Under the leadership of the Istatén Association and the El Aguacate Microbasin Committee, the following EbA measures were implemented in favour of local livelihoods and their resilience to climate change.

Hereby, communities implemented their own solutions to the problems they identified, under the motto: Paz River: Life, Refuge and Food.

The  measures included:

• Unblocking and eliminating sediments from mangrove channels to allow fresh water to enter and restore optimum salinity levels.
• Reforestation of degraded mangrove areas (as a result of indiscriminate felling /livestock grazing).
• Community surveillance of key sites, with persons responsible assigned rotationally, in order to prevent mangrove felling and excessive species extraction, and ensure the protection of newly planted seedlings in reforested areas.
• Design and implementation of a Local Plan for Sustainable Use (PLAS) that regulates the extraction from the mangrove of fish, crustaceans (crabs and shrimp) and mammals (periods, quantities and practices), for sustainable species management.

These measures seek to increase and manage the breeding area of ​​those species of greatest economic interest and relevance for food. In addition, mangrove restoration has improved protection against storms and waves.

Action learning is a process that involves the implementation of EbA activities, coupled with a practical capacity building program for scaling up results. The process, in addition to enhance local communities' capacities and skills, generates evidence on EbA benefits through the implementation of a monitoring system aiming at policy makers. Some elements and steps in the process are:

1. Participatory assessment of communities’ socio-environmental vulnerability.
2. Prioritization of mangrove restoration sites, as an EbA measure, based on assessment and in complementation to traditional knowledge.
3. Participatory monitoring and evaluation of EbA effectiveness to food security. The research (22 families sample) aims to understand the benefits of restoration on their livelihoods.
4. Capacity building process to strengthen natural resource management, local advocacy and adaptive capacities, through:

• Trainings and exchanges of experience on adaptation to climate change, watershed and water management, and sustainable mangrove management.
• Technical support provided to the communities, to jointly undertake mangrove forest restoration.
• Joint monitoring activities. With tangible evidence, communities are able to raise awareness and gain political advocacy capacities and access to financial resources.

To improve local governance in the Sumpul River, it was crucial to mainstream the ecosystem approach into land management, and train accordingly water local governance structures, local authorities, and farmers. Together they implement EbA measures to face drought and variability such as: soil conservation practices, protected spring water and implemented agroforestry systems.

Capacity building was delivered to: 

• >100 farmers through a "learning by doing" approach to attain demonstrative results in the field. The EbA measures implemented focused on the ecosystem services of water and soil, on productive diversification and on mitigating the impacts of climate change and variability (winds and extreme rainfall) on crops and goods and  improve water infiltration and availability in the area. 
• Water Committes on organizational and management skills as well as on integral water management, in order to influence their understanding of the importance of water ecosystem services.
• Leader and farmer women were trained on communication skills.
• Municipal officers were part of a regional climate change adaptation training and exchange of experience with other 30 local governements of Mesoamerica. 

Governance for adaptation requires flexible policy and legal frameworks. Therefore, the upper sub-basin’s governance platforms required management instruments that would enable those adaptation options and forms of governance that brought about the greatest socio-environmental benefits to be valued and institutionalized. The Internal Regulations of several ADESCO Water Committees and the sub-basin’s Binational Community Committee were drafted, with the latter also updating its Strategic Plan (five-year plan) and Annual Operating Plan.

The process took into account new dynamics and trends in the sub-basin, as well as the EbA approach. The formulation of municipal policies was also supported (Local Adaptation Plans for La Palma and San Ignacio, El Salvador). Given that adaptation to climate change is immersed in a series of uncertainties about future climate impacts and development trajectories, these frameworks and instruments must be constantly evolving, always taking into account lessons derived from field and governance experiences. In this way, adaptation to climate change can move forward under a flexible approach, and through iterative cycles, generate short-term strategies in view of long-term uncertainties.

At the village level, project planning, implementation and monitoring is driven by a Community Based Institution (CBI). The CSOs sensitize the communities and mobilize them to form CBIs. The CSOs prioritize reviving existing CBIs rather than forming new institutions.

Each village CBI comprises representatives/ leaders from the village community. To ensure equitable representation, the community undertakes a village wealth ranking exercise, with help from the CSO partners. This exercise categorizes the village families into four strata – prosperous, semi-prosperous, poor, and poorest. Representatives from all strata are included in the CBI.

The wealth ranking also forms the basis of implementing all household level project interventions. A landless family which is categorized ‘poorest’ will be given first preference for livelihood development activities in the village. This structure ensures that the most vulnerable are supported through the project. The CBIs and CSOs also create village level plans or vision documents.

These plans are the guiding documents for the villages and are created to address the prevalent issues in each village. These plans also help the project to adopt a bottoms-up approach of implementation and address the most pressing issues of the village

RBS FI mission is to build resilience of India’s ecologically critical landscapes and the vulnerable communities which reside within these. With this view, RBS FI has been supporting its partner CSO – FES since 2010 in the KPC landscape.

