Strategic Plan for the PN Marine Zone of the Espiritu Santo Archipelago

Participatory strategy carried out with environmental, tourism, surveillance and tourism service providers, academics and researchers and civil organizations, which sets the actions and goals to be achieved for the conservation of the reproduction, births and breeding of the sea lion colony as the most precious conservation object of the protected area and the most important source of income for tourism service providers.

Synergy between all stakeholders

commitment within its scope of application

paradigm shift

Protection of sources of employment

long-term conservation

Service providers committed to training and new ways of carrying out tourism activities.

Flexible environmental authorities to commit to make changes in the norms and regulations that allow new governance schemes.

Tourism and surveillance authorities, proposing new norms and better sustainable practices.

All stakeholders at the table, seeking shared governance for the conservation and improvement of direct and indirect employment and PA conservation.

Construction of best practices and regulations for a better use of the PA.

Conservation of the sea lion colony through collective awareness.

Management for the identification of biodiversity and participatory and motivational management for the restoration of Protected Areas.

In addition to the formality and territorial planning related to the Local System of Protected Areas, the municipality, based on environmental management, developed the following components as a highly important strategy:

- Promotion of incentives for community and landowner participation to restore natural protective vegetation that improves ecological connectivity and functionality.

- Awareness-raising and education actions to promote knowledge of the biodiversity of municipal ecosystems and the importance of SILAPE as a strategy to conserve this functionality and strategic ecosystems.

- Identifying the biodiversity of the different groups as fundamental knowledge to take actions for their conservation and encourage participation in conservation and conservation decisions in land use planning.

- Actions to protect endangered fauna in sites of connectivity disruption and vulnerability of highly important fauna species. Includes implementation of aerial wildlife crossings (61 installed).

- The knowledge of local biodiversity based on technological tools that generated videos and clear images made it possible to see the important and abundant biodiversity of species, thus allowing unusual conservation decisions to be made in a territory that is part of a Metropolitan Area with high urban growth.

- The environmental management of the Secretariat of Environment in the different periods of governance has included the issue of Protected Areas as a component of high importance.

- Ecosystem conservation depends on local enthusiasm and identification of the importance of biodiversity and strategic ecosystems.

- Management plans and conservation proposals must be included in land use plans.

- Protected area management should be approached from a regional perspective so that each municipality takes the model and implements it in its own municipality with a logic of connectivity and ecosystem globality.

- The participation of research institutions in the biodiversity identification process and in the formulation of protected area projects is of great importance; it avoids doubts about the importance and certainty of the proposals.

- Community participation motivated by the evidence of biodiversity and the functionality of ecosystems is of great importance to keep alive the enthusiasm for its dissemination and knowledge.

Agreement 009 whereby the Local System of Protected Areas is adopted and implemented.

The Municipal Council of Envigado adopted Agreement 009 which aims to contribute to the identification, conservation, management and proper management of strategic ecosystems and protected areas in the jurisdiction of the municipality, articulating these actions to departmental, regional and national management scales that strengthen human sustainability through the effective achievement of conservation objectives.

Inclusion of the Local System of Protected Areas in the Land Management Plan in order to promote land uses that favor the protection and conservation of the associated fauna and flora.

Importance of knowledge of the biodiversity of species to value local ecosystems and make it known by different means to promote the interest and ownership of institutions and the community in conservation.

Local conservation is successful when it is based on internal initiatives that integrate institutions and the community and is supported by knowledge, participation and norms that motivate or encourage the protection of ecosystems.

Land use planning and ecosystem conservation strategies should be closely related in order to define congruent conservation projects and decisions that are supported by national norms.

Protected areas as environmental determinants in land use planning.

Protected areas in the urban context become an environmental determinant of land use planning and management, which, as higher-ranking norms, shield these spaces from changes that may be considered in relation to land uses other than the conservation and preservation of biodiversity and depend on political will for their management.

  • They provide guidance to municipal administrations on land use within protected areas, guaranteeing green spaces that help adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and respond to the challenges of resilient, sustainable and biodiverse cities.
  • Reduce the occurrence of socio-environmental conflicts around strategic ecosystems in urban areas.
  • They favor the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the IAHSI targets of the Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The fact that protected areas are environmental determinants of land use planning is the clearest possibility that exists to avoid the alteration, degradation, or disappearance of strategic ecosystems in the urban context, favoring the collective right to a healthy environment, as these cannot be ignored by municipal administrations or by the political will of the moment.

However, it is not enough to incorporate them into the planning tools to position the designation, regulation and administration in order to achieve specific conservation objectives in public policies and to ensure that there is an effective commitment to them. Interinstitutional coordination and articulation are necessary to achieve effective management of protected areas in a scenario particularly dense in conflicts and interests such as the urban landscape.

Strategic relationship for the management of protected areas in the urban context

The relationship between stakeholders (institutional, citizen, academic, and private sector) allows the creation of administration and co-management mechanisms that respond to the needs of the protected area and the effective management within the framework of the execution of the Management Plans contributes to the environmental governance of the protected areas.

  • The optimization of resources and institutional capacities in the implementation of protected area management plans for their effective management.
  • The definition of the roles and competencies of the different stakeholders with respect to the protected areas allows for greater clarity in terms of the instances of action and participation in their management, control and monitoring.
  • It strengthens citizen participation and governmental, community and private inter-institutional alliances.
  • Recognition of the actions, knowledge and initiatives of citizens regarding the conservation and protection of these strategic spaces for the maintenance of biodiversity and the preservation of ecosystem services.
  • Co-management promotes inter-institutional dialogue and the exchange of knowledge to develop a joint construction of the protected areas, which allows for the strengthening of trust among the stakeholders, reaching levels of good governance.
  • The contribution of private enterprise contributes to the sustainability of urban protected areas, while at the same time it is potentially functional to the private sector's environmental responsibility actions.
Playful, pedagogical and communicative strategies for the social appropriation of protected areas.

