Landscape perspective

By applying a landscape perspective to forest management, the ecosystem as a whole is considered. For this solution, a special focus has been given to biodiversity, climate change adaptation, and pasture management.

A diverse forest plot has multiple benefits for the forest tenant. Firstly, the tenant has a diverse harvest which contributes to food and nutation security. Secondly, species diversity reduces the risk of pests and increases the soil fertility. Thirdly, diverse forests provide a habitat for pollinators, which are crucial for fruit and nut trees.

Tajikistan is prone to disasters, further reinforced by overharvested natural resources and climate change having fierce impacts. Landslides and droughts are common phenomena but the frequency and intensity have increased significantly. Forest cover on slopes and along river banks are an important adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategy.

Further, livestock is frequently grazing on forest areas, as pastures are scarce and the limited land available overused and degraded. Forest grazing reduces ground cover, impedes the root system, and hinders natural forest regeneration. Therefore, grazing must be addressed together with the forest tenants and solutions identified that go beyond the prohibition of grazing in forests.

By applying a landscape perspective, a multitude of problems, difficulties, and risks to the community can be addressed. Consequently, the approach has gained in acceptance by the local communities as it takes environmental, economic and social challenges into account.

The experience has shown that political land delineations often do not correspond with ecosystem boundaries. Areas, assigned for re- and afforestation, do usually not cover a whole ecosystem but are part of a bigger ecosystem with which the forest area interacts and shares resources. Consequently, forest management needs to consider implications by and interactions with the wider ecosystem the forest plot is part of. As various land use types and land use rights interact in one ecosystem for which different ministerial bodies are responsible, the establishment of an inter-sectoral dialogue to foster coordination and cooperation of all involved actors at landscape level has proven to be successful. Within the JFM implementation in Tajikistan, a bi-annual exchange has been established, where practitioners, relevant ministries and local as well as international organizations exchange. This exchange platform is not only appreciated by partners but also helped to include the landscape perspective. Therefore, an exchange platform is highly recommendable. 

Joint Forest Management (JFM) approach

Joint Forest Management (JFM) is a participatory forest management approach that allows the local population – either individuals or groups – to become involved in forest management and support the rehabilitation of degraded natural forests over the long term. These individuals sign a contract for the land use rights with the State Forest Enterprises for a period of 20 years, with the possibility for prolongation. This encourages the tenants to sustainably manage and rehabilitate their forest plot of usually 1-2 ha in size. In addition to the contract, management and annual plans serve as tools for forest management planning and for the monitoring of activities and results. They are developed jointly by the State Forest Enterprises and the respective tenant for each individual plot. Typical tasks specified in the annual plan are measures to protect the plot from livestock grazing, planting of trees, harvesting and pruning. Further, the annual plan specifies the harvest shares of the State Forest Enterprises and the forest tenant according to a fair sharing principle defined in the contract. The management plan, developed, for a 5 year period, specifies long-term goals, such as the installation of an irrigation channel or the diversification of the forest plot. 

While land use rights in Tajikistan are typically given for a short period (usually for one single season), the 20-year contract with the State Forest Enterprises enables the tenant to develop a long-term forest management plan. The joint forest management approach has been first introduced in Tajikistan in 2006 and ever since gained in reputation. In 2011, the approach was formalized and anchored in the national forest code.

The experience has shown that for the introduction of JFM the support by external facilitators (e.g. field staff or a local NGO) is indispensable. Both contracting parties, forest tenant and State Forest Enterprise, need to have a clear understanding of their rights, rules, and obligations. Therefore, it is highly recommended to have experienced and skilled facilitators present in the field, who have a sound understanding of the approach and of the local context. Further, the facilitators need to guide the tenants as well as the staff of the State Forest Enterprises through the process of selecting a forest area, introducing the approach to the communities, selecting forest tenants, delineating the individual plots, concluding the contract, and developing the annual- and management plans. Further, the establishment of forest tenant groups has proven to be successful, especially since, in Tajikistan, community groups are relatively common. Jointly, the forest tenants perform activities such as harvesting, pruning or fencing.

