Monitoring | PANORAMA

Interactive technology for conservation

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.

Local community buy-in
Interactive technology
Data sharing

Technology here not only brought live viewing and interaction but a completely new level of underwater restoration. Fish and coral interaction can be securely monitored allowing scientist to discover more about underwater interactions.

Community engagement and partnerships

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.

Close-up monitoring by local communities
Ownership by fishermen communities
Strong partnership with local companies

This has allowed us to continiously bring the work done underwater to the general public (global level).

Drone mapping and remote sensing

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.

We are lucky enough to have a malawian team that is highly skilled and trained well enough so that we can 100% rely on their work and the results they deliver.
Apart of that it is important to have reasonable drone laws in a country, as well as having access to a drone and a pilot.

In the very beginning of the drone monitoring we had to research the best workflow to map an area with no network terrain-aware. As this took a lot of time and turned out to be actually not even that complicated we wanted to share our knowledge and created a learning series on drone monitoring in cooperation with One Tree Planted and it is now freely available on youtube and covers all there is to know:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNd5k-Dy6I3qZeRh2Pj1WQ

Implementation

Monitoring

Local

Strategic alliances between the beneficiaries of tourism in Madidi

The Madidi National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area coordinates with the Vice-Ministry of Tourism, under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and local entities to prioritize this activity as a strategy for local and regional development, in addition to the recovery of the development vision and the use of natural, scenic and cultural values.

The institutions maintain a common vision based on nature conservation.
Institutional conditions are in place to promote tourism as a local development strategy.

Strategic alliances in the area have been strengthened with a vision of tourism-driven development; this process is implemented with the participation of various stakeholders from different sectors, which has allowed for the planning of activities at different scales and scopes.
The planning processes were established with a broad participation of the territorial actors, once they achieve a common objective, the context conditions were generated to work in a sectorial manner, in this case tourism, since with common objectives the search for different sources of funds is carried out and a common vision is established to have an impact in the medium and long term.
Conservation objectives are very important when supporting development processes such as tourism. The main criterion to achieve conservation can be tourism, seen as a means to obtain tools and conditions establishing a context to conserve the protected area.

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Subnational

National

Farmer managed natural regeneration management

A family managing a FMNR stand

Captured by Stevie matcheso

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.

Availability of stumps in the farm land is an opportunity that hundreds of hactorage can be achieved within short period of time. Community involvement is almost obvious as the individual farmers become the primary beneficiaries of the technology unlike other solutions. The regenerants are independent of harsh conditions such as inadequate rains. The shoots start sprouting right in dry season as the mother stump has well established roots. Hence the technology never register unsuccessful results.

Farmer managed natural regeneration is a successful solution. As the regenerants originate from well established stumps which is native, the technology withstands unfavourable weather circumstances such just it is the promising, yielding and profiting project.

Assisted natural regeneration and soil and water conservation

Assisted natural regeneration stand

Captured by Stevie matcheso

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.

The building block has proven to be effective. The fact the the shoots are from well established stump supported by already grown roots, the regenerants grow very fast and become very resistant to harsh environment such as inadequate rains. Another factor is that the species are already in their native land, hence grow fast and successfully. The technology is cheap - Neither tubes nor nursery work and costs are needed.

It is cheap technology. No nursery work or costs are incurred, yet resistant to harsh growing conditions

Interaction between conservation and population health

Nature conservation and its relationship with the quality of life and health of the local population.

Conservation and maintenance of functional environmental conditions are a priority to avoid emerging and zoonotic diseases.
Preservation of local knowledge and appreciation by indigenous peoples of plants and animals for use in local medicine and culture.
Management actions by protected areas to systematize and rescue local knowledge.

The relationship between nature and health is becoming more and more critical, there are many empirical evidences that diseases that affect humans through the relationship with wild species can cause outbreaks and new pandemics. In this sense, the conservation and maintenance of stable natural conditions and functional food chains can reduce this risk.

The risk of degradation affecting vulnerable people in local communities is very high, so protected areas are playing a critical role in conservation.

Strengthening the market based on forest products

The Manuripi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve builds its sustainability based on the management and harvesting of Amazonian fruits within the territory. The measures adopted within the different links of the value chain are very important to achieve benefits for the local population.

The valuation of forest products is maintained or improved to promote these activities and the country and region provide support to improve production.
The prices of these products are stable or rising and promote a profit for the harvesters.
The certification provided by the reserve motivates harvesting activities to continue with a vision of economic benefits, environmental sustainability and social responsibility, which demonstrates a triple impact project.

Financial sustainability is a mitigator of social and environmental conflicts since many of the population requires support in establishing viable alternatives for local progress. Once the forest products have been identified and the productive chain has been analyzed, investments help to improve production and general satisfaction with the conservation of nature through sustainable use.

Integrated forest management

Integrated forest management as a local development strategy allows articulating different perceptions in a joint vision to achieve sustainable development. This is a State policy that has been implemented since 2009 and has established important advances such as the regulation of land use and availability.

To this end, the protected area plays a fundamental role in integrating actions from the local level that are then integrated into the national policy and possibly into the regional conservation vision.

Territorial management policies are carried out by each of the local actors, which establishes an organization of functions and activities at different scales.
Communities comply with the mandate and potential land use and maintain a stable natural structure.

Integrated forest management requires an approach that makes visible the multiple perspectives that the context demands. For this reason, it is important to have transdisciplinary teams to achieve a joint vision of development.

In addition, the active participation of institutions that invest resources, such as ACEAA and WWF, is required.

Biological monitoring.

Biological monitoring of species that may be threatened by roadkill events allows for the establishment of a program to reduce impacts by providing first-hand information.

Implementation of online applications accessible to park ranger personnel to collect information on roadkill events.
Characterization of the behavior of the species and places with the highest rate of wildlife roadkill, in order to spatialize the phenomenon and establish response strategies.

Experiences in other localities and regions should be investigated and sought in order to define the relevance of adopting methodologies or tools that can be adapted to local realities.
The participation of more local stakeholders should be sought to improve the monitoring system.
Carry out constant feedback processes to improve the quality of data collection, such as taking photographs to achieve a better framing and capture of important characteristics for scientific identification, as well as the collection of event coordinates, which are the basic data.

Monitoring

Subnational