The sites are heterogeneous and have different degrees of degradation, resulting in different intervention needs and opportunities. It is crucial to understand which species appear in nature as groups and to design the planting design accordingly. Mother trees, flowering periods and storability of seeds need to be known and the planting has to be adapted according to suitable planting periods. In the nursery, the focus on good root systems of the seedlings is key, requiring appropriate nursing equipment, substrate and trained staff.

El fortalecimiento de lazos de confianza entre las comunidades manejadoras de vicuñas y el área protegida (trabajamos en conjunto hace 17 años), y con la Asociación Nacional de Manejadores de Vicuñas (trabajamos en conjunto hace 3 años), es crítico para fortalecer la conservación de la vicuña y de su hábitat. Esto ha permitido realizar monitoreos sobre el crecimiento poblacional y la sanidad de las vicuñas; realizar vigilancia de contaminantes y su impacto en la especie; desarrollar capacidades en bienestar animal, bioseguridad; obtener fibra de mayor calidad; e iniciar, recientemente, una línea base sobre la depredación de vicuñas y ganado por perros pastores, así como el estado de salud y de bienestar de los perros.

Among the strengths of the pilot is the ability to translate learnings into opportunities and recommendations, especially on issues of innovation, digital transformation and technological ethics for biodiversity protection. For this reason, we closely monitored the implementation of the pilot to develop a public report with a recommendations section, fed by the experiences, inputs, achievements and learnings of the implementing team.

Prior community meetings were organized in the neighbouring village to raise awareness about the importance of mangrove restoration. During these meetings, the community was informed of the principles of the resoration method and the steps involved. Since mangrove restoration does not require any particular technical expertise (know-how), the entire community was targeted (women, men and youth) and mobilized for further actions. Furthermore, local authorities, state technical services, as well as administrative authorities were also involved, so that the method could easily be replicated elsewhere.

The identification and validation of the restoration site was carried out jointly with the local community to promote its adherence to the process. The regional forest service and technicians from the NGO Conservation International (CI) were also included to ensure the technical feasibility of the proposed site.

Local community elders, who know the historical, environmental and topographic context, are usually very good advisers for restoration site choice. They can indicate where degraded mangrove areas (inland) with some remaining plants can be found (the restoration site must have been a mangrove ecosystem in the past). These are usually suitable sites for reforestation/restoration.

Although Gomeza Community used Self-drive to restore the forest reserve, the community attracted attention from government and non-governmental organisations. The partnerships led to provision of technical capacity building to the community on sivicultural aspects. Other insitutions also supported the community in their vision. This led to reduced resource need per institution to work with the community.

We conducted a scoping baseline survey on how best to carry out our restoration efforts with our women in Kavuzi and Sanga

Youth centric approach 

The project used locally available personnel and resources hence ensuring sustainability. 

El área de bosque secundario en Costa Rica, está identificada en el mapa desarrollado por SINAC en el año 2014, este mapa identifica los tipos de bosque para todo el país. Las propiedades donde se ubica el bosque, se identificaron por medio de los registros catastrales de las municipalidades de San Carlos y Los Chiles, que son información pública, se determinó quienes eran los propietarios de estas áreas de bosque.

Se visitaron los propietarios que  tuvieran 10 hectáreas o más de bosque secundario, se les presentó el proyecto y se les planteó si tenían interés en participar, donde el aporte del propietario era facilitar el acceso al bosque para realizar una evaluación del estado silvicultural del mismo y posterior al análisis de los datos determinar el o los tratamientos silviculturales a desarrollar para consolidar el sitio como bosque, mejorar la estructura vertical y horizontal del mismo y a mediano y largo plazo obtener beneficios económicos del aprovechamiento de sus servicios ecosistémicos. En total se obtuvo anuencia de 14 propietarios de bosque para implementar las actividades del proyecto.