Proclamation of no-take marine protected area

Recognising the value of Aldabra Atoll’s terrestrial and marine ecosystems, Aldabra was declared a special reserve in 1981 by the Seychelles government. Later on, due to its outstanding universal values, Aldabra was proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. This meant that there was no extraction of the resources, no destruction of habitat and legal protection of the marine protected area. This legislative and legal framework provides the basis and support for protection of Aldabra and its biodiversity. Since then, green turtle nesting habitat have therefore been protected from development and destruction and green turtles on Aldabra, on land and in the sea, have been protected against poaching. In 2018, the marine protected area around Aldabra has been extended and covers now the whole Aldabra group inclusive Cosmoledo, Astove and Assumption. This represents an increased by 74,400 square kilometres of waters in this area, further strengthening the legal protection of the nesting habitat in Seychelles’ Outer islands.

Science-based evidence on the conservation value of a site is necessary for the nomination of a protected area. In early 1970s ecological assessments were carried out by scientist from the Royal Society of London. SIF was established in 1979 as management authority to manage Aldabra. Following this, the Seychelles government declared Aldabra a special reserve in 1981.

Following collection of ample scientific evidence on its ecological value and with a fully operational management body, Aldabra was successful in its nomination to UNESCO as a world heritage site. The initial ecological assessments now form valuable baselines enabling the continuity of ecological monitoring of Aldabra Atoll.

An Open and Participatory Process

Hsinchu Food Forest is a result of an open and participatory process between the municipality and several stakeholders of the city, like local residents, community groups, city agencies, schools, and even those that might not initially like the idea of an urban food forest. In order to assure public participation and support, it is essential to make every step of building the food forest an open and participatory process. We held over 30 hours of talks to educate local and surrounding communities the idea of a food forest, we even invited the co-founders of the Beacon Food Forest to share their experience with the municipal government and communities, which was a big help in getting the official to say yes. We also held a competition to collect people’s idea on the design of the site, and later asked a landscape designer to combine the ideas of the winning groups. We kept a close relationship with the managing official and local communities (and media) to make sure that the stakeholders would be informed of the latest progress of the food forest, and to modify the design in a timely manner when someone came up with concerns that had been neglected, such as people might trip and fall into the pond at night. We added a short hedgerow and lighting to prevent such possibilities.

1. A group with strong incentives to carry out the project that can negotiate with different stakeholders and take the responsibility.

2. An open and positive attitude when facing obstacles and different opinions.

3. Full and clear understanding of the project, potential obstacles and other information by every stakeholder.

4. Support from every stakeholder/community member. This is critical when the project is on public land.

5. Participatory design: the community must be also consulted and engaged in the design of the site.

The support of the landowner, especially when it is the municipal government, is very important in making this project is sustainable, as it helps face many challenges and bring legitimacy to the project. During the process, one will definitely face different opinions or stumble upon behavioral problems, sometimes reasonable and sometimes not. For example, many of the suggestions brought out by the local elders were against the “care for the earth” or “fair share” concept, such as wanting to use pesticides to alleviate pest problems, or keeping people they don’t like from participating in the food forest. While keeping an open and positive attitude and trying to make everyone equal and happy, we found it hard to enforce the code of conduct as we are not officials nor local residents. This is when the municipal government could play their part in coordinating conflicts and making the final judgment. Note that this might not be the case if the project is happening in other cultural settings.

NGOs initiatives turning into Regional Action

The Declaration of REDPARQUES was proposed by the SNACC project team in the Frebruary 2015 directive committee meeting of the Project, composed by REDPARQUES members of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. It was adopted by REDPARQUES and later approved by its members at REDPARQUES annual meeting (2015) and presented at the UNFCCC 21st COP, in Paris, December 2015.

 

From then owards, the initiative of the Declaration was led by REDPARQUES with the technical support of the SNACC project in the areas of policy incidence, communications and scientific evidence.