Overtime, RBS FI recognized that KPC is facing threats that hamper its functionality as a wildlife corridor, carbon sink, watershed, and livelihood source. These threats are multi-dimensional and to address these there is a need to get relevant stakeholders together and working towards a common goal. (esp. in absense of a single leading legal framework)

Multiiple stakeholders with varying interests and orientations exist and influence a landscape, including the community that resides within. It is thus critical to create a balance within these stakeholders. Getting stakeholders together requires a driving force - it can be an individual/ group /organisation/a set of organisations - they can be a public/private or a civil society.

RBS FI took a lead role in getting all the stakeholders together, including Forest Department, CSOs and other government agencies. Contributed self funds of USD 2.12 million and leveraged another USD 2.56 from UN Climate Adaptation Fund. RBS FI continues to contribute with time and resources towards the well being of KPC

 The project is being implemented by four CSOs.

FES 

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Commons governance

Institutional Development; Eco Restoration; Invasive species management

7,500 families in 87 villages in Mandla and Balaghat Districts

www.fes.org.in/

PRADAN

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Gender issues; Women self-help groups; Women centric livelihoods; Small enterprises – poultry, goat rearing.

10,000 families in 136 villages in Balaghat District.

www.pradan.net/

WOTR 

Core expertise/ issues addressed: Watershed treatment; Agricultural development; Agro advisories using local weather stations; disaster risk reduction, Knowledge Management

4,000 families in 132 villages in Seoni District.

www.wotr.org/

BAIF

Core expertise/ issues addressed:- Livestock management; Selective breed improvement; Feed and disease management; Dairy value chains

BAIF has livestock expertize, working in all three districts and supporting all 3 partner CSOs on livestock management. 

www.baif.org.in/

The CSO partners work in tandem. They undertake regular cross-learning & best practices sharing to ensure that the threats to KPC are addressed holistically. The CSOs form an important building block of the larger "working together" concept.

The project includes a multi layered - governing and implementing framework. The Project Steering Committee forms the highest level of this framework. The PSC is chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, and co- chaired by the Head, RBS FI. Other members of the PSC include:

Representatives from the Indian Forest Services; ( the Field Director of Kanha Tiger Reserve, the Field Director of Pench Tiger Reserve, and the Chief Conservator of Forests of the Mandla, Balaghat and Seoni Districts);

A representative of the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, Government of India;

Concerned government agencies from the State Govt. of Madhya Pradesh comprising the Farmer welfare and Agriculture Department, the New and Renewable Energy Department and the Animal Husbandry Department;

The Regional General Manager of the Forest Development Corporation;

The Chief Functionary/ representatives of Implementing CSO partners as well as the Civil Society Organisations (including the ones implementing the project)

The PSC meets every 6 months. It provides supervision for the implementation of the project activities. It facilitates collaboration among its diverse membership for intensifying project impacts. It resolves any challenges.

Under an ecosystem approach, efforts seek to improve the livelihoods and resilience of ecosystems in order to reduce the vulnerability of local communities to the challenges of erratic rains, changing pf seasons, storms and consequent loss of crops. The EbA measures promoted are:

• Restoration of riverbank forests to prevent river bank erosion during extreme storms and flash floods. This is promoted with annual Binational Reforestation Days and guided by a Restoration Opportunities study in river banks. 
• Agrodiversification was undertaken with local farmers to increase the number and varieties of crop species, fruit and wood trees in their plots, while combining with animals. This aim to improve the resilience of the system against erratic rainfall and changing seasonal patterns. The model is locally named as "integral farms".
• Learning and exchange through a network of resilient farmers with knowledge on EbA.
• Organization of agrobiodiversity fairs for the promotion and rescue of endemic seeds.

The model used a "learning by doing" approach and the adoption of iterative decisions that identify short-term strategies in light of long-term uncertainties. Learning and evaluation allows new information to be considered and inform policies at different levels. 

The EbA measures implemented in the sub-basin focused on water and soil ecosystem services, on productive diversification and on mitigating the impacts of climate change on crops and community assets. Together with >100 producers from the upper part of the sub-basin, fruit and timber trees were introduced into agroforestry systems bordering 7 water sources, and organic agriculture was encouraged, allowing families to diversify their income and reduce the vulnerability of their crops, productive infrastructure and housing, which are affected by strong winds. This, in combination with soil and water conservation practices (hillside irrigation ditches, non-burning and crop residue incorporation), has helped to reduce soil erosion caused by extreme rainfall, as well as improved moisture retention in crops, soil fertility, and water infiltration and capture in the area. The EbA measures not only generate more resilient agro-ecosystems, but also increase the availability of water, which benefits >400 families in the sub-basin. These actions have raised awareness of the need for ecosystem and adaptive approaches to territorial management in the face of climate change.