Establishment of an inclusive dialogue process: the Laponia Process

The Laponia Process was an approach to dialogue created and developed by a diversity of stakeholders in the Laponian Area World Heritage property. Since Laponia is a large area which consists of several protected areas, to establish a coordinated management system as a whole has been very challenging since its inscription in the World Heritage List. The County Administrative Board of Norbotten and the Sámi communities and municipalities of Jokkmokk and Gällivare started originally to prepare their conservation programs independently. The Laponia Process started by the initiative of the Governor of Norrbotten in 2005 including all stakeholders in a process of dialogue based on a set of common values, which would lead the parties to agree in crucial issues and the terms in which the Laponian Area should be managed. All decisions were determined to be taken by consensus, and new regulations for the national parks and nature reserves were requested. In 2006, the parties signed a common agreement which they sent to the Government, which contained:

  • A set of common basic values
  • Common intentions for a number of efforts
  • The establishment of a temporary Laponia delegation
  • Preparations for the start of a World Heritage management group with a Sámi majority on the committee.

The political will of the Governor of Norbotten, the Sámi village organizations through the association Midjá Ednam, the interest of the municipalities of Jokkmokk and Gällivare, and the endorsement of the SEPA were essential conditions for starting the process. The initiative originates in the acceptance of the different realities of the parties involved and the strong will to co-create a new management for the Laponian Area. Moreover, there was enough financing for the project and each group participated with the same  economical prerequisites.

To be able to establish an organization based on consensus and develop a new way of management, one needs to listen to people and try to learn why they are thinking and doing like they are (it is norms and values that forms their ideas and practise) but also openly explain why one is thinking and doing in the way one is, because that also depends on the norms and values one has in life. This process takes time, and it is about learning new knowledge from each other and accept it. This is also a process one cannot do in the office, one needs to go out and meet people in their ordinary life regularly. It cannot be rushed or think it can be a quick fix. The Laponia Process took six years until all stakeholders involved could agree upon a common organization and management plan. 

To do a process like the Laponia Process – you need to have time, financing, and the “right” people involved. Listen to each other. Time to take home tricky questions and discuss them with other representatives for the stakeholders, before decisions are made. 

Key elements for ecosystem conservation are also anthropic

As part of PAMIC, great consideration on the dynamics of landscape transformation is being made. There is an attempt to identify and conserve those elements that are key for ecosystem conservation, whether they are of natural or anthropic origin. In PAMIC´s philosophy, conservation does not mean maintaining pristine ecosystems. On the contrary, conservation includes restoring managed landscapes and using sustainable practices. This allows the maintenance of the whole socio-ecological system through a sustainable use of the land, as demonstrated by shade-grown coffee production, agro-silvo-pastoral and community forest management projects, which support both livelihoods and ecosystems. 

  • Confidence in the social and environmental benefits of sustainable community management
  • Institutional learning about the long term limitations of the "do not touch" vision of conservation as a means of conserving ecosystems;
  • Network of actors with knowledge on land use and water management 
  • Long term mentoring of the producers;
  • It is vital to make use of existing local cooperatives to generate, lead and manage the introduction of new approaches to existing productive activities
  • When communities feel that their productive activities are not being threatened, they are more willing to get involved and undertake self-organized initiatives for the sustainable management of ecosystems.
  • Likewise, when they identify the project as a window of opportunity to obtain support and possible financing to improve their productive activities, the commitment and interest to sustainably manage the ecosystem increases.
Visioning for the future of the Denali region

The purpose of visioning for the future of the Denali region is to evaluate stakeholder preferences and trade-offs they are willing to make when thinking about the future of the region. Identifying distinct visions for the future is important in places like Interior Alaska where impacts from climate change are magnified and anticipated to rapidly transform the social-ecological landscape. This information can inform decision-makers about priorities for the future across a gamut of stakeholders and serve as a foundation for participatory planning. This study evaluated visions as part of a mixed mode household survey administered to residents across the Denali region.

 

To identify preferences and trade-offs for future conditions, a discrete choice experiment that evaluated the strengths of preferences and trade-offs for future conditions of the Denali region was included. Survey data were used to understand preferences for attributes including wildlife populations, off-season tourism, and fire management, as well as the cost of maintaining current conditions of these attributes. Results showed that all of these factors influenced preferences for the future, and that the range of environmental attitudes held by stakeholder groups accounted for variation in the strength of preferences reported by survey respondents.

