Participatory process of identifying beneficiary communities

This project is based on a philosophy of working with communities who have asked for support, so that the solution is driven by the priorities of the community rather than imposing outside goals or values. The first building block of identifying beneficiary communities through participatory processes is critical to the success of the project, as trust and collaboration will ensure better outcomes. Community investment and eagerness to engage in sustainable actions are also critical traits to identify in the beneficiary communities as they will be taking the lead on their ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts.

  • Local partner organizations and/or field staff serve as local liaisons with rural and indigenous communities, building relationships and trust

  • Local field staff organize community assemblies

  • Building trust with communities is important, as they may have had negative prior experiences with outside agents or groups exerting pressures on their land
FISHING GEAR

Traditional fishing gear excluded women from fishing because it was expensive, too heavy and neccessitated fishing at night. Strings and baits helped to overcome these challenges. Strings with baits attached are hanged in between mangrove trees close to homes. Women cast them early morning and collect their catch next day early morning.

Mangroves have a high accumulation of micro-organisms, phytoplankton and other life forms that constitute the diet of different species of fish. Mangroves receive high concentration of nutrients from rivers and adjacent riparian ecosystems. Mangroves also provide shelter against predators and allows long-time fishing and safe breeding.  Other enabling factors: provision of security against theft and destruction by livestock, cooperation and commitment from spouses, sound management of toxic waste and market mechanisms.

We have learnt the following lessons: changes in power relations that can be brought about is important, the mangrove forest must be of the size that is adequate for all in order to avoid conflicts over the right of fishing in a particular area, the focus should not be only on fishing but on other social, economic and ecological issues as well e.g. waste management, financial management and marketing, broader protection of the environment, nutrition and health, gender equality, human rights, etc.

Awareness on Climate change adaptation and mitigation approach

During cultivation farmers will be involving in tree planting to recover the deforested areas. This will be done parallel to practicing Sustainable Agricultural Land Management that involves recovering of soil and other maintainance practises done on the land surface during cultivation.

  1. Presence of area for replanting
  2. Availability of tree seedlings 
  3. willingness of the nursery producers 
  4. Availability of fund for daily secondary nursery management
  5. Availability of human resource

In the area we already implemented the project, this become success due to the awareness created and enhanced capacity of farmers on climate change adaptation and mitigation.

For only this two years of implementing this project about 400000 trees were planted by smallholder farmers and 15000 hactors were cultivated under sustainable agriculture.

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

Communication is vital for any company, business, or professional activity. It is useless to have a lot of knowledge and great abilities to generate a good product if we do not manage to make ourselves visible in an effective way, attracting consumers. For large companies (due to having a budget and specifically assigned), it is relatively easy to find the perfect insight and get to shape the campaign. SEO strategies, SEM, usability and UX issues, social media, implementation of channels such as email marketing or SMS, etc. A good campaign knows how to make room in all these areas. However, it is a mistake to think that only companies with large resources can gain a good digital presence or outside it. When we talk about "social communication" we must bear in mind that not everyone has access to each of the available digital platforms, nor are they present in all existing social networks. We consider a "successful" strategy if we manage to gain visibility using the most frequent communication channels available to capture interest and loyalty.

 

“create, measure, and learn” potential communication (comm) strategies on WFA. These workshops will explain basic guidelines on comm styles, impacts of different strategies, and the scale of those. Some campaigns will want to gain visibility, notoriety, generate engagement in social networks or simply cause a considerable impact to make the audience act. Training for comm actions to build and strengthen capacity within national stakeholders and local communities to expand on WFA.

The PayúnMatrú Cooperative members may be able in the future to teach the methods they learn during this project to other groups that wish to manage guanacos in Patagonia. Wildlife Friendly Actions to obtain guanaco fiber become a standard procedure by guanaco-fiber producers all around the Patagonian Steppe.

The communication efforts applied so far, through small notes on science pages, television, and radio channels to disseminate our project paid off. Since one of them reached the managers of Good Growth, the international company that connects science, customers with the world´s most successful Brands. With the help of WCS that is a representative of the  WFEN and as such, acting as a link between both companies to sign a contract, which states two important points: a)the parties understand that the costs of a well-conducted management operation imply that the base price of guanaco raw fiber should be 200$; b)the purchase of 100 kilos from the Payun Matru Cooperative.  

