Benefits generated to communities and livelihood improved

Community forestry in Nepal has brought a number of benefits including an increase in income. It has helped to fight against illegal logging by putting clear rules in place on timber access and a strong system of forest monitoring. Community livelihoods have also improved with easier access to firewood and fodder and better health care and energy access, for example through money from ecotourism and subsidies for renewable energy.

Community forestry shows traits of political, financial, and ecological sustainability, including emergence of a strong legal and regulatory framework, and robust civil society institutions and networks.

A continuing challenge is to ensure equitable distribution of benefits to women and marginalized groups.  

 

The immediate livelihood benefits derived by rural households bolster strong collective action wherein local communities actively and sustainably manage forest resources. Community forests also became the source of diversified investment capital and raw material for new market-oriented livelihoods. 

 

Communities empowered and trusted

Conservation oriented community forestry is essentially a participatory process that requires strong technical assistance on both policy and implementation. Expanding the property rights of local communities over resources and empowering them with knowledge, information, resources, technologies, and required skills for forest management and institution building are basic building blocks for the community forestry. Gender and equity concerns are addressed from the program design so that the poor, women, and marginalized receive fair benefits from the program.

Legal rights over the resources, institutions, capacity, trust, and leadership,

It evolved from the community level, and is based on traditional uses of the forest by communities. This bottom-up approach is a great strength of the Nepalese model as it gives ownership and leadership to communities to decide both where to create a community forest and how to run it.

Governmental Approval

Some of our programs involve coral transplantation. In Thailand it is illegal to touch or damage coral, so we had to seek approval for some of our programs.

To receive approval from the government involves first submitted a proposal for a coral reef restoration zone. Including with this proposal are the techniques for transplantation, the people involved and their experience and qualifications, and a long term plan for monitoring and maintenance.

The DMCR has fully approved our restoration related activities and we conduct transplant research and provide them with that data.

  • Coral restoration experience
  • Long term plan
  • Proposal to government
  • Assessment and approval

This is a long process to get approved. Being able to show that our programs are successful and being assessed and approved took over 2 years of communication, submissions, and assessments.

To be able to obtain permission requires a group of committed volunteers that have relevant experience and are willing to participate in the program for a long term period of time.

Accreditation process

There is a five-tiered process to becoming a WHS.

1. An initial online application that ensures there are no fundamental prohibitive issues. 

2. A candidacy review of the initial application is carried out by impartial representatives.

3. Technical advice to discuss and advise on areas for improvement and on how to submit an application with the greatest chance of success.

4. Final application including supporting evidence, a justification for the geographical delineation of the site and a detailed explanation of how the site achieves each of the criteria. 

5. If successful, Whale Heritage Site (WHS) designation. It must then prepare and submit annual reports explaining how criteria are met.

 

By going through the accreditation process, The Bluff had to show that they could ensure responsible, sustainable practices and livelihoods would be continually improved thus ensuring the health and welfare of whales, dolphins and porpoises and their ocean habitats. 

They were assessed against conditions including supportive legislation, culture, as well as environmental, social and economic sustainability.

They had to provide supporting evidence including statistics relevant to livelihoods, cultural activities, tourists visiting the area, whale-watch tour operators, protected areas, etc.

The Bluff was also obliged to show that community-based research, education, and awareness activities were being conducted. 

Having a clear goal with a clear path towards it, is essential. For a program such as the Whale Heritage site accreditation, there are high standards that must be achieved but there must be a supportive process to help a community navigate their way through it and ultimately achieve that status.  

Local stakeholder steering group and community empowerment

The building block is built on the principle that a community based initiative to protect cetaceans and their habitats is best done when owned by the local communities itself. It incentivizes, empowers and engages a community and its businesses so that they benefit directly from a healthy and thriving ocean. 

 

To coordinate and facilitate the development of a WHS initiative, a steering committee is formed by local stakeholders. These are enthusiastic, creative and passionate individuals who steer the process and help launch, maintain, and sustain the application process.

