The ejido Conquista Campesina wanted to restore mangrove forests and the ecosystem services that these provide (biological diversity, water quality, protection against storms) with a view to strengthening its food security and resilience in the face of climate change.

The opening of hydrological channels was first carried out to replenish with water areas damaged by sedimentation; then the collection, translocation and sowing of propagules in the degraded areas was coordinated. Through the ‘payment of laboured days’ as restoration incentives (Payment for Environmental Services), these efforts also achieved economic benefits for the community. While the water open surface was improved in fishing areas, the community was also protecting itself against winds and storm surges in areas used for collecting, fishing and housing. In addition, family gardens (orchards), agroforestry and apiculture were implemented in some plots to diversify the products used by families for self-consumption. These processes provided important means of learning for ejido members, both men and women, who acquired technical knowledge (on mangrove restoration and managing plants in association) and a better understanding of the relationship between climate change, conservation and food security.

Supporting ejido community members to implement EbA measures generates a process of "action learning" that, in addition to teaching, aims to generate evidence on the benefits of EbA and create conditions for their sustainability and up-scaling.

• CRiSTAL Community Risk Assessment
• Mangrove restoration (4.1 ha) and surveillance are considered priority EbA measures.
• Technical support is provided to 33 community members (men and women), complemented with their traditional knowledge, to learn about mangrove restoration techniques and carry out the restoration of degraded areas.
• 5 community technicians are trained to monitor and evaluate the restored areas (measurements of tree diameter, physical-chemical parameters and sediments).
• Monitoring and evaluation is carried out to learn about the food security with 10 families (sample) and study the benefits of restoration on livelihoods on dry and rainy season. Household social surveys used as methodology (guidelines to be published).
• Joint learning on the advantages of income diversification, such as gardens (orchards), agroforestry and beekeeping.

The increase in capacities and knowledge strengthens human capital and contributes to community empowerment and with that, to more possibilities for political advocacy and accessing financial resources.

The Naturland standard requires each farm to have at least 50% mangrove cover while other organic standards require strict compliance with forest policy. Farmers who can demonstrate compliance then have the option of selling their certified shrimp to the Minh Phu Seafood Corporation, Viet Nam’s largest shrimp exporter.

The project also successfully supported Cà Mau in piloting a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system. This system provides an incentive for mangrove conservation and restoration by paying farmers an additional 500,000 VND (£17.77) per hectare of mangrove for providing ecosystem services.

Besides payments for farmers, Minh Phu also invested in its own ICS team, a supply chain from farm to factory, and financial incentives for collectors, collecting stations, and payments to support the FMB with monitoring.

In this PES system, the processor pays the farmers for the ecosystem goods and services they provide, and mangrove cover is monitored by a third-party. This direct payment approach has been accepted by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The project has also encouraged other processing companies to establish their organic farming area with different payment schemes, these companies include Seanamico, Seaprimexco in Ca Mau.

In order to obtain organic certification, farmers require training on installing and using toilets with septic tanks, and household waste management. Co-financing the provision of toilet kits and the replanting of mangroves in shrimp ponds are also required during a pilot demonstration.

Not only do farmers need to be trained, but forest protectors also need to be trained on applicable new technology for mangrove management and protection in order to monitor and audit the contracted mangrove cover. From 2013-2017, the project organised regular training to help transform the forest management system of the Forest Management Boards from one that relied on manually drawn cadastral maps and field measurement to one that is based on digital maps, using remote sensing, GIS, and GPS measurement and monitoring systems.

The project also needs to provide shrimp processing companies with training to establish and maintain Internal Control System teams. This training helps the companies to establish organic farming auditors and monitoring teams of their own. These teams are required to support and supervise the organic farmers over large areas to meet the standard for organic certification.  

Under an ecosystem-based adaptation approach and a micro-basin vision, efforts in Esquichá focused on improving livelihoods and ecosystem resilience in order to reduce climate change vulnerability. Tropical storms and hurricans such as the Stand affected communities in the past (water infraestructure, erosion or loss of water springs). Applying an ecosystem approach was part of strengthening governance for climate change adaptation in the Esquichá micro-watershed.

Measures implemented are: 

• protection and recovery of forests in water recharge zones. E.g. protection of pine forests (Abies guatemalensis) that harbour water sources that supply populations in the lower part of the micro-basin.
• Restoration of degraded lands and stabilization of slopes
• Implementation and optimization of agroforestry systems.

