In an effort to promote improved governance and management, the DoF and MCHF supported the development of a tripartite forest co-management agreement between the DoF, the District Council, and the local communities (represented by the TAs). Roles and responsibilities--including specific roles and commitments from supporting actors (including Malawi Police Service, Ministry of Justice, etc.) help stakeholders to hold one another accountable.

The following building blocks have contributed to the success of the restoration realized to date.

1. Strong local leadership:  Strong leadership by the Traditional Authorities and local committees facilitated participation, engagement, and buy-in.
2. Partnership with government departments: The GoM delivers timely training and support
3. Partnership with local and international NGOs.

The organization supported beneficiaries with resources including data, training/capacity building, and in some cases tools. 

This block is very crucial because it ensures that there is law and order in the communities. It involves setting up by-laws that guide in implementing the project initiative. It also involves putting penalties against particular illegal activities, e.g. cutting trees without permission. These laws are better enforced when the communities make them on their own while facilitated by the extension worker.

This is a very crucial parameter because it involves bringing together at least 2 institutions to work towards achieving one goal of the project. Each organization has different roles and activities but these different roles are aimed at achieving the same goals.

Four types of action are considered in this building block:

1. Observation missions by the local community that will consist in assessing if the recruitment of seedlings (propagules) takes place, defining the growth level (height) and evaluating the possible damage caused by the surrounding herds (especially by zebu herds) or climatic hazards;
2. Mission to monitor the state of the water channels to see if the banks are still stable and discharge (flow-through) is possible, especially during high water tides (02 months after planting);
3. First estimate of the level of success, e.g. approximate area of seedling settlement (03 months after restoration).
4. Long-term monitoring (biomass and biodiversity) using drone and satellite imagery; this step will be carried out jointly with the GIZ, the Malagasy Ministry of the environmental and sustainable development (MEDD) and the local community (from 03 months after restoration and onwards).

Technology knows no barriers and we are yet to innovate and discover more with a changing world.

By using the underwater cameras it has allowed us to bring ahead the live viewing and monitoring where previosuly we were limited. Thus allowing us to better engage with local fisher community, for them to get a sense of ownership and unite to better understand and protect this ecosystem. 

This has also facilitated the data sharing of the status of the reef locally and across different channels but also to open the door for more scientific collaboration locally and internationally. 

This project cannot succeed on its own. For the long-term success of coral reef restoration, it was important to develop strong collaboration with locals, fisher communities, other stakeholders. Through the Tech4Nature partnership, we were able to get more support and engage locally with other stakeholders.

By engaging the fisher communities in coral reef restoration from the beginning of the project and allowing them to take part in eco-tourism activities. This not only saved the area from further damage but allowed the fishermen to generate more incomes through sustainable touristic activities while also enjoying the overspill of increased fish abundance in the area.

Inspired by our transparent way of GPS-mapping our more than 2000 installed Zoë-pumps we knew we had to apply the same principle and expand it to show and document our tree planting projects. 

Now we have an elegant solution: We create GPS-Polygons of planting sites by walking around it with a simple smart phone app. We then import these boundary files into the drone mission planning app and fly a drone over the planting site capturing thousands of images. 

These are then stitched into a large photogrammetric map that can transparently show and document landscape change through the work happening on the ground. Additionally all workers inspecting the sites take thousands of GPS-photos which are displayed on our custom built map as well. 

This is a landscape approach where farmers leave deliberately selected native tree species on their farm land either as tree stand or as co-exsisting with crops or both. The farmer manages the trees in such a way that they do not deprive crops of the growing factors. Otherwise the trees in the farm lands improve the soil fertility and structure, protect soil from erosion while supplies wood energy and livestock fodder to the farmer. The silvicultural practices include pruning, treaming,  thinning and coppicing.

This is the process where degraded forests are left deliberately to regenerate from the stumps, roots or seeds,  but man comes in to undertake selected activities to allow the regenerants to grow vigour and health. The activities may include pruning, singling out, thinning,  weeding or even fire prevention activities.