 

-Policy component: political advocacy at the regional and national levels started with the establishment of a baseline on progress achieved by Amazon countries in integrating PAs and CC in their policy instruments. Through the publication "Políticas públicas de los países amazónicos y cambio climático. APs como estrategia de adaptación", public policies, laws, agreements and regulations (national, subnational and regional) were analized.

 

-Communications: several materials were produced around the issue of PAs as natural solutions to CC.

 

-Scientific evidence: a publication was produced, identifying the role that Amazon PAs play in increasing resilience of the Amazon biome: "Vulnerability and Climate Risk Analysis of the Amazon and its PAs"

-Funding from the the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) of Germany

-Participation of NGOs: WWF Living Amazon Initiative (LAI)

-The status of CC-related policies in the Amazon countries (Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) and degree of integration of PAs in these policies.

 

-Limiting factors, in terms of territories, institutions, capacities and instruments for those CC-related policies.

 

-Recommendations, specifying opportunities for short-term actions.

 

-Policy analysis can contribute to determine gaps and action required in order to attend climate change, and to make evidence the role of protected areas as natural solutions to this phenomenon.

REDPARQUES, a network for protected areas

The Latin American Technical Cooperation Network on National Parks, other Protected Areas, Wild Flora and Fauna, known as REDPARQUES, is a network of public and private institutions working on Protected Areas (PAs) and conservation of flora and fauna. This Network was the basis for the development of political commitment surrounding the Declaration on PAs and climate change (CC).

 

REDPARQUES was created in 1983, responding to the need to improve Latin American PAs management and the willingness to share technical knowledge and experiences on the matter.   

 

Since its creation, REDPARQUES has significantly contributed to the development of institutional capacitites of PAs' agencies and PA's staff, offering an opprotunity to discuss, share scientific and technical information and to promote regional strategies for PAs. 

 

Lastly, this network has strengthened the communication and the bonds between different National Systems of protected areas, which, at the same time, has boosted the creation of national/regional agendas related to the United Nationals Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity (Aichi Targets) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs). 

-Promoted inclusion of CC issues at the national level in PAs agencies through experience exchange and knowledge development

-Public commitment of Latin American countries to be part of REDPARQUES activities

-A good leader (Peru's PAs agency CEO-SERNANP), chosen by the members of REDPARQUES, to guide the actions of the network and establish a workplan

-Good outcomes framed under this network, which strengthen its capacities and scope

-The network has favored the sharing of knowledge and experiences. This process strengthens, at the same time, the management of protected areas of Latin America. 

-Support for nature-based solutions in climated change discussions can be harnessed by showing political commitments to action by governments through a regional platform, such as REDPARQUES.

-Policy claims relating to nature-based solutions gain relevance when backed by strong evidence; e.g. on the role of PAs for mitigation and adaptation; action on the ground.

Training of farmers

The method used in training involves introductory lessons on Biointensive agriculture and other sustainable ideas carried out indoors. After this familiarization with the concepts, the trainees are subjected to demonstrations to aid in acquiring of relevant practical skills and finally participatory action based on-farm training. Discussions and sharing of ideas and experiences are highly encouraged at this stage and upholding is equally emphasized. Thematic approaches based on soil conservation, long-term soil fertility building, ecological farm management practices and energy saving are stressed.

The community members will have an interest in sustainable methods of farming – Biointensive agriculture i.e. avail themselves for the trainings, and play their duly part during training and implementation of the project in order to make a lasting impact.

  • Farmers are aware of the benefits ecological method of farming
  • The farmers are willing to adopt the ecological farming
  • The farmers fully participated in the whole session of training
• Choosing to plant threatened indigenous trees for high value timber

Overharvesting in Tanzania in general and in this area's forests which lie within the adjacent Mt. Meru National Park have contributed to the threatened status of nationally treasured species such as Dalbergia, Khaya, Afzelia, Millettia, Podocarpus, & Juniper spp.  The capacities of the communities were built with the help of NGOs but the initiative was implemented as a participatory action research in which villagers led the collaboration with the NGOs in a supportive role.