 

An effective WHS steering committee should be fully diverse and inclusive and representative of the community and include staff, volunteers, and community members. Its purpose is to serve as a mobilizing force, not a bureaucracy. Making the process meaningful and purposeful for everyone involved. Within the process there is guidance on establishing sub-committees or workgroups to focus on specific goals and activities. 

 

As well as leading and manageing the process of application, the steering committee must show continual improvement across the community with its various initiatives, through annual reporting as a measure of WHS's excellence.

It took 2 years and the collaborative efforts of a local steering committee, made up of dedicated and passionate local stakeholder partners (individuals and local organisations), for The Bluff to achieve Whale Heritage Site status. Committee members now work together for positive change. Meeting on a regular basis and continually striving toward the ultimate goal of putting The Bluff front and centre for the conservation and preservation of cetaceans and all the benefits that this provides for the community. 

Enabling and empowering a community to work together requires a clear direction, benefits, and a core team of dedicated stakeholders to drive the project forward locally. It must be community owned at every stage of the process and be fully representative of the community, its needs, its vision and its priorities. 

Establishement of Kayirabwa Chimpanzee Conservancy for conservation and protection of wildlife migratory routes in northern Albertine rift forests, western Uganda

These corridor forests are disappearing quickly and if these findings are not acted upon soon there will be little corridor forest left to conserve and most of these species will become extinct in this region. There is a need for the Ministry of Water, Energy and the Environment, the District Environmental offices and the National Forest Authority to move ahead quickly with providing economic and financial incentives to enable these corridor forests to receive funding as soon as they can to offset the current incentives to destroy the forest for agriculture. 

  • Presence of Kihaimira Central Forest Reserve as core area
  • Local support for chimpanzee conservation
  • Great Potential for agro-ecotourism
  • Great potential for nature based enterprises eg. bee keeping
  • Conducive government policies

A corridor forests east of Lake Albert are rich in biodiversity, they contain many of the species that may require connectivity to remain viable in the larger forest blocks, and they are likely to be playing a functional role in terms of connecting meta-populations of these species. There is a need to find incentives for land owners who have forest on their land in the corridors to conserve these forests in order to maintain these functional roles.

Establishing a Butterly Museum as additional income generating source for the women sericulture operators

Sericulture is the art of silk production by rearing caterpillars (larvae) and undertaking a post cocoon activity (e.g. reeling) leading to production of silk yarn. Women headed households who use to earn income from the sales of firewood illegally extracted from Nech Sar National Park are now engaged in production and sales of cocoons and silk yarn. A combination of fishing, beekeeping, agro-forestry, bamboo processing, nursery, and incentive-based woodlot plantation based livelihoods are also being supported. The Park has six endemic butterfly species that have a potential to be used for sericulture business. The Museum, managed by the sericulture operators, could serve as environmental education center and source of income for the operators in the form of visitor fees. They could also sale their products from the sericulture business as well as food and beverages for visitors of the museum. The visitors include domestic and international tourists, school children and conference participants. Arba-Minch is a stay-over destination for tourists travelling to the Konso, Dorze, Nech Sar National Park and Omo-Valley tourist attraction sites in Ethiopia as well as important conference tourism site in Ethiopia. The cost of construction is assumed to come from the award or conservation partners such as GIZ-BFP.

The park has several butterfly species, some of them are endemic. The park has experts to provide the neccessary technical support.

Activity not implemented yet.

Incentive and sustainability

Our project is based on the premise that farmers want sustainability and are incentivised to achieve this. No farming operation will be viable in the long run unless it is done in an ecologically and economically responsible manner. Climate change has led to an increased frequency of drought, as well as an increased severity of drought in the western regions of South Africa. Stocking rates are effectively falling as a result of climate change, and this necessitates the need for farmers to diversify income in order to survive. Failure to change will have a devastating impact on biodiversity.

We are incentivising farmers to protect biodiversity through the adoption of more sustainable farming practices, e.g. grazing rest, correct stocking rates and habitat restoration activities. While these lead to fewer, but better quality animals, the farmer still experiences a loss of income. We help the farmer compensate for this through the adoption of non-farming activities such as ecotourism.

Through continual engagement with the farmer, we are able to address concerns as they are raised and ensure that the farmer perceives active engagement in the partnership as an incentive to improve his farming operation.

