Monitoring and Adaptive Management

Regular monitoring of the NEPL NP’s ecotourism program is essential to ensure the conservation objectives as well as continuous visitor satisfaction and therefore the overall project sustainability. The NEPL NP ecotourism program monitors the following information:

  • Wildlife monitoring is adapted to the ecotourism area and incorporates all or some of the following techniques: Camera trapping, GPS recorded all direct/indirect observations, Species recording of direct observations.
  • Financial data is entered in the system for every tour and is analysed on monthly and annual basis
  • Visitor Feedback data is collected from all visitors after every tour and allows to identify and improve tour services at the best delay as well as offers an opportunity to consider new ideas and further improvement needs.
  • Visitor Arrival and Profile is collected from all visitors on every tour and allows to identify the visitor trends and profile and therefore better understand and communicate to the market, as well as identify new opportunities.
  • Data collection forms
  • Wildlife Monitoring systems (direct observations, camera trapping, etc)
  • SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool)
  • The data collection systems must be simple to use and straight forward,
  • The collected ecotourism data can be useful for the National Park management, especially the wildlife data and law enforcement observations.
Law Enforcement

Two ranger stations are located in the two NEPL NP ecotourism sites. The law enforcement teams in the ecotourism area apprehend illegal activities, protect the tourism infrastructures and contribute data to the Ecotourism Benefit Fund calculation. In addition, the NEPL NP ecotours deliver benefits to the NEPL NP law enforcement program through the following activities: (1) regular presence in NEPL NP, (2) illegal activity identification (3) communication on the protected area's regulations to communities & visitors

  • Mobile ranger teams
  • Law enforcement strategy, financial and human resources
  • Prosecution
  • An active law enforcement presence is essential in wildlife tourism areas, whereas simply developing wildlife tourism does not automatically lead to a reduction of threats or improved levels of wildlife protection.
  • Due to limited financial and human resources, the law enforcement presence might lack to be equally distributed within all the ecotourism area. It may therefore be necessary to incorporate additional monitoring mechanisms that can be equally assessed, for example monitoring community efforts in regards of the land encroachment by comparing the land use plan and the satellite images.
Institutional coordination for scaling up technological processes in family livestock farming.

The Resilient Family Livestock project is the result of an inter-institutional articulation process that includes:

  • First degree family producer organizations (6 Rural Development Societies), second degree (National Commission for Rural Development - CNFR), and third degree of regional coverage (Confederation of Family Producer Organizations of MERCOSUR - COPROFAM).
  • The National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), a public entity under private law.
  • The Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP), a government agency that provided political backing for the development of the action.

This network interacted with other institutions such as the University of the Republic (UDELAR), the Ministry of the Environment (MA), the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI), IICA and the Delegation of the European Union in Uruguay.

  • Previous CNFR projects with INIA and UDELAR (co-innovation in family production).
  • Existence of validated good livestock practices for family livestock production.
  • Alignment with NDCs (2017): GHG mitigation, adaptation and resilience of livestock systems to climate change.
  • CNFR membership in COPROFAM for scalability of co-innovation and inter-institutional articulation processes in the region.
  • Access to funding sources such as EUROCLIMA+.
  • The development of extension actions with family livestock requires an integral methodological approach such as Co-innovation.
  • The role of producers' organizations is key for the implementation of effective public policies in rural areas.
  • Good livestock practices require long terms to generate results and impacts on family systems.
Co-innovation as a technical assistance approach for family production

A new vision of innovation must recognize farmers as agents capable of observing, discovering new ways of doing through experimentation and learning (Van der Ploeg, J.D. 1990). Instead of 'technology transfer' processes, thought should be given to improving farmers' ability to learn and experiment (Leeuwis, C. 1999). Therefore, innovations at the level of complex systems, in which the human being is an integral part, are no longer conceived as external but are developed and designed in their context of application and with the participation of those who manage the systems and make decisions (Gibbons, M. et al., 1997; Leeuwis, C. 1999). This ensures the relevance, applicability and adoption of potential solutions to the problems detected. The Resilient Family Farming project, based on previous experiences developed by INIA and CNFR, promoted joint work between producers, technicians, organizations and researchers, using the co-innovation approach, to generate a cyclical process of characterization and diagnosis, implementation, monitoring and evaluation that would allow innovation to emerge from interactive learning among the actors involved.

