiversity
  2. Facilitation by a climate change and natural resource expert.
  3. Access to updated climate (and biodiversity) information
  1. Stakeholder participation is key to designing appropriate adaptation measures with the potential of improving resilience to climate change. Thus, stakeholders, including communities adjacent to protected areas, should be involved in the identification and validation of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.
  2. The identification of relevant adaptation and mitigation measures requires that the process if facilitated by a qualified climate change expert with a good understand of the regional, national and local context.
  3. The availability of up to date baseline data, both scientific and indigenous, on climate change aspects informs the designing of relevant adaptation measures
Community outreach and governance

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.

A training workshop was organized and a number of practical trials of the TEDs for fishers in the area were facilitated. Changing the practices of local fishing communities remains a major priority, but will require long-term education programming combined with policy solutions.

The last obstacle to be tackled in this public arena was governance. In the beginning, local authorities seemed more concerned about fishers’ rights than turtle safety. However, as understanding spread, government agencies became partner advocates for the holistic, long-term solutions. There were alternative livelihood trainings to provide income generating options to the community besides fishing.

Science and technical expertise

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.

IUCN supported DPCL in developing an Environment Management Plan (EMP). This plan was scientifically robust and practically implementable, going beyond the existing legal requirements. Most importantly EMP was designed in such a way that it becomes the integral part of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of DPCL. This makes it different from other EMPs.

Large-scale infrastructure can be designed to successfully incorporate biodiversity considerations.

Education and training for farmers on organic shrimp certification

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.  

  • Financial investment in education and educational resources.
  • Scientific and technical expertise to develop education programmes for certification.
  • Incentives for farmers to be trained and certified.
  • Support from local government, especially the forestry sector, to organise much of the training.
  • Training must not be a one-off training, but a series of training and retraining each year. Farmer awareness must be built gradually.
  • Convincing farmers to participate in the initial training is the most difficult as they often have difficulty in understanding the idea of organic farming, and some of the required changes in farm practice goes against their common knowledge.
  • Support from local authorities, especially the forest management boards are crucial.
Integrating Environmental Fund in VSLAs

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.

- Community uderstanding of marine stewardship

- Effective facilitation

- Environmental Fund integration manual

 

A facilitator’s role in drawing community support is very crucial that we can only begin the conversation on how the VSLAs can help generate financial resources once we have convinced the VSLA constituency that the marine environment must be protected and that the VSLA have the capability to support conservation and protection of our coastal resources