Previous work that qualitatively evaluated residents’ perceptions of landscape change and knowledge were instrumental in the success of this building block. In particular, an in-depth understanding of relevant landscape features was built prior to developing the parameters in our discrete choice experiment. The collection of pilot testing data was also important to refine the language used in our survey and range of changes that were considered realistic future conditions in the region. 

Evaluating residents’ preferences for future landscape conditions and trade-offs they are willing to make when thinking about the future yielded important insights about residents’ priorities. This is crucial information for decision-makers to more effectively meet the needs of their constituencies. The development of this building block also taught lessons about the value of creative, mixed-mode strategies for data collection that would increase the likelihood of diverse perspectives being reflected in the final sample. Overall, working with local stakeholders to understand visions for the future was useful for generating empirical evidence that showed the relative importance of features that describe the Denali landscape. Results are also useful for anticipating resident support or resistance to changes in visions for the future in ways that can help decision-makers understand distinct stakeholders' viewpoints.

COMMIT TO IMPLEMENT AGREED ACTIONS THE ‘RIGHT’ WAY AND EVALUATE THE IMPACT

The Arakwal people and NPWS staff committed to work together to implement the agreed actions. NPWS included actions in the annual operations plan and worked with Arakwal people to create opportunities for them to connect with the orchid and its heath habitat. They recognised this as an important part of maintaining and strengthening the cultural values. Before this project, the heath had not been burned for 30 years due to the difficulty of getting approval for a cultural burn of bushland next to a suburban area. Even though the cultural burn required a lot of resources, NPWS prepared and approved a burn plan and Arakwal people undertook cultural activities such as seed collection ahead of the fire. Fortunately, in 2018 all the conditions were suitable for a small cultural burn. The health of the heath has been surveyed by Arakwal NPWS staff post fire with additional sightings of Byron Bay orchid have been reported.

As a result of this project a seasonal planning calendar which highlights how management actions are scheduled through year, factoring in seasons, opportunities, weather and traditional practices was co-created. The calendar brings together culture, ecology and management actions in an easy to understand form that is both a communication and a scheduling tool. 

Arakwal people and NPWS worked together to prioritise and undertake both cultural and ecological management activities with relatively small amounts of additional funding. Arakwal people were not constrained in what the money could be spent on as long as it was to support implementation which meant that cultural activities and bringing community members on Country could occur. 

Everyone involved in the project realised the importance of celebrating success as a way to inspire the whole team and to realise the value of monitoring. Celebrating success led to people looking for ways to improve and to look to the future and new opportunities.

By using a new method to review priority actions through a cultural lens, the Arakwal NP Plan of Management was examined anew which refocussed management actions to protect and restore the cultural and ecological health of the clay heath.

3- Biodiversity Monitoring

Monitoring is the sustained study of certain environmental indicators (flora, fauna, water resources, etc.) in order to establish a baseline that facilitates tracking the behavior of the environment in relation to the production systems. This information allows for implementing improvement measures in aspects related to land management while strengthening positive actions and mitigating, through corrective actions, components that may be unfavorable in the production-natural environment relationship.

Having a technical team nearby, with technical capacities to generate reliable monitoring and surveys. Also, the presence of certain “emblematic” species that generate empathy on the part of the property owners.

1- Monitoring mammals with camera traps plays a key role in developing empathy, on the part of producers, towards species that inhabit their territory.   
2- Biodiversity monitoring cannot be an end in itself. It has to help solve a problem, it has to serve to change a reality, and for that it is very important to establish a baseline with sufficient data. Undoubtedly, monitoring is particularly useful to evaluate the efficiency of corrective measures in specific situations. One example is the evaluation and search for a favorable solution to irrigation channels.
 

Infrastructural development

To prevent mismanagement of plastics waste from reaching beaches and the marine environment, the investment of litter booms, traps, and other technological solutions is and still a priority.

The litter booms and traps work efficiently when staff have been trained on the installation as well as maintenance including working with communities to manage waste at source to prevent river pollution.

  • Infrastructure maintenance is at the core of development.
  • Training and capacity building should be continuous.
  • Community engagement must be at the core of management.
Adaptive Management

BFD has started using SMART as an adaptive management tool in the Sundarbans which is among the key potential benefits of the approach.