 

 

 

 

The transhumant conference

The transhumant conference is a consultation platform that brings together local and foreign transhumant pastoralists in order to discuss the resolution of conflicts between breeders - farmers, breeders - gamekeepers and wild animal breeders.

The strengthening of collaboration between institutions has made it possible to build a solid basis for dialogue and to put in place lasting resolutions.

 The participation of Nigerian transhumant herders also made it possible to establish frank collaboration between the countries in terms of transhumance management.

The possibility of implementing concrete actions to resolve the problem of overgrazing, the creation of grazing areas, water points, and the facilitation of the sedentarization of foreign breeders.

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Work with different actors at the local, national, and international levels, to contribute to the design of a fiber value chain that can trigger the activity. The work will consist of the identification of key public and private actors in order to provide tools for the commercialization of the product. The activities that will be developed in this stage of the project include meetings with the textile sector, application authorities, and various important local actors in this area.

-Meetings with representatives of national organizations to evaluate background, regulations, marketing, and support possibilities for wild guanaco management experiences.

-Meetings with selected fashion designers at the national (i.e Buenos Aires) or international (i.e Canada) scale, to generate a fair value chain and promote WFA experience.

-Value-added options will be identified at the national/international level through meetings with actors from the public and private sectors, to expand WFA as a “Based nature Solution".  

Wildlife camelid management actions began in the 80s, based on the philosophy of the "ICDPs", seeking to link biodiversity conservation with improving the life quality of life of local people. These projects, which initially focused on the vicuña, were based on the application of economic incentives to promote the use of wildlife. We prove that wild guanaco use could improve the numbers of those initiatives because of the wider distribution range of the species. In Argentina, the production of SAC fiber could easily double due to an increase in the number of sheared populations and an increase in the frequency of shearing. This would clearly lead to a change in the production paradigm in contrast to the current one. Guanaco fiber is amongst.The Cooperative decided to add value to the raw fiber in order to increase the value. By 2010, most of the projects had stopped due to difficulty in marketing guanaco fiber with a price of USD $40-60 per kilo. The "problem" is there are only two trade companies that buy raw fiber that is exported mainly to Italy and control the market prices. 

 

Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Local Action Group

The Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Local Action Group (LAG) is the steering body of the LEADER project. The group includes members from 28 local organizations representing public authorities, the economic and social sectors, and civil society.

The LAG implements the Local Integrated Rural Development Strategy (LILE), which sets objectives for the funding period between 2014-2020   and formulates fields of action for the strategy around four themes:

  1. liveable settlements of the Middle Rhine;
  2. sustainable tourism and economic structures;
  3. preservation and sustainable development of the cultural landscape of the area;
  4. society and communities in the World Heritage property.

Members of the LAG advise and decide on projects that are submitted to the calls for funding on the basis of their pertinence with the LILE strategy.

The area of interest of the LAG is very similar to that of the UNESCO World Heritage as it includes the associated communities of the Rhine-Nahe, St.Goar-Oberwesel and Loreley and parts of the Rhine-Mosel municipalities and parts of the cities of Boppard, Lahnstein, Bingen and Koblenz.

The LAG also exchanges with national and transnational partner regions on joint cooperations. Currently,

the LAG is working on the application for a new funding period 2023 – 2029.

The action groups has been created in relation to the EU funded project LEADER (from the French Liaison entre actions de développement de l´économie rurale) which focuses on the establishment of models and projects to strengthen the sustainability of regions and their local economy. The LAG is in charge of implementing the LEADER action in the region. The LAG comprises a set of relevant members organizations working and acting on all key sectors and aspects of local development.

  • LEADER funding is an effective tool to initiate and finance numerous projects within the world heritage region, but the bureaucratic effort surrounding the application for new funding periods and the management of the LEADER funds should not be underestimated.
  • In addition to the LEADER funds, the LAG has been managing and supervising the federal funding program “Regionalbudget” and the state funding program “Ehrenamltiche Bürgerprojekte” (voluntary citizen projects) for several years now. This enables the LAG to support and fund a wide range of projects.
Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Association

Since 2005, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Association (Zweckverband Welterbe Oberes Mittelrheintal) is in charge of conserving and managing the World Heritage property of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. It includes representatives from the 52 municipal authorities, 5 districts and the federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The Association’s structure is divided into five bodies:

• a board in charge of day-to-day business on behalf of the Association;

• a secretariat working as a contact point for all municipalities, as well as dealing with the implementation of plans and projects;

• an Advisory Board, an interdisciplinary expert group providing advice to five specific themes - landscape and viticulture, architecture and urban development, tourism, city and regional economy, as well as  art, light and architectural conservation;

• two permanent working groups, one focused on the safeguarding, maintenance and development of the cultural landscape, and the second one on tourism which is held in cooperation with providers of tourism services.

