Planning phase | PANORAMA

Development of a sustainable investment project and reach out to financiers

Once a business model is available, it is time to develop a project and find a financier.

Step 1. Design a project to pursue the business idea. It should include a clear structure and sound contractual frameworks (e.g. actors involved in implementing the project and their roles; financial flows; decision-making processes; and legal entities relevant for the project).

Step 2. Identify potential financiers, which may be environmental trust funds or impact investments. A trust fund is a vehicle for collecting, investing, allocating and managing assets, filled through donations, public funds or others (e.g. taxes). Impact investments are those made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. They are usually made by development finance institutions, private foundations, pension funds, individual investors and others.

Step 3. Develop a marketing strategy for the project.

Step 4. Develop a project business plan (PBP). A PBP is a written description of the future of a project (usually 3-5 years). It describes the resources and capacities that exist now and those that will have been secured in the future. A PBP gives an investor confidence that the project team knows where they are going and how they will get there.

Incubator for Nature Conservation. Building a financial strategy for PAs requires substantial time, resources and capacities. An incubator focused on conservation facilitates access of PA managers to the resources needed and helps them to link with investors.
Legal and institutional frameworks that channel funds for conservation and which allow PA managers to engage in business (e.g. have the ability to enter into contracts, receive funds, etc.).
Strong partnerships and effective outreach and communication strategy.

One of the biggest challenges for designing a successful project is the need of specialized expertise, in a context of already very limited resources to meet basic financial requirements of PA management. For example, in the case of a national park run by a government authority, a lawyer should be consulted to address governance questions related to the possibility of cooperating with private enterprises and NGOs to circumvent bureaucratic requirements and budgetary limitations.

Impact Investors often face challenges in finding mature projects to invest in. Sites that apply for a globally recognized certification programme, such as the IUCN green list, have a baseline and indicators that allow site managers and potential investors to measure impact. Therefore, having a certification and developing a PBP and a communication strategy may help to unlock private investments for conservation.

Achieving the Aichi Targets and the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework regarding PA effectively managed will require a general mindset change to engage the private sector in nature conservation.

Clear picture of PA financial gaps, needs and opportunities

A protected area (PA) financial strategy should aim to covering all costs of the implementation of the PA management plan in order to achieve the conservation objectives.

Step 1. Know the starting conditions in the PA, e.g. conservation objectives, financial gaps and business opportunities. This information can be found in the PA Management Plan and its financial plan.

PA management plans describe activities, needs and goals protected and conserved area managers are working to achieve. Financial plans provide an overview of a site’s current financial state projections of future income, long term financial goals and needs and steps to achieve the conservation objectives established in the PA management plan.

Step 2. Determine financial gaps. Identify the financial requirements for implementing the management plan or a strategic component, e.g. fire management (how much does fire management costs? Including personnel, equipment, infrastructure and supplies). Consider basic or optimum scenarios to achieve conservations goals. Map all available resources from public and private funding and, finally, calculate the gap by determining the difference between available and necessary resources for each scenario.

Up-to-date PA management and financial plans available for identifying financial needs and gaps.
Institutional capacities and tools on finance and management to develop basic and optimum scenarios and determining financial gaps.
Having a site business plan can be helpful for initiating a conservation finance project, as they help to identify economic goals for the site and strategies for achieving them.

One of the biggest challenges in developing effective conservation finance projects is mindset. Many conservation practitioners have been habituated to depend on government funds, donations and international cooperation. There is a strong sense that protected areas are a public resource and should be publicly funded. However, in this reality where public funds are insufficient, understanding that protected areas can and should work to generate their own incomes is essential to enabling implementation of financial mechanisms to unlock other sources of funding. Changing mindsets requires time and creates significant challenges, until there is a critical mass of well-informed and engaged protected area managers.

