We hire project staff and meet with relevant stakeholders (government representatives, community leaders, and potential local and international partners/donors) to solicit their support and formalize each new FG project. With the help of stakeholders we identify interested farmer groups, lead farmers, and participants, and host orientation workshops prior to pursuing training and extension activities. We contact farmers by working with local government and community leaders and using rural radio to promote TREES and the FGA. This process takes 1-2 months as we vet farmers to ensure that they are truly willing to participate in the program. We prepare our Monitoring and Evaluation process which consistently collects data over the 4-year period. The M&E process consists of collecting information on our farmers through a baseline survey before they start the program, on metrics such as household dietary diversity and food insecurity and resilience (based off of USAID indices), along with measurements of the species diversity, and the number of trees per hectare on FG land.  Lastly, we look into the number of food crops and marketable products our farmers grow. This information is followed up with an annual sample survey of farmers to see how these metrics change over the 4-year FGA.

On the other hand, the Monarch Fund (MF) strengthens the local capacities of 33 ejidos and communities to comply with the fiscal and banking conditions related to annual conservation payments under the concurrent funds' modality. In collaboration with Conafor, Conanp, FMCN and forest advisors, the FM supports the development of 29 Best Management Practices for Conservation Programs (BMPCP). The BMPCP is intended to be a document to guide the implementation of activities aimed at the conservation of forest ecosystems, in order to maintain or improve the provision of environmental services within areas under financial incentives. In addition, the BMPCP are intended to enable beneficiaries to obtain resources from other government programs to carry out the activities proposed in them.

Monarch Fund (MF) is part of FMCN´s Fund for Natural Protected Areas (FANP), a public-private initiative between FMCN, the Government of Mexico and the World Bank. The FANP consists of endowment resources, whose interests are channeled to 30 priority natural protected areas in the country.

FANP has a Technical Committee of the FANP (CTFANP) that oversees its operation, including the MF. This Committee is composed of seven members from different sectors, who are appointed by the National Council of Natural Protected Areas and ratified by the FMCN Board of Directors.

Another component of the MF is the Monarch Fund Trust Technical Committee (CTFMM), which approves annual payments to ejidos and communities that have complied with forest cover conservation in core areas. Six representatives of ejidos (agricultural and forestry properties for collective use), indigenous communities and private landowners participate in the CTFMM.

The city applied a variety of capital improvement projects and urban operation schemes for city core revitalization. A centerpiece of the revitalization package is the development of Grand Plaza – a major social open space equipped with audio-visual amenities for various events and covered by a high-ceiling glass roof under all-weather conditions, in particular to deal with Toyama’s heavy snowfall climate. The city also established a 24-hour bicycle-sharing system by placing 17 bike stations with a private operator in the city core district. A central marketplace and local community facilities were constructed through the unique redevelopment schemes and incentive arrangement.

The city designated 436 hectares for an urban core district, 19 public transit corridors (including both light rail transit and bus lines), and 3,489 hectares for residential promotion areas along the corridors, for which special subsidies became available for qualified home builders, new housing owners, and multi-family apartment residents. Consequently, the number of new residential properties along the promoted transit lines increased 1.32 times for the period of 2004 to 2009.

The city introduced Japan’s first light rail transit (LRT), called PORTRAM, by utilizing the former JR Toyama-port line’s right of way accompanied by the extension of bullet train services to Toyama Station. The PORTRAM system with barrier-free stations and low-floor vehicles over the operation length of 7.6 km can smoothly carry elderly and disabled passengers to a variety of city destinations and bring wider environmental benefits, such as reduction in noise, air pollution, and CO2 emissions, to the whole city. Importantly, innovative project finance schemes were applied to split the roles of railway construction and system operation between public and private partners for the Toyama LRT. The public sector covers all the construction cost of the LRT system, including vehicles, railways, and depots, and the maintenance cost of these facilities, whereas the transit operator founded by several local governments and private companies recovers operation costs from fare revenues. The city filled the capital funding gap by arranging the national government’s road improvement programs and contributions from transit companies and by saving land acquisition costs with the former JR railway’s right of way.

Three types of data were particularly important in the design and promotion of the “Program for Earthquake-Resistant School Buildings”: school data, data on damages, and data on hazard risks. School data was collected by surveys and investigations conducted by FDMA and MEXT. A list of the surveys is indicated below.

Ya’axché’s Protected Areas Management program conducts monitoring of bird and mammal species within the concession to track wildlife ecosystem health and inform decision making within the concession.

Financial sustainability is an overarching aim for YUS landscape management. Woodland Park Zoo, with the help of Conservation International’s Global Conservation Fund and other donors, established a two million dollar endowment for the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program and the YUS Conservation Area in 2011. The non-sinking endowment is managed by Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) and follows procedures outlined in WPZ’s Operations Manual. Four percent of the interest earned by the endowment is to be disbursed annually by WPZ in accordance with TKCP-PNG annual plans and budget formulated in December of each year, and is designed to provide partial funding for core landscape programs in perpetuity. 

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the YUS CA, local communities must participate in and benefit from its protection. To encourage community engagement and sustainable development, TKCP builds partnerships to address local needs for livelihoods, health, education and skills training. 

The YUS Conservation Coffee program is an integrated approach to optimizing supply for a sustainable crop, while building connections to international markets. By selling farm-direct to Caffé Vita and other buyers, YUS coffee farmers earn revenues more than 35% higher than local market rates. Adequately covering production and transport costs, premium coffee export has become an economically viable industry for YUS communities. TKCP is now working to replicate this success among cocoa farmers by working with the PNG Cocoa Board and chocolatiers to improve local cocoa quality and to identify new markets. In addition, TKCP is facilitating the establishment of a YUS Conservation Coffee and Cocoa Cooperative to strengthen the management and marketing of the two crops.

TKCP's community livelihoods programs have fostered community buy-in for conservation, which is further bolstered by environmental education and community health efforts, ensuring the social and cultural sustainability of TKCP.