  • Background of CNFR - INIA articulation in the implementation of the co-innovation approach.
  • The willingness of the stakeholders (producer families, leaders of local organizations, field technicians, CNFR coordinating team and INIA researchers) to implement the plan of activities in the context of a sanitary emergency.
  • Good national Internet connectivity, the chain of local - national - regional and institutional links, and strict compliance with sanitary protocols.
  • The articulation between producers' organizations (CNFR and its local grassroots entities), INIA and the University of the Republic, demonstrated sufficient capacities to implement Co-innovation as an appropriate approach for technical assistance to family farmers, facilitating the implementation of good livestock practices that improve their climate resilience and are aligned with public policies aimed at adaptation and mitigation of climate change in livestock farming in Uruguay.

  • Virtual modalities proved to be a valid and effective tool for communication between the parties, even with some existing limitations in rural territories.

  • Organizations can facilitate effective communication processes with rural families, using locally available capacities and tools. Although face-to-face activities generate unique and non-transferable experiential processes, the strategies implemented in the project have been effective in an adverse context such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monitoring for Returning Adults

A total of 24 Common Loon chicks were successfully moved from New York and Maine to southeastern Massachusetts as part of BRI’s Massachusetts loon translocation project conducted from 2015-2017 -- 

  • 15 were reared in aquatic enclosures before being released onto Pocksha, Assawompset, or Little Quittacas Ponds (APC). 
  • 9 older chicks were directly released after being transported. 

In 2017, an immature loon chick translocated the previous year was re-confirmed on the APC, marking the first record of a loon chick returning to the release site after its release year. 

 

As of spring 2020, nine adult loons returned to the lakes in Massachusetts to which they were translocated and captive-reared, and then from which they fledged. Their return marks a major milestone in the efforts to translocate Common Loons.

Translocation involves multiple teams conducting source population surveys, capture and transport, and the difficult task of safely rearing the chicks, with numerous steps and processes in between. 

This is a long-term study and needs careful thought and planning throughout the process. The most important factor is the health of the wildlife. 

Release and Monitoring

Chicks are reared for various lengths of time depending on age and how well they acclimate to the pen. Prior to release to the wild, chicks are given a full health assessment, and banded with a unique color and number combination. 

 

Once released, chicks adapt quickly, foraging on their own almost immediately. BRI biologists monitor the chicks daily when first released, then weekly until they fledge.

Making sure the chicks are healthy and well fed before releasing them. A wildlife veterinarian is on staff. 

Closely monitoring is critical to be sure of the chick's health, but to learn more about loon ecology.

 

Loon chicks acclimate quickly to the wild. 

 

Project oversight, evaluation and future planning

Project oversight plays an important role in implementing lessons learned, and there is a constant flow of information between our team in Congo and the UK office. Beyond the core team access to other key professionals is also continuously available, such as our UK veterinary team, should their advice be needed. Setting effective baselines at the start of the project is an effective tool when evaluating progress. The project has no defined end date, and future planning is always under review. Information and data gained through oversight and evaluation are key elements of future planning.

Good attention to detail and disciplined approach to record keeping. Good communication. The ability to be innovative and adapt to new, or changing, situations.

Well trained and motivated staff ensure accurate data collection. Knowledge of local people is a valuable resource. It is important to build on successful elements of the project and equally important to analyse and adjust for the less successful so that future planning can benefit from both.

Access to technology

Camera traps are an important tool for monitoring and gathering information, and have been used by the team for a number of years. More recently we have been able to train, and equip patrol teams in using the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART).

Patrol team members that are willing to learn and want to advance their skills, combined with an effective training programme for the use of different types of technology.

Having access to the right technological tools increases efficiency of data collection and allows for more time efficient analysis. To take full advantage of the more advanced technology, such as SMART patrols which require a learning curve, effective training is required to ensure each patrol has a minimum of one fully-trained team member.

Collaboration of appropriate authorities and creating a team

Effective collaboration with the relevant authorities in the Republic of Congo is a key element to the project. This is not limited to permission to carry out conservation work in country, but is also important for the long-term relationships required, including the joint patrols of the reserve and enforcement of laws and regulations that are essential for long-term management of a protected or conservation area. Team composition is also extremely important and the Aspinall Congo team are almost entirely Congolese.

A strong team formed of Congolese nationals who understand the systems and processes in country.

Good communication, and development of mutual trust and respect are important to successful relationships.

FIRE SUBMISSION MODULE

After the system obtains fire event information from satellites, UAVs, ground cameras and forest rangers, it will immediately transmit the video image of the fire scene to the fire department, which will deploy firefighters to extinguish the fire according to the fire situation. Because the system can detect the fire event in time and report to the fire department, many fire events were extinguished when the fire was very small and did not develop into very large fire event.

The fire event information can be submitted to the fire department in time to prevent the fire from getting bigger and buy time for fire fighting.

Satellite, UAV, ground camera and forest ranger shall record video during work; With the video, after the hot spot is checked as a fire event, FIRE SUBMISSION MODULE will submit the fire event and fire video to the fire department.