Planning phase

Local

Watershed baseline survey to develop hydrological maps

The baseline survey on the Kikuyu Escarpment watershed to develop hydrological maps for the area was conducted. The survey identified hotspots that needed intervention and also the hydrological maps showing the linkage between upstream and downstream, moreso indicating the catchment areas for major rivers used by most water service provider. it aslo identified potential bussineses target for the PES schemes.

KENVO long experience working at Kikuyu Escarpment Forest and collaboration with key stakeholders such as government agencies, research institutions, private sector and other development agencies to inform, educate and build the capacity of the communities to embrace appropriate conservation practices.

That It is important to think more critically about how to justify the water as ecosystem service by carrying out baseline survey. This means understanding the status of water resources and areas targeted for intervention before start of the PES

One also need to understand the drivers of degradation that affect the service being sold , which is vital for designing intervention activities convincing the potential buyers of the ability of the sellers to deliver the promised services.

Mapping Kikuyu Escarpment Forest

Partnerships with placing agencies

A review of the program by Kai, a CBC participant, on the Natucate website

Natucate

Partnerships were established with 8 agencies specialized in placing paying volunteers for continuity beyond the GEF support. They were provided with marketing information, photos, and some received news and blogs for their websites. The partners have sent 21 participants to the program.

Existence of agencies specialised in placing paying volunteers with whom partnerships could be formed.
Buy-in and collaboration between the agencies and Nature Seychelles
A wide selection of agencies catering for different markets and languages

Agencies helped to place a percentage of the participants.
Recruitment and administrative tasks take up a significant amount of time, and human resource has to be allocated to carry them out.
In addition to agencies, word of mouth and referrals work well, therefore the program experience has to be optimal.

Rehabilitation of the Northern Water Pipeline

We have identified clean water access as a key goal. Clean water access for humans, livestock, and wildlife will prevent wildlife-related injuries and deaths. In September 2012 IFAW conducted research and helped the county secure funding to rehabilitate the Northern Water Pipeline, which supplies water to communities living in the north of Amboseli. When the project is completed by the end of 2019, it is expected to reliably provide water to 300 homesteads, 3,000 people, and more than 6,000 herds of livestock. By rehabilitating the pipeline, the project ensures availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for the Maasai community, and thus, reducing human-elephant conflict due to water access.

Participatory community engagement has led to trust within the community for IFAW and the project. Therefore, in-depth participation of community members in the project has allowed for social sustainability. In addition, after substantial investment in education and capacity, the project largely is run by community members who now have the skills to maintain and expand the infrastructure and initiatives. Because of the local capacity, benefits are clearly outweighed by costs.

A challenge that the project ran into, in particular, was the lack of infrastructure, equipment, and training. Therefore, the project made it a priority to build capacity within the village to build (i.e. the community service center), repair (i.e. the Northern Water Pipeline), or otherwise manage any of the interventions. A lesson that we learned is that it is always better to build capactiy within the community. In our example, not only do local community members now have additional skills they can use on other projects, they have a sense of ownership and pride.

Education, training, and other capacity building for the community

IFAW is increasing wildlife security in the Amboseli landscape by equipping community wildlife rangers with expertise and skills through training in human wildlife conflict mitigation and providing operation resources such as rations, salaries, GPS-equipment, uniforms and a patrol vehicle for use by the rangers.

IFAW also initiated an education scholarship to offer financial support to 60 students to pursue studies in high school, tertiary colleges and universities, and 50 community wildlife scouts. By providing education scholarships and wildlife ranger capacity building, IFAW ensures inclusive and equitable education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities and alternative livelihoods for the local community.

IFAW is also working with local women to develop markets for income-generating activities such as beadwork and livestock management. By creating a boarding secondary school for girls and facilitating income generation among women, the project promotes gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls in Amboseli, thus, leaving no-one behind.

One of the most enabling factors in this project was the fact that the main stakeholders and owners of the land recognized that that habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation was an issue for both widlife and people and that they needed to do something about it.. By partnering up with the OOGR and the KWS, the project ensured community engagement and promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for the sustainable development of the local community and even provides a model to follow for other communities.

