Monitoring | PANORAMA

Creating a business environment for the sustainable forestry sector

The main purpose is to create the conditions to develop sustainable commercial forestry plantations (CFP).

Through the recovery of degraded and idle land for forestry vocation, within the framework of sustainable forest management.

The plantations that are used because of the type of tree, are not as intensive as other crops, and help the regeneration of soils.

In relation to carbon credits, several transactions were carried out in 2018, for a total volume of 6,326 tCO2. Additionally, Proteak was invited to be part of the Offsets Working Group, convened by SEMARNAT, to discuss the inclusion of forestry projects in the Carbon Bond Market in Mexico.

The economic robustness of the company, and having a financial model of the project for the investment, allowed to weather the time and keep the business afloat.
It is fundamental to be able to count on the necessary investment so that the business could have a larger scale.
One success was the selection of the species (TECA Eucalyptus), which have different characteristics and diverse production processes.

Continue the effort to develop high quality and productive genetic material. The eucalyptus hybridization orchard that was inaugurated in 2016 has successfully conducted field trials with four new clone varieties, some with very promising results.
Find alternatives to address the various types of land tenure, for example, if it is ejido, communal, if it is private, etc.
There is no public policy Forestry Plan, or strategy.
Legislative to reinforce the forestry law
Dumping of fiber, attempts have been made to stop it, but there is no tariff (should be the first thing to guarantee the development of national forestry projects).
Combat illegal timber trafficking
Select species with a business purpose and linked to processing - finished product.
It is a plus to have a sustainable approach to forest management.
Always have a business approach, always have profitability / source of income.

Implementation

Monitoring

National

Reporte anual 2018 Proteak

Biodiversity protection

To conserve one of the most biodiverse sites in the world and contribute to the increase of populations of bird, fish, mammal, etc. species.

Institutional support and commitment - public agencies.
Protected areas service committed and functioning.
Communities convinced of the benefits of conservation.
Continuous field support through allies, such as civil organizations and governmental institutions.

To implement a successful measure that aims to protect and conserve the territory, it is important to give a value to the territory. In this case, the ideal formula was found by giving value to the fruits of the forest. This measure has allowed the inhabitants of the forest to care for and prevent deforestation in the area. In addition, it has helped foster the local economy and improve people's quality of life by providing them with an option for development and growth.
A comprehensive vision of land management is needed. To implement a project of this type and ensure its success, it is desirable that those who design it understand that everything in nature is interconnected.
It would be desirable that all companies in the world become models of circular economy and thus avoid millions of carbon emissions.
Alliances with different institutions and organizations strengthen the project.

Community empowerment

The communities that inhabit the reserve should lead the protection and conservation of the forest while at the same time improving people's quality of life.

The project seeks to empower the communities, providing them with tools for the responsible management of their resources. Part of the focus is also to facilitate the development of sustainable businesses from them, with the possibility of forming cooperatives so that they can market their products together.

The training and tools provided are focused on good practices and management plans that allow and encourage forest conservation.

Pay fair prices to generate income that will prevent their migration and allow them to protect the forest.
To have a constant market for the products (to boost supply-demand).
Ensure that fruit harvesting is sufficient and constant to meet the company's demand.
Train producers in good practices and conservation.
Adequate management plans
Ensure that the supply chain is sustainable.

It is necessary to be permanently close to the communities.
Have a lot of patience. Projects take time.
Do not generate expectations that cannot be fulfilled.
It is a long-term project.
It is important to diversify the offer with parallel projects, in this case, other than forest fruit gathering. For this reason, we are developing other options, for example, the "turtle egg collection" where turtles are protected and released into the rivers for their reproduction and growth. We have managed to release 6,000 turtles into the river.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Alliances with key stakeholders

The project focuses on companies that use the natural resources of the NPAs and provides training to companies and the local population in biodiversity conservation, in alliance with various governmental institutions.

Achieving cooperation between the different actors in the territory is transcendental to create links with the communities, companies and SERNANP. The participation of local populations and producers throughout implementation has undoubtedly been one of the main success factors.

Scientific information must be available to make decisions.
The use of resources should not be an imposition; it is an activity that should be articulated with the uses and customs of the local population.
Have a well-defined plan for harvesting under SERNANP's defined criteria.

