Since 2005, the TAAF has managed the Éparses islands, comprising the Glorieuses archipelago, Juan de Nova, Tromelin, Europa and Bassas de India. Most of these islands are located in the Mozambique Channel, with the exception of Tromelin, north of Reunion Island.

Despite a small total land area (43 km²), the total waters under French jurisdiction linked to these islands represent 6% of French maritime territory.

These islands are part of the Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot, a regionally recognized natural heritage; they are included in 4 of the 320 Ecologically and Biologically Significant Marine Areas identified by the Convention on Biological Diversity; they are recognized as Key Biodiversity Areas by the IUCN; and some are recognized as Important Bird Areas by BirdLife International.

Despite the permanent presence of TAAF environmental officers on these islands, no studies had been carried out on chiropterans prior to the Chiropt'îles project. Only a few mentions of bats (genus Mops sp, Taphien de Maurice) have been recorded on the islands of Grande Glorieuse, Europa and Juan de Nova.

Development of an action plan after the SAGE process was very crucial as it ensured that recommendations provided in the SAGE process were addressed in a systematic and targeted manner whereby key stakeholders who participated in the SAGE process were also engaged in the action planning process hence, they drew the roadmap for implementation of those recommendations.

In addition, recommendations which came out of the SAGE process informed Honeyguide on areas of priority in designing WMA governance capacity building programs.

Proposals and development of IGA projects take place after the AVEC has been in operation for one year, in order to ensure that the group is cohesive. Meetings are organized with the AVECs to list the IGA proposals they would like to undertake. It's important to emphasize that the approach used must be down-top (proposals are not imposed by the project), in order to reinforce the adhesion and appropriation of the project by the members. On the basis of their proposals, an analysis is made to identify the activities best suited to the local context.

The process involved in Data for decision-making included gathering information by conducting participatory community Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and from key stakeholders, development of digital questionnaires, enumerators training on data collection, community data collection exercise and analysing the collected data to draw meaningful insights.

The data-gathering process involved participatory FGDs and engaging stakeholders, collecting information on the positive and negative impacts of Tsavo Trust (TT). This supported the development of a structured survey. The first Stakeholder meeting presented FGD findings, with participants providing additional insights. A digital questionnaire was created based on this input. Ten trained enumerators collected data from 156 households (approx. 950 individuals), achieving gender balance.

Community meetings shared survey results and ideas for addressing negative impacts. A second Stakeholder workshop gathered additional ideas. These components generated meaningful insights for decision-making.

These key components, including participatory discussions, stakeholder engagement, the development of a digital questionnaire, and data collection from households, were instrumental in generating meaningful insights for decision-making.

The objectives of the Preparing for Assessment block were: 

• Conduct a feasibility check, to determine whether SAPA was an appropriate methodology for assessing the social impacts of Kamungi.
• Plan for the assessment, to ensure that the assessment was implemented as a high-quality multi-stakeholder process
• Conduct community mapping, to help ensure that SAPA included all relevant communities within Kamungi.
• Review existing information, To ensure the assessment builds upon existing data relevant to the design and implementation of the assessment.
• Conduct stakeholder analysis,  To identify critical actors that should be engaged in SAPA

The SAPA team provided an overview of the SAPA to TT and Kamungi Conservancy management, this was followed by a community visit for mapping and awareness of the SAPA process, Two facilitators from Kamungi were identified, a male and a female, and trained for 2 days on gathering data from community members on positive and negative effects TT has had in the area. TT management provided the necessary data to facilitate the assessment and identified and ranked its stakeholders, clarifying their interests and Influence, the preparation phase helped set the base for the assessment ensuring all checkboxes were catered for and paving the way for the next building block

Since the software being deployed (SMART) was not being developed but rather an implementation, there existed other organizations that have used it. It was necessary to adapt and capitalize on the experience of other partners for a smooth process. This project engaged Space for Giants (SFG) who monitor large mammals in the landscape to provide guidance, templates and training. The training of trainers was conducted by SFG who also offered support in the development and configuration of necessary databases, online platforms and data collection models.

Two years before the project was conceived, a collaboration between Ol Pejeta and Vulcan Inc. through the Tech Lab saw the creation of an online visualization platform, EarthRanger that has since been used to integrate reports from various sources within the organization and from partners.

The SAGE methodology uses a stakeholder-led, self-assessment process to assess the quality of governance and equity.

The initial activity started with the identification of the key actor groups who have significant interest in the WMA or have power to influence conservation activities likely to affect conservation either positively or negatively e.g benefit sharing, livelihood projects supporting conservation and environmentally damaging activities whereby five different actor groups were identified and engaged as participants in the SAGE process. These actor groups represented members of the AA (Authorized Association), the board, representatives from men and women community, representatives from government, investors and other partners working in the same area.

Engagement of these key actor groups was the very significant success of the SAGE process because they have the better knowledge of the local environment and all the underlining activities going around in their WMA and they provided the right assessment and recommendation of their WMA.

Holothurian stock assessments have been carried out elsewhere in the world, but the target species, depths and logistical requirements were different. In our case, it was imperative to rework the initial protocol so that it was more adapted to the field, more realistic and more efficient.

Female rangers play an important part in the conservation of black rhinos in the Kunene and Erongo regions of Namibia. They are equally willing and able to conduct patrols and are fully supported by the custodian conservancies.

In the case of Sehlabathebe National Park, the analysis of the data and the priority actions for improvement  identified during the processes are feeding directly into the management plan for the area. This gives the outputs from the assessment more legitimacy, as they are 1) jointly identified by all relevant stakehodlers and 2) embedded in the formal government processes of managemen planning. The management plan can be used as a tool for resource mobilisation amongst donors and priority actions can then also be monitored through the monitoring of the management plan implementation.