Buy-in from the local communities and the government (KWS) is extremely important to the success of the project. As advice to other implementers, working within existing governmental frameworks can help with implementation. At the same time, working hand and hand with local communities is essential to ensure buy-in and that project activities and interventions are actually leading to desired outcomes.

Collaboration with the Olgulului Olalarashi Group Ranch and KWS

Amboseli National Park is home to some of Kenya’s largest elephant populations which depend on the surrounding community land for migration. In 2008, the land stakeholders recognized that the habitat loss threats, degradation, and fragmentation would lead to the loss of livelihoods and tourism revenue and opted to ensure the ecosystem’s sustainability. IFAW therefore partnered with relevant stakeholders to secure critical corridors and dispersal areas for elephants in community areas of the Amboseli landscape. To achieve this, IFAW implemented a multi-year commitment to secure 26,000 acres as wildlife migratory and dispersal land in the Amboseli landscape (the Kitenden Corridor, one of the last remaining elephant migratory corridors connecting Kenya and Tanzania).

The strategy for the leased land was to develop the Kitenden Community Wildlife Conservancy, which will continue to offer a three pronged benefit to wildlife and its habitat, the local community (through eco-friendly, compatible tourism, and enterprise projects), and investors through tourism development and investment. In 2017, IFAW worked with the local Maasai community to register the Kitenden Conservancy Trust - an important step toward securing this portion of land as a community-owned conservancy that supports sustainable livelihoods.

IFAW partnered with the community of the Olgulului Olalarashi Group Ranch (OOGR, which surrounds 90 percent of the park) in order to ensure that the wildlife protection benefits were connected to human wellbeing improvements. For example, the securing of the Kitenden Corridor would not have been possible without IFAW’s commitment to sign separate agreements with 2,600 indigenous landowners. This has led to remarkable benefits for both the people of the community and the wildlife of the Amboseli National Park. Combining the expertise of science-based wildlife conservation and development initiatives within the community turned out to be essential and should be applied to future projects. Incorporating community input in a structured and profound way has led to unique interventions tailored for this specific community and interventions that are sustainable and popular among the community. Both the local leadership and the community have been heavily involved since the beginning of the project.

Develop a tool to test if young people will pay to learn conservation skills

Dr. Shah, Nature Seychelles Chief Executive after a metorship session

Nature Seychelles

1) Conservation has become an increasingly popular career choice for young people all over the world. But many conservation organizations complain that young graduates don’t have the right attitude or the real-word skills. Nature Seychelles created the Conservation Boot Camp (CBC) on Cousin Island Special Reserve to test if the island could be used as a laboratory to equip young people with conservation skills, while at the same time use the fees paid as a sustainable funding mechanism for the MPA. The program was financially supported by the GEF from April 2016 to December 2019. The GEF project pays for a full time CBC Coordinator, equipment, and materials and other. The coordinator manages the application process, and receives and integrates participants into the program. A conservation manager leads on conservation work, while the Chief Warden manages all the logistics. The CBC is exclusive and takes a maximum of 6 persons per session and takes place the whole year. Each session lasts for 4 weeks and costs Euro 1000.00 (not including airfares and food). A 2 week program was been introduced due to demand. Nature Seychelles is a Private Training and Educational Institution under Seychelles law and a Certificate of Completion is awarded at the end of the training.