The guarantee of conservation of urban protected areas, beyond the technical and legal exercise of declaring them, is a robust process of social involvement. To this end, it has been essential to develop actions and strategies to promote recreation and environmental education around protected areas, expanding a collective awareness of the importance of their conservation, not only for biodiversity but also for the quality of life in the city.
The appropriation of socio-ecological concepts becomes a key factor in achieving the conservation objectives of protected areas. To the extent that stakeholders are committed to and recognize the values and ecosystem services that these types of spaces provide for the sustainable development of cities, the permanence of these spaces over time is guaranteed in desirable conditions for the conservation of biodiversity and amenity, enjoyment, well-being, and physical and mental health for all.

The continuity of social appropriation processes based on environmental education and public communication for biodiversity provide tools for the management and adequate co-management of protected areas, facilitating coordinated actions among all stakeholders: institutions, citizens, academics and the private sector.

  • The environmental education strategies and the dynamization through activities such as interpretive tours, yoga, weaving, bird watching, etc., allow for better learning, understanding and appropriation of the protected areas to the extent that another type of relationship is built between humans and nature and the search for a biocentric vision of life where interdependencies are recognized.
  • Other educational-environmental tools are strengthened and provided, as well as other conservation actions that were being developed by citizens and other stakeholders prior to the declaration.
  • The incorporation in the citizenship and the government of some concepts based on the dialogue of knowledge helps the conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.
  • Participatory action as a fundamental axis for the successful management of protected areas.
  • Other actors and sectors are involved in the conservation strategy of protected areas, including universities and companies, which make contributions based on their specific interests and capacities.
Development of a Local Investment Instrument

The objective of the intervention was to develop strategic planning to guide local investments for ecosystem and landscape restoration in an effective and efficient manner. In order to achieve this objective, a methodological framework was developed that includes four steps: 1) Mapping of relevant local actors at the territorial level, 2) Participatory analysis of the dynamics of environmental degradation, 3) Definition of objectives, goals and restoration activity and 4) placement of resources.

The mapping of relevant local actors was carried out using the GIZ "Capacity Works" cooperation model; for the analysis of environmental degradation and the definition of objectives, the "Open Standards for Conservation Practice" methodology of Conservation Measures Partnerships - CMP was used.

PREP as a framework,

funding mechanism as an incentive/"promise" of an effective implementation of the PDLS (having in sight a real possibility of receiving funding for the implementation of the PDLS motivates the actors to participate actively).

Trust in FIAES, MARN and GIZ

Lessons from the construction process, piloting now being used in all areas prioritized by the PREP (?)

Incorporation of Forest Management into Coffee Cultivation

Silvocafe is a restoration technique that seeks to make wood production viable in coffee plantations, through the incorporation and management of a density of trees -AVC- as "shade trees". The steps to execute it are:

  1. Extraction of mature trees: with a census and georeferencing of trees with DBH>10 cm, an extraction is carried out using the following criteria: frequency per hectare, phytosanitary condition, tree shape, density by species of interest and distribution.
  2. Replant damaged coffee plants and incorporate HCV trees: each extracted tree affects approximately 20 coffee plants, that is, 500 to 700 plants/ha, which means a replanting of plants/ha of 10%-15% after each intervention.
  3. Establish an adequate shade density of trees of high commercial value: this requires a stock of between 40 to 60 HCV trees/ha; with a recommended spacing of 12x14 m.
  4. Plan thinning for shade improvement: Higher shade density (50-70% cover, 50-30% light) is justified when the crop site has high ambient and soil temperatures, low ambient and soil relative humidity, greater exposure to sunlight, poor soil fertility and low altitude above sea level.

It is preferable to apply it in prime-extra-prime coffee plantations (0-1000 masl); since in hard-semiduro (1000-1400 masl) and strictly hard coffee (+14000 masl), due to their level of production qq gold/ha and their differentiated prices reached in the market, the adoption of this technique may not be attractive.

It is important to select the species of trees of high commercial value to be selected as shade trees for coffee, their own genotypic and phenotypic conditions, the market interest in the species and, most importantly, their interaction with the crop, since economic yields will depend on this decision.

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.

Transboundary biodiversity conservation and its governance

The environment is a continuum that is not bound by political-administrative boundaries. Unilateral measures that a country can take to protect a shared resource are generally ineffective and the unregulated use of the resource usually ends in its overexploitation and destruction.

Based on this, biodiversity conservation in areas of high ecological value in border areas should be done on the basis of cooperation and understanding between countries. However, these areas, far from the centers of decision making, are often not a priority for foreign ministries.

In these cases, civil society organizations play an important role, since they can move and articulate with a freedom that governments at different levels do not have.

To be effective, the governance of transboundary protected areas, such as the Tri-national Biological Corridor, requires the involvement of all stakeholders: local, regional and national authorities, entrepreneurs and organized civil society.

As is the case at the local level, civil society organizations have a continuity over time that political actors do not have.

Moreover, they are not bound by protocol and hierarchy and can communicate directly among themselves and with whomever.

Also, as at the local level, NGOs can focus on environmental issues, unlike the political power, which must deal with a wide range of issues.

Coordination between NGOs in neighboring countries can be easily accomplished. However, sometimes internal issues in one of the countries, such as an organization's relationship with the authorities in office, slow down or paralyze a cross-border project, or even the opposite.

The addition of NGOs from neighboring countries makes governments pay more attention to the projects in question.