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

National

Creating awareness and knowledge about EbA

World Environment Day celebration with local organisations and government

Dil Bhattarai

Community and school children participating in the World Environment Day celebration

Dil Bhattarai

Local youth conserving water sources, Makwanpur, Kaski

Anu Adhikari

Because Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) was a completely new concept to the stakeholders and communities, it was essential to build awareness about EbA and its potential benefits. Prior to this, the communities’ model of development was deforestation and overexploitation of plant species, which negatively impacted biodiversity. Training on EbA was first given to local partner organisations and then to community members, with a focus on how the EbA approach addresses climate change and helps communities address other issues such as income generation. After the trainings, a series of awareness-raising activities were conducted, including the publication of brochures, signboards, posters, and other materials. The objective was to demonstrate the different activities to be implemented, such as conservation of community water ponds, and their positive impacts. After creating awareness about the EbA concept and its practice, the community took a leadership role in implementing activities and was empowered to integrate their local knowledge and skills in water source and pond conservation. Technical experts supported the communities’ local knowledge with technical and scientific expertise.

Active participation of governing bodies, implementing agencies, local communities and other stakeholders
Communication tools such as interactive maps, posters, and videos
Integration of local knowledge and past experience in the construction of ponds (type of materials, suitable locations, etc.)
Practical demonstration of activities
Promotion of citizen scientists as bridges between the project and local communities
Communities leading implementation

Community engagement is crucial. In Panchase, the project targeted engaged community leaders, who in turn motivated other community members to participate.
Participation of diverse groups increases the potential for success and the equitable distribution of benefits. The project sought the participation of community forest user groups and other community groups, including mothers’ group, homestay groups, and agricultural groups.
The project team should have a clear understanding of the environmental, socio-economic, and political context of the area. Tourism in Panchase helped determine the intervention. Increasing the viability of homestays provided an entry point for additional measures.
Maintaining a good rapport with communities and stakeholders fosters trust. Both IUCN and the local NGO regularly visited the site and communities and developed a strong rapport through frequent positive interactions.
Local knowledge: the project used the communities’ local knowledge about pond restoration, water conservation, and water management to develop the intervention.

Implementation

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Governance

Federating partners is essential to achieving good environmental management. To achieve this, it is necessary to :

- identify all conflicts of use

- involve users in the partners: scientists, local communities, protected area managers, fishing federations, etc.

The two key success factors are :

- neutral, synthetic information on the state of ecosystems (scientific data)

- sufficiently frequent meetings to share information and bring stakeholders together.

Science + public consultation = effective solution and local acceptance

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Rehabilitation of the Northern Water Pipeline

We have identified clean water access as a key goal. Clean water access for humans, livestock, and wildlife will prevent wildlife-related injuries and deaths. In September 2012 IFAW conducted research and helped the county secure funding to rehabilitate the Northern Water Pipeline, which supplies water to communities living in the north of Amboseli. When the project is completed by the end of 2019, it is expected to reliably provide water to 300 homesteads, 3,000 people, and more than 6,000 herds of livestock. By rehabilitating the pipeline, the project ensures availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for the Maasai community, and thus, reducing human-elephant conflict due to water access.

Participatory community engagement has led to trust within the community for IFAW and the project. Therefore, in-depth participation of community members in the project has allowed for social sustainability. In addition, after substantial investment in education and capacity, the project largely is run by community members who now have the skills to maintain and expand the infrastructure and initiatives. Because of the local capacity, benefits are clearly outweighed by costs.

A challenge that the project ran into, in particular, was the lack of infrastructure, equipment, and training. Therefore, the project made it a priority to build capacity within the village to build (i.e. the community service center), repair (i.e. the Northern Water Pipeline), or otherwise manage any of the interventions. A lesson that we learned is that it is always better to build capactiy within the community. In our example, not only do local community members now have additional skills they can use on other projects, they have a sense of ownership and pride.

Education, training, and other capacity building for the community

IFAW is increasing wildlife security in the Amboseli landscape by equipping community wildlife rangers with expertise and skills through training in human wildlife conflict mitigation and providing operation resources such as rations, salaries, GPS-equipment, uniforms and a patrol vehicle for use by the rangers.