The Association meets twice a year to decide on the key planning and operational matters, including the annual budget and to ensure that the association's fields of action is in line with existing World Heritage guidelines.

The Association is a voluntary association established under public law as a corporation. It operates under the premises of shared agreement, which defines the members of the association and their roles in it and the operational framework of the association. Municipalities that are member to the association pay an annual contribution which amounts to € 0,50 per inhabitant (except for Koblenz which contributes with a lump sum of € 50.000).

• The structure of a formal association allows for major coordination between all stakeholders involved in the management and conservation of the World Heritage property of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

• The association offers a solid platform for the improvement of the governance of the site. Decision-making is widely shared among stakeholders particularly in relation to overarching managerial decisions such as financial allocation, budgeting and annual planning.

• Fixed contribution by all participating municipalities allows for improved medium- and long-term financial planning for day-to-day activities as well as for specific projects and programs .

 Ich weiß nicht, warum das gelb markiert ist ? Da müsstest du noch einmal nachfragen

Participatory theory of change
  • The participatory concept model and strategy development exercise aims to identify the drivers and underlying causes of mangrove loss; and to identify potential strategies/solutions that could be implemented to reduce threats to mangrove and promote sustainable mangrove use.

  • At the end of the exercise the community has developed a concept model. This model depicts the drivers of mangrove loss in their community and the additional factors which contribute to this loss.

  • They identify solutions and work through the activities they need to implement to reach their desired results through a theory of change (ToC).

  • The exercise is carried out with community members in a focus group format development of the concept model and ToC is completed using different coloured paper and chalk.

  • Following the participatory meetings the final concept model with threat ratings, and ToC models are digitized using MiradiTM (2013) software.

  • Announcement of the planning is sent to village leader prior to the exercise;

  • High participation and presence of all stakeholders during the exercise and participants should be fully aware of the purpose of the exercise;

  • The facilitator from the support organization has enough skills and is familiar with the concept model exercise and able to motivate people to express their idea;

  • The support organization is able to adapt to the local context (using the available materials).

To address community reticence and for stronger dialogue within the community, employing two community-based facilitators from the village to assist the Theory of change exercise is recommended. Good practice includes hiring people already engaged in the LMMA management (dina enforcement committee, mangrove commission, women’s group) activities. The community-based facilitators are trained by the technical staff from the support organization in advance of the participatory theory of change exercise. Volunteers from the community should be invited to present the outcome from their group work, aiming to assess the level of consensus on the concept model they developed. It is vital to ensure representation from key stakeholder groups, particularly women and young people who may otherwise be marginalised. If needed, separate women and men in different groups to facilitate open discussion.

Education, awareness, and traditional knowledge documentation

Over the past 10 years, we have focused on assessing the conservation status of endemic species and their rehabilitation in the wild. We have made a great effort to preserve it and plan for its sustainability. The most important thing that my team and I reached is that the surrounding community, users of resources, researchers, and decision-makers, whether in the site or in the government away from the place, the private sector, and students even the public can destroy everything we built during the previous years as a result of their ignorance of what we work and its importance to us and them. Dissemination of information is an external protection shield to ensure the sustainability of activities on the site. Continuous training and awareness activities should be in the target area and throughout the country in order to avoid destruction due to ignorance. Also, not documenting the traditional knowledge inherited by the local community is extremely dangerous and its loss is a waste of wealth that will cost the state and the world huge sums to discover again.

Education, awareness, and documentation, could reduce the current and future pressures and reduce the impact and the cost of recovery.

The most important factor for the success of training and awareness programs is the appropriate choice of the recipient, who preferably has contact, whether from close or from afar, with the natural resource.

 

Involving the community in planning and implementing conservation programs and agreeing on the sustainability and conservation of the natural resource consolidates the principle of partnership and trust and facilitates the process of documenting their knowledge.

Share with the community all your next steps and challenges and hear from them their opinions and suggestions, even if they are simple from your point of view.

Teach children in the region to understand the next generation.

Follow-up and engagement of trainees after training and awareness is very useful and works to establish and implant information within them.

Educate stakeholders about the importance of your role for their future and share the decision with them.