Monitoring | PANORAMA

Securing sufficient funds for a multi-purpose EbA solution

Partly built up new real estate properties along the lake shore

Nadine Gerner, Emschergenossenschaft

As this solution serves various goals and meets several objectives, it was possible to secure sufficient funding from diverse parties, domains and funding bodies to cover the entire implementation of the project. In the case of the creation of Lake Phoenix, this included funding for water management from the water board; funding for ecology from the ecological funding program by the federal state; funding for urban development from etc. The water board, for instance, provided the amount of money that was already budgeted for the construction of a flood retention basin. This basin was not needed anymore, as the lake solution already provided the required flood retention function. Some additional potential funding sources were not even used in the end, because it would have slowed down the marketing of the real estate and would have tied the project to certain restrictions, which were not desired by the decision-makers.

Given that the solution serves various goals, funding was able to be secured from a range of parties, sectors and sources. The marketing of real estate properties along the new lake shore was a financial aspect considered from the project’s start in order to make the project implementation financially partly self-supporting. The project consortium took great care of timing, for instance regarding the deadlines of the various funding programs.

Establishing the diverse benefits provided by a solution is an important step in the planning process, as it highlights the various sectors and stakeholders who can potentially be involved in and benefit from the solution. Drawing attention to the potential benefits, and underlying this with a sound scientific evidence base with which to approach these parties, can facilitate the successful generation of funds from a range of sources. Innovative financing approaches can also act as ‘self-sustaining’ and generate funds during the course of the project to fund some of the foreseen activities.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Review phase

Entirety

Local

Bottom Up - Grassroot initiative

Community involvement

Children at EcoPeace

Local stakeholders learn to become environmental leaders. They learn about their water reality. When people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet and engage with similar groups of stakeholders from other communities across the conflict. The common ground for these cross conflict meetings is the safeguard of the shared watershed and the communities engage in productive meetings to identify solutions. Together they identify projects that speak to the self-interest of both sides. Through this process, the communities gain the capacity to advance solutions even within a turbulent political environment. In most cases, the combination of a strong youth program and outspoken adult leadership creates the political will of mayors and other municipal leaders to get involved.

The local community's leadership needs a respected leader from the local community to provide the best leadership. It is important that a regional project manager with strong project experience mentors the local leader.

Local leadership from the local community is especially important in a conflict situation to secure the trust that the leader acts in the community’s self-interest. Walks in the nature and along shared water bodies provide the best opportunity for communities to understand their water reality. Only when people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet other communities. Community members voice an appreciation and need for an organization as EcoPeace to facilitate cross border meetings to ensure that the meetings provide a “safe-place” for the local communities to discuss issues effecting cross-border and neighbor communities. Participants were free to talk about their realities while using constructive means to seek solutions. Meetings and collaboration on environmental issues delivers a capacity to create and sustain strong networks of cross-border communication with long-term impact beyond the cross-border initiative.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Top Down - National and International initiative

EcoPeace annual Conference Nov 2016 with government support

Meeting

Basin commissioners and representatives from around the world at EcoPeace's 2016 conferenct

Top-Down is the process to create broader political awareness of the issue. It includes advocacy for national and international support. Commonly a concept paper that explains the problem initiates this process with further research to support and document the issues. It is important to appeal to the news media, as their attention is necessary to heighten the political awareness of the issues and to convey the information to the public, resulting in the creation of a broader public demand for action. Media attention mobilizes national and international engagement and can foster domestic and international resource mobilization. In our experience, public opinion plays a decisive role in dictating the political agenda to local leaders as well as national decision makers.

Strong community engagement and public initiatives create the demand for political action. It is important to create an environment in which it is politically safe to discuss the solutions, if the solutions are truly in the national self-interests then politicians will more easily embrace the change and even lead it. Good relations to media and the international community can facilitate government involvement.

In an unsteady political landscape, environmental issues are held hostage, used as pawns in the overarching political conflict and within the framework of the official peace process. In order for the initiatives to produce a real change, a careful balance must be maintained: to achieve the explicit approval of officials without losing momentum to the tedium of politics.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Ecoranger programme and DEA land user incentive programme

The DEA NRM land user incentive programme, along with co finance from CSA donors, allows CSA to fund alien clearing in priority catchments. Eco rangers then employed to work with farmers, on rotation grazing, they control grazing of livestock and ensure rotational grazing is enforced. They keep areas alien free, they help protect cattle through mobile kraaling and also gather data on cattle and biodiversity and monitor veld condition and determine when an area needs to be closed from grazing. They also ensure compliance with rested areas and report those not compliant. They also ensure protection of biodiversity against poaching. Also ecorangers play a crucial role in ensuring that alien invasive plants do not come back and are responsible for pulling out seedlings that grow back. It is their responsibility as well to rehabilitate degraded areas where erosion dongas are beginning to appear. Incentives for land owners include not only ecorangers but also vaccinations and access to markets through auctions. Springs and streams that have dried started flowing again after these approaches have been implemented.