IFAW also initiated an education scholarship to offer financial support to 60 students to pursue studies in high school, tertiary colleges and universities, and 50 community wildlife scouts. By providing education scholarships and wildlife ranger capacity building, IFAW ensures inclusive and equitable education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities and alternative livelihoods for the local community.

IFAW is also working with local women to develop markets for income-generating activities such as beadwork and livestock management. By creating a boarding secondary school for girls and facilitating income generation among women, the project promotes gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls in Amboseli, thus, leaving no-one behind.

One of the most enabling factors in this project was the fact that the main stakeholders and owners of the land recognized that that habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation was an issue for both widlife and people and that they needed to do something about it.. By partnering up with the OOGR and the KWS, the project ensured community engagement and promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for the sustainable development of the local community and even provides a model to follow for other communities.

Buy-in from the local communities and the government (KWS) is extremely important to the success of the project. As advice to other implementers, working within existing governmental frameworks can help with implementation. At the same time, working hand and hand with local communities is essential to ensure buy-in and that project activities and interventions are actually leading to desired outcomes.

Collaboration with the Olgulului Olalarashi Group Ranch and KWS

Amboseli National Park is home to some of Kenya’s largest elephant populations which depend on the surrounding community land for migration. In 2008, the land stakeholders recognized that the habitat loss threats, degradation, and fragmentation would lead to the loss of livelihoods and tourism revenue and opted to ensure the ecosystem’s sustainability. IFAW therefore partnered with relevant stakeholders to secure critical corridors and dispersal areas for elephants in community areas of the Amboseli landscape. To achieve this, IFAW implemented a multi-year commitment to secure 26,000 acres as wildlife migratory and dispersal land in the Amboseli landscape (the Kitenden Corridor, one of the last remaining elephant migratory corridors connecting Kenya and Tanzania).

The strategy for the leased land was to develop the Kitenden Community Wildlife Conservancy, which will continue to offer a three pronged benefit to wildlife and its habitat, the local community (through eco-friendly, compatible tourism, and enterprise projects), and investors through tourism development and investment. In 2017, IFAW worked with the local Maasai community to register the Kitenden Conservancy Trust - an important step toward securing this portion of land as a community-owned conservancy that supports sustainable livelihoods.

IFAW partnered with the community of the Olgulului Olalarashi Group Ranch (OOGR, which surrounds 90 percent of the park) in order to ensure that the wildlife protection benefits were connected to human wellbeing improvements. For example, the securing of the Kitenden Corridor would not have been possible without IFAW’s commitment to sign separate agreements with 2,600 indigenous landowners. This has led to remarkable benefits for both the people of the community and the wildlife of the Amboseli National Park. Combining the expertise of science-based wildlife conservation and development initiatives within the community turned out to be essential and should be applied to future projects. Incorporating community input in a structured and profound way has led to unique interventions tailored for this specific community and interventions that are sustainable and popular among the community. Both the local leadership and the community have been heavily involved since the beginning of the project.

Mobilizing and building capacity of community Institutions

Community Sensitization prior to launch of the PES initiative

Kijabe Environment Volunteers

KENVO mobilized the community institutions (CFAs and WRUAs) into an organized group and built their capacity to engage in PES. Further, awareness on policies was raised among the community upstream. To strengthen the CFAs and the WRUAs, they were trained in all aspects related to PES – policies, practices, rights, responsibilities, fund management, monitoring and compliance.

Community consultation engagements were held with CFAs and WRUAs and produced actions plans. The main objectives of the action plans was support land use practices that improve water quantity and quality and capacity build the local community to secure catchment restoration through water payment services scheme.

KENVO was ready to broker relationships between community and the businesses.

The community institutions were in existence and willing to participate and commit to businesses.

• The local community institutions, CFAs and WRUAs are an asset for forest restoration as they have enough labor to do the work.

• Local community represented by CFAs and WRUAs need support to negotiate with the business sector.

• Businesses are willing to work with local community institutions, CFAs and WRUAs that demonstrate financial management capability and delivery of planned targets.