The region has an existing tourism industry which can be leveraged upon. Known as the ‘bulb capital of the world’, the area is well known and relatively close (a 3.5 hr drive) to an international airport. However, this season lasts approximately 2-months, and this project seeks to extend tourism operations throughout the year.

The farmer needs to be open to tourism as a means of generating tourism income. 

The project has immediate potential to generate additional revenue and can be custom designed to suit the infrastructure and abilities of the farmer.

  • Choose projects which are quick to implement and quick to show results.  This will booster partnerships and improve the chances of other promises being fulfilled.
  • Farmers are not keen on paperwork and administration and often require support in this area, especially as it relates to the new venture.
  • It is very important to demonstrate that the incentive is working as this underpins continued collaboration. Celebrate the small successes.
Partnerships

It goes without saying that change cannot take place unless based on sound partnerships that have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and deliverables. Changing farming practices is challenging as these ingrained practices have been passed down for generations. The EWT is able to assist the farmer to bridge the gap between traditional farming techniques and the skills required to transition toward nature-based tourism models.

We found it essential to select farmers who are open to change and then to build their trust through the provision of proven deliverables and mutual respect. Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly outlined and defined in order to speed up the operationalisation of projects and avoid misunderstandings. Our project set holistic goals that supported the farmer and his family, the farm workers, the conservation of biodiversity and provided a unique experience for the outdoor enthusiast.

Building lasting and open partnerships are one of the hallmarks of this project. It is part of the foundation for our success.

  • Trust
  • Open channels of communication
  • Clarity on what parties want
  • Willingness to collaborate
  • Realistic projects that are well thought out and can realistically provide the expected benefits.
  • Trust and partnerships are built on regular contact.
  • Communication must be open and honest.
  • By ensuring that a staff member was on site we could build trust more rapidly. Having an EWT staff member in the area to provide extension services was of critical importance.
  • Finding willing partners that are enthusiastic is critical to success.
  • Providing constant support and encouragement – if you promise to do something it has to be done.
  • Ensure that there is a reciprocal situation where the farmer also has responsibilities to perform at his own cost – this leads to a more vested relationships where it is in everybody’s interest to ensure the project is successful.
Scientific Planning (Ecological restoration and conservation planning for adaptation to climate change)

In Helinge’er County, Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) was used to plan ecological restoration and protection for the county with consideration of climate change forecast. Firstly, demands of regional ecosystem service functions were determined according to the national ecological function zoning and ecological red lines. Secondly, to ensure the key ecosystem types in each ecological function plot can perform long-lasting and reliable ecological service functions, historic and current status of each ecological function plot was evaluated with literature reviews and field investigations (community surveys), and ecosystem trends were predicted under different climate change scenarios. Community outreach was crucial in understanding how the lived experience of farmers and herders compared to the scientific literature and helped build trust with communities.

 

Targets of the protection area target were set, and the degree of human influence in the area was considered. Finally, for the important ecological function areas the current ecosystem status was compared to the key ecosystem types that can continue to play their roles. If they were consistent, they were identified as protected areas. Inconsistencies resulted in restoration areas, and the target ecosystem type for restoration could then be determined.

 

 

  • TNC’s partnership with the Inner Mongolia Forestry and Grassland Bureau helped facilitate field investigations with the community.
  • The older population of Helinge’er remembered a time when ecological services were highly functioning and were eager to see ecosystems restored. 
  • Partnerships with philanthropic supporters, Such as Lao Niu Foundation, made this work possible. RbD and community engagement work takes time, and it helps to have funders who understand and invest in longer time frames

When TNC first began work in Helinge’er, there was no systematic scientific planning approach for this particular ecosystem, its degradation factors, and community needs. SCP is a broad approach, and our teams had not yet executed this level of planning on in arid and semi-arid ecosystems in Inner Mongolia.

 

We realized engaging with the local communities and developing collaborative relationships with the local experts weas vital to building a long-term restoration project.

 

Through extensive field surveys, we were able to combine existing scientific models with local expertise and community knowledge. This hybrid approach helped us adapt to the specific needs of the area and its people.