The community recognized that some of these species are hard to find,and illegal to harvest in the wild. They  identified multiple solutions including soil conservation measures and planting of these indigenous trees in their fields. They combined this with land use planning with local bylaws to be monitored and enforced by village environment committees, water source restoration using indigenous trees, and planting of grasses along soil & water conservation measures in farmers’ fields.

1 - A facilitating approach rather than directives let to voluntary formation of village by-laws in support of land use & natural resource management; two plans have been recognized by the district to date.

2 - Facilitation included training on measuring of contours and establishing grasses for livestock fodder, thus bringing multiple benefits: to conserve water and soil; in one village, gathering water from roads into field contours instead of the opposite (this idea still needs more promotion as farmers fear the effects of too much runoff water entering their fields.)

3 - The NGOs worked with the communities to find solutions and develop activities which they themselves identified. These discussions created ownership and led them to address other challenges.

• Facilitating community discussion on natural resources management action;

The solution was to empower the communities to take action using sustainable agriculture through their voluntary involvement. Community members were involved in describing their situation and finding solutions which they were willing to implement, emphasizing participation and action to stop the environmental and food security decline. They proposed a number of activities which they agreed to commence. They identified multiple solutions including soil conservation measures and planting of indigenous trees in their fields, land use planning with local bylaws to be monitored and enforced by village environment committees, water source restoration using indigenous trees, and planting of grasses along soil & water conservation measures in farmers’ fields. The capacities of the communities were built with the help of NGOs but the initiative was implemented as a participatory action research in which villagers led the collaboration with the NGOs in a supportive role. They worked closely with the community leaders and early-adapter farmers to further refine the solutions and develop specific activities to address the challenges.

The communities have embraced the goal of increasing food security and environmental restoration by building capacity of community members by the two local NGOs. The first farmers engaged have noticed increased production and arresting soil erosion and increased water retention on their farms. The focus has addressed education, starting in the higher altitude farms. Not all obstacles like population have been addressed.

1 - The NGOs worked with the communities to find solutions and develop activities which they themselves identified. These discussions created ownership and led them to address other challenges. 

2 - Instead of following methods of previous initiatives which primarily used exotic tree species, used a difficult-to-use technology for measuring contours (line-level) which farmers could not do themselves, and imposed engagement of farmers, this collaboration showed change by example, engaged first lead farmers voluntarily, generated adherence to bylaws first by education, later by coercion, used indigenous trees, and introduced simple tools & technologies. 

3 - Historical approaches have left bad memories; forced destocking is illogical to the local agro-pastoralists whose assets are measured in land and livestock numbers.

4 - Population pressure has caused cultivation of steep lands which should not be farmed. Households high on the hillsides need to take the lead; those lower down suffer from the effects of the poor practices above them and their efforts are destroyed during heavy rains.

 

Training of farmers

The method used in training involves introductory lessons on Biointensive agriculture and other sustainable ideas carried out indoors. After this familiarization with the concepts, the farmers are subjected to demonstrations to aid in acquiring of relevant practical skills and finally participatory action based on-farm training. Discussions and sharing of ideas and experiences is highly encouraged at this stage and upholding is equally emphasized. Thematic approach based on soil conversation, long term soil fertility building, ecological farm management practices and energy saving are stressed. Initially, trainers of trainees are selected from famer groups. They are then trained at Manor House Agricultural Centre. They are then sent to establish mini-training centre in the community where they train other farmers

The community members will have an interest in sustainable methods of farming – Biointensive agriculture i.e. avail themselves for the trainings, and play their duly part during training and implementation of the project in order to make a lasting impact.

The social-economic political and weather conditions will allow for the process of awareness, training and more importantly adoption and implementation of the ideas.

After this familiarization with the concepts of BIA, the farmers are able to adopt the technology. this is as a result of observation made from the demostrations during training and discussions, sharing of ideas and experiences