Additionally, there was broad acceptance of the need for a more integrated approach to water resource management, partly due to the water scarcity that communities suffer during the dry season and in the upper parts of the micro-basin. The concept of environmental social responsibility was also promoted among communities, whereby upstream communities take measures that benefit downstream communities. 

Governance options and responses for adaptation to climate change are new and must be constantly evolving; desicions and governance pklan need to be flexible; hence adaptation must move forward under a flexible approach. This is possible with the application of EbA measures with a "learning by doing" while using best available sicientific information on climate scenarios and informing policy local and national instruments.

Climate vulnerability in Esquichá was assessed using the CRiSTAL tool ( “Community-based Risk Screening Tool – Adaptation and Livelihoods.")

After a first planing of EbA activities, actions for integrating flexibility were:

• The periodic evaluation of field EbA actions and the adoption of short-term decisions
• Monitoring and evaluation results will be key to include important adjustments
• Inclusion of EbA measures in the Microbasin Management Plan
• Assessment of measures to inform the municipality Development Plan.
• Informing of results to competent authorities as the municipality of the Forest Institute (INAB). This has lead INAB to seek tools to improve the way incentives are assigned and to identify communities located in key water catchment areas.

The objective is to establish and capitalize a trust fund, which is anchored to the Sustainable Environmental Investment Fund (FIAS), in order to protect, preserve and conserve the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), ensuring its financial sustainability.

The main long-term milestone to be achieved with this fund is to increase the 40 miles of the GMR. In addition, the fund will be used to develop and implement a plan for the prevention, conservation and preservation of the GMR. To achieve these milestones, three main programs were defined. However, two cross-cutting themes were identified as crucial to achieving good preservation and conservation of the GMR, namely Climate Change and Environmental Communication and Education.

The three programs are:

• Maintain and strengthen the Monitoring and Surveillance program of the GMR to protect the marine heritage;
• Guarantee the conservation of the GMR and its ecological integrity, through monitoring and research for the rational use of its environmental goods and services;
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the Emergency Plan for the GMR.

The agroforestry systems of coffee cultivation that are developed in the buffer zone of the PNN Tamá are part of a joint work that has been done from the protected area with the surrounding communities in order to promote processes of conservation of ecosystem services and sustainable local development. The consolidation of the Rural Women's Team of the San Alberto Village in the municipality of Norte de Santander has strengthened empowerment and the gender approach to sustainable rural development through the cultivation of organic coffee as a productive activity that has also strengthened the shared management of the protected area and its relationship with the communities based on the ecosystem services it provides.

These productive alternatives have been developed with strategic allies such as KFW, which has allowed the consolidation of a development approach that considers the importance of PNN Tamá and its ecosystem services. From this perspective, the rural women's association has become a successful management strategy represented in communities surrounding the park that are part of the conservation, planning, and management of the protected area.

The stability of protected areas often depends on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures to stabilize their buffer zone. Furthermore, these strategies become more effective to the extent that the inhabitants neighboring the protected areas are involved. In this sense, PNN Tamá has focused its efforts on supporting the creation of Civil Society Nature Reserves (RNSC) on the lands of neighboring communities to form a conservation corridor. This type of strategy has proven to be quite effective because the vocation of the property of the peasant families harmonizes with the conservation objectives of the strategic ecosystems. Among others, with the allies, land has been purchased to constitute RNSC.

Knowledge of the hydrological cycle in watersheds supplying water resources is considered strategic to favor the provision of hydrological ecosystem services in quality and quantity that favor the different beneficiary sectors. In this sense, knowing through participatory monitoring the behavior and variability of water quality and quantity indicators of water sources is vital to understand how actions in the territory influence the state of the watersheds. Likewise, the inclusion of the communities represents an opportunity for the recognition and appropriation of the importance of conservation and the development of strategies that favor financial sustainability reflected in the attainment of monetary and in-kind resources that allow the development of ways of life of the communities in accordance with the conservation objectives of the protected area.

With our allies at KFW, we have been able to strengthen rural families and associations such as the Rural Women's Team of San Alberto in the municipality of Toledo, thus strengthening the gender perspective as an example of shared management in the planning and management of protected areas.