•Traditional leadership as well municipality played a crucial role during implementation, without their support this would not have been successful •A process of community mobilization around the importance of sustainable land management and catchment management •Funding from DEA NRM for wattle clearing allowed rangelands to be made available •Funding by DEA NRM and donor funding for rangelands management by ecorangers ensured non return of wattle as well as ensuring sustainable and product

•Livestock condition improves within one year of this approach. •Market access for rural communities makes a huge difference to livelihoods and their engagement in the programme. •Wattle cleared areas have to be constantly monitored to ensure regrowth is combated. •Community engagement has to be ongoing. •Financial resources are very critical for the implementation of this EbA initiative due to poverty levels in these communities. •Implementation work should be based on indigenus knowledge systems (assisted in the design of the rotational grazing patterns) •The focus on rangelands for the benefit of rural livestock was critical. •Improving benefit of broader community through redmeat market access was key in order to get buyin from the broader community.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Entirety

Local

National

MNI restoration toolkit- Conservation SA

Vulnerability assessments and EbA priority maps integrated into local policy and planning that include an index for monitoring

Vulnerability assessments and EbA priority maps

CSA used the Lets Respond Toolkit and a facilitation resource they have developed to assist with the implementation of the toolkit in order to assist the Alfred Nzo District Municipality in mainstreaming climate change into their district and support the development of an enabling environment for EbA. CSA developed a Vulnerability assessment with the Alfred Nzo District Municipality which included ecological, social and institutional vulnerability to climate change. In the process the layers of vulnerability were translated into GIS and an overarching EbA priority map was developed which guides decision-making within the district. The VA also contains an index which is used to monitor the vulnerability over time. CSA then also assisted the ANDM to develop a Climate Change Response Strategy guided by the VA and the maps in order to develop key adaptation (and mitigation) priorities of which EbA was part. It was critical to then integrate this plan within ANDM and the use of the ANDM climate change committee was integral to this as well as for the monitoring of vulnerability.

Traditional leadership and municipality for planning; existent community of practice around NGO and restoration/conservation work at a catchment level such as the UCP-Programme: district level climate change committee which can assist in mainstreaming climate Change; National level 'Lets respond toolkit' for mainstreaming climate change at LG level support by by SA Local government association; tools and expertise to do VA, GIS EbA maps/ develop an index for monitoring

Lessons from working with lets respond and mainstreaming into local policy and planning: •Raising awareness about climate change and its likely impacts amongst local government decision-makers is really important – so they can see the relevance for their service delivery. It is difficult to address the unknown and usually much easier to address immediate needs and concerns (basic services), so linking climate change to existing activities, priorities, and budgets, and looking at what climate impacts might mean for these things, is really important and really possible. Another thing that helps is linking climate change to areas of responsibility in municipal planning and implementation that are already well understood. We need to mainstream climate change in a very strategic and targeted way into the key planning documents and management tools of the municipality, such as the IDP, and the various sector master plans.

Umzimvubu Partnership Programme

Invasive plant monitoring

Podyjí National Park took sole responsibility for monitoring the river valley for infestations of the Himalayan Balsam and other invasive plants. The National Park staff used a boat to monitor the occurrence of the plant along the river banks, especially in areas that are hard to reach overland. Today, staff from Thayatal National Park is also part of the boat crew, and monitoring from the river is conducted once a year. The measures to eliminate invasive species are implemented several times during the year (2 to 6 times). The Himalayan Balsam occurs on both sides of the border, but Podyji National Park has greater capacity in implementing the measures. The participation on monitoring and management has thus been divided in accordance of capabilities of both national parks.

Thayatal NP co-funded the purchase of a boat to be used for riverside monitoring by Podyjí NP staff. To be able to cross the border regularly for monitoring, the European Schengen system, i.e. in this case open borders for passenger traffic, was a facilitating condition.

Initially, monitoring occurred at a small scale only on the Czech side. Eventually it became apparent that it was necessary to monitor Himalayan Balsam on both banks and on both sides of the border to get the necessary data to inform eradication efforts.

Monitoring

Local

Multi-national

Monitoring of outcomes

Monitoring is primarily used to help avoid repeated mistakes and to enable an adaptive approach to management. This is especially important where local conditions of the site may not have been extensively researched as is the case in our project and common with community-led initiatives. Trial and error can be a practical way to design and manage a project in these situations and regular monitoring is essential to identify undesirable trends sooner rather than later. We have applied monitoring at several scales. We have used targeted monitoring at the small trail scale for example to trial different foredune restoration methods before scaling up. At the whole-site scale monitoring has been very useful to show the level of success against long term objectives, which in turn has helped build support for the project as well as helping management planning going forward. Examples include measuring plant growth, mortality and dune profile changes over time along with records of the inputs required to achieve various results. We also monitor the human dimension, such as the experiences of participants in the project and perspectives on priorities for management.