Presentation of reports to SMART enforcement committee helped the decision makers of BFD to plan patrols based on data queries and interpretations from actual SMART reports. This with on-board mentoring observations helped BFD decision makers to take further management decisions.

BFD is using SMART patrol reports and assess how patrol plans have been adapted based on the results of previous patrols and how effective these adaptations have been in increasing the effectiveness of SMART patrols as evidenced by the area covered, number of arrests and successful prosecutions of criminals committing serious wildlife, fisheries and forest crimes such as poaching and poison fishing; confiscations of boats, weapons, snares and traps, and wildlife carcasses and body parts; and trends (increasing, stable or decreasing) in sighting rates of key threatened wildlife species.

Awareness of managers on adaptive management and role of SMART data on that front

BFD need to enhance capacities of managers to play with SMART data and project/forecast changes/trends and incorporate forward looking measures towards conservation

Building capacity to monitor and report impacts of coral reef conservation

As part of the regular government budget cycle, DECR submits a selection of output and outcome indicators to demonstrate progress and justify funding requests. Capacities to track the state of ecosystems are therefore relevant not only to support conservation, but also as means for the department to report on its performance.

 

This building block therefore focused on the development of capacities to monitor ecosystem health and use monitoring results to communicate the benefits of ecosystem management. These capacities were built with support from the BEST 2.0 Programme funded by the European Union, focusing on coral reefs in the Key Biodiversity Area of Princess Alexandra Land and Sea National Park, as a pilot project.

 

This included the implementation of a training program for DECR staff and partners in the use of the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) methods and the development of a tailored Reef Health Index (RHI) for TCI. The RHI itself and the underlying indicators were recommended as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for DECR to report on their activities. In addition, further KPIs were compiled for DECR to monitor social and economic outcomes that could be associated to coral reef health, and hence, to their conservation activities. 

  • Active participation of in-house staff and other marine protected area managers.
  • Availability of skilled staff and partners (i.e. experienced divers) that can implement monitoring activities beyond the training program.
  • Availability of equipment (e.g. dive equipment, boats and materials) to support on-site activities such as AGRRA training dives.

Ensuring participation of partners with a solid relationship of cooperation and in-house staff with career building opportunities within the organization is fundamental to ensure that the capacities built will have an impact in the long term. As some of the trained staff took alternative professional paths after the training, the capacity to follow up on monitoring was partly affected. In relation to this point, it is also key that capacity building activities are articulated in a long-term plan that ensures future follow up and implementation.

Peer Training

We recognized the need to build leadership for effective MPA management from within, and ownership and leadership of the approaches co-developed.

 

We convened a group of 18 regional and global experts to train the most engaged MPA practitioners across 3 nations as peer trainers in evidence-based (adaptive) management. The expert team first broke down adaptive management into 3 core components: marine monitoring, data summarization and management, and strategic decision making. We then invited applications from MPA staff and engaged community members in 3 national MPA systems (Kenya, Tanzania, and Seychelles) to become peer trainers in one of the areas, as we recognized that no one staff could likely train in all three.

 

We received 60 applications and invited 30 MPA members to participate in the peer trainer training in Seychelles in August 2019.  We developed a 5-day training course. We did 2-days of joint sessions, then each group had 3-days in their individual core areas. The final day was testing in the core concepts.  Of the 30 practitioners who participated, 11 passed as peer trainers or assistant peer trainers.

 

These peer trainers are now working in their respective nations to continue improving MPA management.

Existing leaders in the approaches through past in-country training events willing to become peer trainers.

 

Willingness of experts to volunteer their time to develop and lead the training.

 

 

Building ownership and leadership is key.

 

5-days probably not enough time for a peer trainer course - ideally, there would be three 5-day courses with time to practice skills in between, but this requires more funding than was available.

Ongoing monitoring

To ensuire the solution worked, we monitored nesting and hatchling dispersal for three consecutive seasons following beach rehabilitation, and determined that there were no impacts to nesting sea turtles or emerging hatchlings.

We had several years of baseline data with whcih to compare data post-construction. We also had access to the beach and the support of the reglator in conducting the monitoring activities.

Baseline data are crucial to determine impacts. Often industries develop infrastructure in the abence of basline data and this then precludes an assessment of impacts.