Cousin Island Special Reserve - the 50 year old conservation success story - as a laboratory to test the program.
Funding to support the initial implementation and testing of the program
Nature Seychelles is a certified private training institution by law
Leadership and mentorship from the CE who has over 35 years conservation experience
Existing human resource to support the implementation

Initial funding is important as program depends on participants to fill all slots for it to be viable and sustainable. Not all slots were filled throughout the year.
Having well-known successes provides credibility and helps in attracting participants.
Necessary information laid out in a CBC handbook provided prior knowledge before sign up.
One size doesn’t fit all - although targeted at people interested in conservation careers, some participants had no previous or post interest in conservation.
Mentorship with well-known figure helps to boost confidence and catalyse conservation careers
Program not able to attract participants throughout the year. Under review to improve numbers so that it remains viable after the GEF funding ends.
The program was valuable for people from the region, in particular from Madagascar (18 participants), especially where there are not
exposed to conservation success stories.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Conservation Boot Camp

The NMS-COUNT Iterative Framework: Phase 2

Phase 2 brings together various agency managers, local stakeholders, and researchers to address a set of management objectives and associated monitoring needs. In this collaborative process, all stakeholders contribute their knowledge and perspectives on legal mandates, policies and factors that influence visitation and use within a specific sanctuary. Managers and local informants participate in a series of surveys and workshops that progress from a more broadly-based questionnaire to one with more specific questions based upon prior feedback. The expert panel discusses visitor trends and challenges specific to monitoring visitation at their site. The results of each iterative survey and workshop provide detailed insight into the current state of knowledge on visitation and level of confidence in the ways this information has been obtained.

Phase 2 requires full engagement between the local managers and researchers. When managers engage local stakeholders and inform them of the process, the information provided to researchers is more comprehensive. This portion of the process relies on interpersonal relationship development for researchers and stakeholders alike. Development of such working relationships via workshop contact and other interactions helps establish a foundation of trust and cooperation for the NMS-COUNT process to proceed upon.

In Phase 2, the research team engaged managers and stakeholders to better understand current visitation status at the sanctuary. Working with the NOAA Office of NMS, researchers were given access to contact 32 local resource managers and stakeholders with institutional knowledge about the site. This allowed the research team to develop a panel survey and engage the local stakeholders in a panel forum. All stakeholders were sent an initial questionnaire asking for their insights on visitation to the sanctuary in general. Three stakeholders responded to the questionnaire, providing general feedback on visitor activities, temporal and spatial patterns of use, pathways to and through the Sanctuary, and current visitor counting status. Based on this feedback, a second round of questionnaires were refined for use at the panel workshop. The in-person workshop featured detailed discussions of identified challenges to visitation monitoring at Gray’s Reef NMS. It also allowed detailed discussion of existing data availability for initial visitation monitoring strategies and modeling efforts.

Planning phase

Inception phase

Local

The NMS-COUNT Iterative Framework: Phase 1

In Phase 1, researchers review the literature for a comprehensive understanding of methods in visitor sampling, estimation, and monitoring in a range of settings. From this research, potential methods and the types of data they produce are identified, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using each method at different scales. To examine which methods and indicators of visitation are most effective in a chosen NMS, all site attributes, visitor activities, and conditions (social, biophysical, regulatory, spatial, and temporal, etc.) of the sanctuary are inventoried. Researchers then determine which methods are potentially appropriate for that particular sanctuary, at a range of confidence levels (low to high). Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary will be used as an example to better understand NMS-COUNT throughout this solution.

A high degree of interaction from researchers is required in this phase. During Phase 1, researchers gathered and compiled materials to understand the site layout, attributes, conditions and reported recreation activities. Researchers must conduct a foundational assessment to fully understand the indicators and standards set for the management of the protected area, the values associated with the setting, and any setting attributes that are unique that would not allow for replicating to other settings.

Two primary activities at Gray's Reef were identified - diving and fishing, with the primary activity being recreational fishing. This helps inform the NMS-COUNT process with focal data sources that identify volume, frequency and impact of this dominant visitation type. Some existing data sources inform the process, such as those visitation counts captured by other survey methods (e.g. law enforcement patrols, automated vessel identification systems, etc.). Beyond existing data sources, the potential visitor estimation methods examined for this entirely offshore protected area setting were boat-launched drones, fixed-wing aircraft, and on-site surveying.

Planning phase

Local