Developing and trialling new monitoring techniques, especially for methods that are suitable for a wide range of end-users (eg. in community sector) or where a range of methods is developed to suit different end-users.
Production of guidance materials to help lay people and community groups design and implement robust monitoring programmes. This is especially important within context of monitoring for community-based projects.
Funding for monitoring programmes and analysis/communication of the results.

We have found that monitoring and the feedback of information to those involved can useful as a motivational factor. The information also has practical utility for securing buy-in from key authorities or sponsors for funding. Recently we have extended monitoring to the human dimension to gauge aspects of the project that are of interest to the participants. This is proving useful with project design and planning. Selection of appropriate metrics for monitoring remains a key concern. Ideally these are not just of academic interest and will represent tangibles sought by stakeholders. To address this we coupled the design of monitoring activities with stakeholder perception surveys to establish key values to monitor from various perspectives. In this way we are using monitoring to help gauge the success of management in terms of stakeholder needs. Although it is not possible to monitor everything of potential interest this is helping to get the best value from monitoring efforts.

Monitoring

Local

Data for better enforcement

Fin Fighters works on the ground and is able to collect any evidence of IUU that may be occurring or is unreported. In the fishing ports and markets we are able to witness firsthand the sale and movement of any CITES listed species or evidence of illegal shark finning. The evidence we have collected so far from the first 2 years of this 5 year study will be amassed and produced in reports (together with our genetic results and data) that will be presented to the fisheries officials and governing bodies. Our aim with this is to prove that despite restrictions and laws (such as CITES and ICCAT) being agreed to by Moroccan governance – they are currently not being managed or enforced effectively. We are currently producing an education scheme, that we hope the Moroccan fisheries ministers will approve (with the reports and fishermen surveys as evidence to back this up) that we will run out across the country in ports and markets. This will provide basic knowledge of different species and outline the laws and restrictions as well as give explanations for why they are necessary.

It is important that we can provide quantitative as well as qualitative data for presentation to officials – so that the need for our program is clearly evidenced. By producing evidence of consistent law breaking (unintentional and intentional) or problem areas where species are targeted – we can clearly show the need for specific areas to be addressed and programs to be established.

The most important lesson we have learned in this work so far – is that the fishermen themselves may not be to blame for breaking the law, there is simply a lack of information and a definite lack of enforcement. We are hoping therefore to work with the fishermen to make the enforcement of the laws that protect their livelihoods more accessible and part of the every day. It is necessary to exercise extreme caution when collecting evidence of rule breaking and not to act on this rashly or without certainty – this is the reason we are collecting evidence for reports rather than chasing prosecutions straight away; as often this can drive activities underground and make monitoring the situation much harder as well as promote the creation of black markets.

Monitoring

National

Citizen shark scientists

Volunteers are trained to conduct genetic sampling and necropsies and to gather data by monitoring landings and surveying fisherman. This creates an opportunity for conservationists and concerned citizens to have a positive impact and learn new skills for the benefit of species conservation. This has also enabled the collection over a wide area of a vast amount of viable data for scientific studies. Ultimately it means that Fin Fighters are able to provide a much needed data resource in data deficient areas for poorly understood populations. The participants are trained to ID species from various body parts and to take ID images for our data bank. Some of our volunteers request to be taught more in-depth collection skills such as sampling either in situ on the ports, or in controlled environments. Others further their involvement by learning how to carry out necropsies and to extract samples of specific material – such as sperm, or stomach contents for later study. The volunteers (or Citizen Shark Scientists) are also taught how to survey fishermen, and fishing equipment, and to understand fishing methods.

It is important that volunteers work well in a team and in high pressure situations to collect data that is controlled and that all reporting is carried out in a reasoned manner – without assumption. Many of our volunteers have skills that can be useful in an investigation – such as a second language, or a past working in the fishing industry, this enables communication with fishermen and officials easier and helps to build confidence within the voluntary team.

We have learnt that working in this way requires a great deal of patience and understanding of the different ways people process information. It has led to tailoring different learning activities to fit individual’s needs and in doing so has also taught us new techniques of describing the practical elements of our work. Whilst Fin Fighters operate a democratic and fair approach to our investigative process – including every member’s opinion in our decision making; It is also necessary for the investigation for the director to maintain a leadership role throughout. Ensuring every members voice is heard is important, but this then needs to be translated in to cohesive action and managed in a safe and proficient way – we found in the field that having a leader in final decision making and implementation way key to the success of the investigation process.

Implementation

Monitoring

National

Monitoring Regulation

Vessel Monitoring Systems (GPS) across the fleet Electronic Monitoring (EM) on the trawl fleet, designed and voluntary agreed to by fishers.

Interest of fishers and government cooperation

It was fishers who decided to use, pay for and eventually design GPS and EM not government; this decision shocked officials and was challenged by fishers in other areas, it was very bold.

Monitoring

Implementation

National