Determination of the carrying capacity
The collection of technical data to assess the carrying-capacity is needed to start a participatory process with the tourism operators. This data was important to convince the local operators on the potential impacts of recreational activities and to convince them on maintaining a low use level on the reef and promote a high quality service for the tourists. Creating a joint understanding of potential impacts of recreational marine activities thus includes participatory meetings with local tourism operators to explain impacts of intensive recreational activities and the threats these implement on their livelihoods in order to develop the planning process.
- Economic and technical support by NGOs, the academic community and tourism operators for the carrying-capacity study - Good timing and acceptance by local community to develop public use program due to threats of developing a mega-tourism project in the area
- Open-participation, important to invite all stakeholders involved. - Expert facilitation of the participatory process to avoid conflicts with authority and ensure respect and appropriation of the program
Pride training program
Rare’s Pride Program training is a two-year process through which local conservation leaders receive formal university training, followed by periods of field-based formative research and results analyses. Participants learn how to change attitudes and behaviors, mobilize support for environmental protection, and reduce threats to natural resources. Rare’s local partners not only receive classroom training, but also implement an entire social marketing campaign in their communities, designed around a specific conservation goal. Participants in the program receive a toolkit for community outreach: Training 1 provides trainees with basic community engagement tools, so that they can start embedding themselves in the target audience and earn their trust. Training 2 takes place after a period of 1-2 months of field embedding, and teaches research techniques for qualitative and quantitative formative research. Training 3 takes place after 2-3 months of data collection and information gathering, to analyze data collected and design the Pride Campaign. Training 4 takes place upon campaign conclusion, to evaluate results and produce final report.
• Partner commitment to secure full-time dedication of participating fellows to the Pride program. • Continued full engagement and adequate progress of fellows during the entire duration of the program. • A minimum of high school degree for program participants/fellows. • A basic Pride curriculum, tailored to programmatic theme. • Basic infrastructure as well as training team.
A key element in the success of the Pride training program is to have specific deliverables and frequent evaluations of capacity. These deliverables and grades are recorded in an online tool that allows for multiple party follow-up. The same basic training assessment is delivered at the beginning of the cohort, and upon completion of every training phase. Having participants with different backgrounds and levels of academic training (high school or university degrees), presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is having to adapt lesson content and activities to accommodate for these differences. The opportunity is precisely to take advantage of these differences in skills and backgrounds to recruit participants to share past experiences and help fellow trainees in the learning process as mentors.
Common understanding and trust
Shifting the thinking of individual fishers from solo owner-operators to being part of commercial sector with shared obligations, responsibilities and social license and a common desire to promote better fishing practices to ensure the sustainability and growth of the snapper biomass. All independent commercial fishers, fishing vessel owners, SNA1 quota owners, Licensed Fish Receivers of snapper and snapper processing plants were identified and invited to attend the same meeting. Over a period of five months three meetings were held, repeated in four locations based on the commercial fishers ‘local port’. The first meeting identified the issues fishers felt they were being criticised about; the second meeting set out possible solutions and called for discussion before being voted on. At the third meeting the agreed solutions were framed as a Voluntary Agreement with six rules, debated and voted on before being given to government officials, who then worked with commercial fishers on the logistics of recording and reporting on success.
The Agreement was signed by almost everyone who was involved in catching, selling and processing more than 5 tons of SNA1 a year. Over 90% of fishers within the first month of the Agreement being finalised were meeting their reporting requirements.
• To set up from the start the processes for discussion and voting, systems and communication channels that you want to end up with rather than letting these grow organically. • To have everyone on board that has a role in the commercial snapper fishery and take them with you through the evolving journey. • To clearly identify the problem but be willing to muddle through and think outside the box until the solution becomes clear.
Determination of stressors
Experts determine the type and degree of damage and identify the causes of mangrove loss such as changes in temperature, water pollution, hydrological modifications and sedimentation. This helps decision makers develop site specific restoration and reforestation plans.
tba
tba
Fishing access rights
Access rights, such as individual quotas or territorial use rights (TURFS), delimited based on scientific findings and participatory processes, help to avoid overfishing and recover fish populations. They assure fishermen stable fishing over time and exclusive benefits from sustainable management, increasing their stewardship and compliance.
- Support through associated legislation - Long-time set-up for access rights - Clearly defined norms and rules
