To build institutional capacity and support implementation and future replication on national level, a co-management structure was established: the Northern Telescope Mangrove Management Board (NTMMB). This ensures that the community joins hands with government officials to manage the project, and also helps to enforce mangrove protection policies in Telescope.

Community ownership of the project is ensured, while the highly-constrained government staff resources are supplemented, thereby supporting long term protection of the mangroves.

NTMMB is comprised of five members from the local community and one member from the St. Andrew Development Organisation (SADO), as well as members from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and three Divisions of the MoALFF (Agriculture, Lands, Forestry, and Fisheries), and the Environment division of the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, and the Environment. Monthly board meetings are held.

The main goal of the capacity building and local knowledge component was to provide technical knowledge for managing and conserving water, natural pastures, and livestock. Our focus was on informing community members and park rangers through evaluation workshops and training sessions on topics such as pasture fencing, water management and water distribution. A 3-D model of the Miraflores community was developed in a participatory way to facilitate planning for managing pastures and water in the communal territory. Information was gathered during participatory rural appraisals. These appraisals include specific studies focused on water, pastures, archeology, social organization, agricultural and livestock productivity.

The aim of this step was the mapping and evaluation of ecosystem services (ES) provided by the region’s ecosystems, using the IES approach (Integrating Ecosystem Services into Development Planning).

The first step of the workshop was a participative selection of the most relevant ES, so that they can be considered in spatial planning processes. In a second step, using the Matrix Method, the following activities where undertaken for the mapping of the ES:

1. Creation of a database (current land-use, present and future conditions of ES), design of interview guidelines.
2. Mapping of relevant interviewees (specialists, decision makers and community representatives), carrying out of the interviews.
3. Creation of the ES Maps using GIS/QGIS. The maps show the location and intensity of the ES and the main drivers leading to degradation of ecosystems.

The analysis identified conflicts between zones of the current master plan and some of the landscapes that provide important ES. Additionally, several patches of native vegetation inside urban areas have been identified as suppliers of ES, which provided new information for urban planning. The mapping also generated data with explicit information regarding cultural services for the first time.  

The project was funded entirely through a crowd funding campaign running for 50 days on www.indiegogo.com. This fund raising campaign was initiated by Nature Seychelles in partnership with ClimateCaring.. Individuals were invited to donate £1 (1,25 USD) for each of the twelve hours the sun is out in the Seychelles Islands, finally totaling to a contribution of 15 USD each. There were a total of 95 individual backers. The largest donations of up to 12,500 USD came from a UK energy company and the US Embassy based in Mauritius. Other donations came from private sector companies via their corporate responsibility funds.

Legitimizing the formal recognition and protection of a surf break is key to ensuring sustainability and maintainance of the site over the long term. Meetings to explain the advantages of protecting the surf break and its multiplicatory effect, enables direct actors at the local level in particular to commit to the idea and be the direct agents of change and local protection. Likewise, involving local authorities facilitates broad consensus towards a common goal shared by all participants. This is achieved through local workshops and incidence activities.   

At the community level in Guatemala, WANI facilitated the development of collaborations with the Community Development Committees and coordinated with Municipal and National Development Councils to enable integration of microwatershed planning and management with community-led action on development. Implementation has demonstrated that projects formulated by the communities rather than external institutions respond to the real demands of communities.

At the department level in San Marcos, in Guatemala, an alliance was created with 16 government and NGOs, to form the Inter-Institutional Coordination for Natural Resources and the Environment of San Marcos. CORNASAM has adopted the microwatershed as the unit of planning and, together, these groups have coordinated outreach and training in the micro-watershed approach.

As a result of the success of the Microwatershed model at the local level, the National Microwatershed Commission of Guatemala was established, comprising several government ministries and NGOs/ IGOs (Action Against Hunger, FAO and IUCN) to lead application of governance reform through microwatershed management country-wide. This National Commission will facilitate the preparation of national public water policies.

Unregulated land use change in the upper watershed had been especially damaging on steep hillsides and deforestation reduced the capacity of the soils to retain water. The resulting erosion strongly increased the risk of floods and mudslides. WANI and partners supported the design of numerous community pilot projects which addressed water, soil and environmental conservation. Women made up 90% of these groups, empowering them to take a more proactive role in the development of their communities. The pilot projects were the basis for bringing people together to organize themselves into micro-watershed committees. Examples include:

• Forest nurseries for reforestation and promotion of agroforestry on farms;

• Facilitating development and networking of community enterprises and cooperatives working in, for example, beekeeping, fish farming, forest butterfly farm ecotourism;

• Community gardens, organic farming and soil conservation projects;

• Construction of septic systems to improve sanitation and raise water quality in the Suchiate River;

• Protection of springs for domestic water supply and installation of piped distribution;
• Establishment of a demonstration and training centre in Chiapas for integrated management of watersheds.

The vulnerability assessment was carried out for three periods: the status quo in 2014, the period 2030-2060 and the period 2070-2100. The assessment follows the eight-step approach described in GIZ’s Vulnerability Sourcebook, and was supplemented by a scientific modeling of the impacts of climate change for Burundi.

The study was carried out by three institutions (Adelphi, EURAC, PIK) in collaboration with GIZ / ACCES and its partners. Four national workshops were held with all relevant stakeholders. A group of experts was created to advise and direct the process. Activities at the local level at the selected project sites were carried out in close collaboration with local governmental and non-governmental actors and the local population.

The results of the assessment were presented in the form of vulnerability maps for the three factors of erosion, drought and malaria prevalence. Highly vulnerable areas have been identified to guide the identification of three pilot watersheds. In these watersheds, local vulnerability assessments were conducted to identify local challenges and appropriate adaptation measures.

The Corridor ecosystem has been well-studied and over 200,000 geo-referenced data points are available to help establish spatial management plans. Fisher communities have participated in monitoring resources in the past and currently are generating data on their catch. This in combination with other data from the literature, and from interviews and mapping processes that fishermen participate in, help integrate a wealth of traditional knowledge and scientific information to produce realistic management proposals. Even when presented with complex analyses of this data resulting from computer models such as INVEST and ZONATION, fishers have shown confidence in the information presented to them and they validate it. By creating a decision-making process that uses evidence from these various sources that all stakeholders believe in, we are building a science-based decision making process. We plan to work with stakeholders to define the best indicators for tracking the impacts of management, and then design a participatory process for monitoring these, developing a common, science-based language for measuring the effectiveness of the program. The program is building a digital platform that will serve to communicate the advances.

The fishing communities of the Corridor are isolated from one another and are marginalized from the regional economy. They have few opportunities to interact at that scale. Even within a community there is little social structure.  The project created a forum for interaction and collaboration for solving problems. To strengthen capacity to participate in this forum and planning process, we have focused on building fisher capacity to represent their communities in an Intercommunity Management Group. Workshops have been offered on communication, negotiation, and other leadership skills. We developed materials, held workshops and organized exchanges with other fishermen to give them a better understanding of the variety of management tools that can be applied to improve fisheries and reduce conflicts. This is key to setting the stage for informed decision-making and adopting new management instruments. For more comprehensive acceptance of the process, all community members should be informed. Through communication programs, messages on billboards, radio addresses, social media and workshops, the program involves the entire community to understand and support the process.