Examples on the international level show that with access rights: - Fishermen responsibly manage their resources - Administration and planning of fishing activities improves in the short, middle and long-term In Mexico single examples exist in which access rights are agreed upon between fisherfolk and authorities in an unusual way: - It is necessary to act with a clear and transparent juridical framework that has a legal framwork for access rights
Participatory needs assessment
Communities and stakeholders participate in all aspects of the management process, including biological and Participatory Rural Appraisal surveys for baseline data collection and sharing. Together with community groups, stakeholder consultation on locally managed marine area (LMMA) zoning and later management operations are conducted. The results and thus the identified area to be protected are displayed using a 3D model. These activities are accompanied by awareness raising activities about coastal resource protection as well as co-management requirements.
• Awareness of the local community leading to a request for addressing ongoing problems and challenges • Small size of the area to be governed under LMMA to allow successful co-design and later co-management
The local proposal for the Trao Reef LMMA initiative was effective for launching this LMMA project. The consequent capacity building, including awareness rising, for community empowerment are an important precondition to successful LMMA planning and establishment.
Creating ownership
To build a long-term and lasting management plan, all perspectives, uses and needs are taken into account. Provincial workshops facilitate a collective understanding. Community input is ensured through the use of participatory risk assessments (rural appraisal tool) at village level. Provincial workshops connect the local knowledge to the official level. Working groups and workshops held during the drafting phase of the plan ensure a strong governance system.
- Use of adequate communication tools like community stories to bring local knowledge to an institutional level and tools like cartoons, movies, and stories to bring scientific/policy related information to communities. - A qualified coordinator to ensure a balanced participation of all stakeholders and off-site discussions to prepare workshops.
The governance system has to be built during the consultation period and should ideally involve representatives of all types of stakeholders related to the site. It is important to address local governance issues in existing communities, such as land tenure, as most land does not belong to the communities. It is difficult to encourage communities to restore local natural habitats and undertake other conservation issues without clear perspective. The participation of national government representatives could be a limitation to the participation of the grassroots level. The participatory approach is a new process for very centralized government systems, where top-down approaches are preferred.
Collaborative management of all stakeholders
Establish a management body reflecting the collaboration between local government and communities ensuring transparency and accountability. In collaboration with all stakeholders, including partnerships with local enterprises, set up a joint patrol teams composing members of local government, National Waters Guard, National Navy, community groups, traditional security guards, dive operators and the CTC.
• Commitment from local government • Partnership between stakeholders • No conflicts between resource owners and dive and tour operators
To be provided by solution provider.
Consultative development: zoning and management plan
Formalise and enhance local customs and institutions legally. Conduct consultations (in the case of Nusa > 30) with community groups, government, and private dive operators with specific attention directed to each stakeholder group’s context. Identify core zones of high resilience, thus high conservation value. Core zones have high coral reef biodiversity serving as spawning sites, and no coral bleaching during temporarily high sea-surface temperatures.
• Commitment from local government on MPA establishment • Community support and culture that respects nature and acknowledges peoples’ dependence on coastal and marine resources • Location of the MPA close to the mainland (access) and not too large in terms of size for management reasons
Planning and developing an MPA should involve a range of central and local government agencies, the local community(ies) concerned, marine tour operators and other marine users.
Insertion in the community

A requirement to a community led participatory monitoring program is the prior development of strong relationship with the community leaders. The nature, objectives and methods to be used were discussed and agreed with the community before its implementation. Awareness on the lack of and the great value of fisheries landing data was clearly established within the community at the onset of the monitoring program.

Keeping the same staff interacting with the communities so that trust is generated among people representing each party. Prior negotiation on how projects were going to be undertaken and which role the community will have in the activities. Maintaining constant communication with community representatives. Periodically reporting the results of the projects being implemented in the community.

Set in advance the "rules of the game" with community representatives creates an environment of trust. The community involvement in the identification and design process, as well as in the activities, is also very beneficial. The return to the community of the information that was generated and the conclusions drawn from the data collected enables community ownership of the process. The development of this confidence and joint work allows MarViva to be inserted in the community and to be perceived as part of it, facilitating the implementation of processes.