Action learning is a process that involves the implementation of EbA activities, coupled with a practical capacity building program for scaling up results. The process, in addition to enhance local communities' capacities and skills, generates evidence on EbA benefits through the implementation of a monitoring system aiming at policy makers. Some elements and steps in the process are:

1. Participatory assessment of communities’ socio-environmental vulnerability.
2. Prioritization of mangrove restoration sites, as an EbA measure, based on assessment and in complementation to traditional knowledge.
3. Participatory monitoring and evaluation of EbA effectiveness to food security. The research (22 families sample) aims to understand the benefits of restoration on their livelihoods.
4. Capacity building process to strengthen natural resource management, local advocacy and adaptive capacities, through:

• Trainings and exchanges of experience on adaptation to climate change, watershed and water management, and sustainable mangrove management.
• Technical support provided to the communities, to jointly undertake mangrove forest restoration.
• Joint monitoring activities. With tangible evidence, communities are able to raise awareness and gain political advocacy capacities and access to financial resources.

It is important to explicitly explain the benefits of the new intervention. This is because the stakeholders (mostly farmers) are busy and will only listen to you if they see monetary or other social benefits from your undertaking.

Through participatory characterization with farmers, researchers are able to make the best selection of a given crop genotype. The researcher and the potential beneficiaries (mostly farmers) plant and manage the crops together and then characterize it according to some mutually agreed criteria. It is best when the crop is grown on the farmers field and managed using farmer practices.

The Binational Commission for the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS) needed to diversify participation in the basin’s governance. Although it brought together actors from different sectors and levels of government (national and municipal), some actors were still missing (such as the Municipality of Bocas del Toro, Panama, which joined in 2016). The CBCRS management was not yet consolidated, because of its complex composition and that it had neither a binational territorial planning tool with which to articulate efforts on both sides of the border, nor its own budget. Through an extensive participatory process, the CBCRS drafted a Strategic Plan for Transboundary Territorial Development (2017-2021) and expanded its project portfolio. Encouraging participation in this process, and in bi-national activities, has created conditions for civil society and municipalities to take an active role in the implementation of the plan and adaptation actions. Providing a space particularly for women, youth and indigenous people, usually marginalized of decision making. CBCRS plan also urged greater equality in the access to and use of natural resources on which local communities depend, thus favouring those groups most vulnerable to climate change and creating a sense of ownership.

The Binational Commission of the Sixaola River Basin (CBCRS) functioned as a multidimensional (multisectoral and multilevel) governance platform for the basin. The CBCRS brings together representatives from different levels of government and sectors (including indigenous peoples and the local private sector of both countries) but needed to attain more effective vertical and horizontal integration. The preparation of the Strategic Plan for Transboundary Territorial Development (2017-2021) had the effect of fostering inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation, forging dialogues on national frameworks and local needs, and promoting EbA.

At the local level Eba measures such as agricultural diversification with integral farms and reforestation actions were implemented. The aim was beyond individual impacts, to scale up lessons to the basin scale, such as: 

• the CBCRS´s project portfolio
• the coordination of binational activities, such as Agrobiodiversity Fairs.
• the Biological Corridor Association of producers, which facilitated the  exchange of experiences and peer-to-peer contacts (producers, municipalities)

Supporting producers to implement EbA measures that improve their productive practices and increase the resilience of agro-ecosystems, generates an "action learning" process that allows other actors to witness the benefits of these measures and creates conditions for their sustainability and up-scaling.

• The socio-environmental vulnerability of communities and their livelihoods is examined, in a participatory way, in order to then prioritize EbA measures and their location.
• Technical support is provided to producers, complemented with their traditional knowledge, to plan and implement the EbA measures (improvements to agroforestry systems).
• Training and exchanges of experience are carried out on transboundary cooperation; integrated management of water resources; AbE; policy frameworks and legislation on water and climate change; and policy influencing and communication.
• Monitoring of food and water security is carried out with 14 families.
• The governance and management capacities of community and municipal entities linked to water resource management is strengthened.

The increase in skills and knowledge strengthens social capital and contributes to community empowerment and to valuing ecosystem services and their management for the benefit of all.

The participation of all basin stakeholders has been at the core of the conformation and training of new governance structures for the Lituy (Honduras) and Honduritas (El Salvador) microbasins. The integration of grassroots (community-based) organizations, such as water boards, producer associations, women's or youth groups, Community Development Associations and educational centers, has been important. Locally, the leadership shown by teachers, women and community authorities contributed significantly to social mobilization and the adoption and scaling-up of EbA measures, making these actors an essential part of the "learning by doing" processes of communities. The result is self-motivated communities that participate and take on responsibilities. At the basin level, the Goascorán River Basin Council on the Honduran side was expanded, while in El Salvador, the most appropriate figure to accommodate the broad membership required was the Environmental Technical Table, which is why two Tables (for the northern and southern areas of La Union) were created and strengthened. Many of the members have become advocates for the work of the Tables with the aim to have these structures recognized by local authorities and legalized in the medium term.

The work in Goascorán targeted several levels of decision-making to reinforce the basin’s governance through the vertical and horizontal articulation of socio-political platforms; all of this in order to achieve a multidimensional (multilevel and multisectoral) governance model for adaptation. At the community level, EbA measures were implemented in the field to improve food and water security. With municipalities, adaptation to climate change was incorporated into Environmental and Municipal Development Plans. At the micro-basin level, two Micro-basin Committees (one on each side of the border) were created as multi-stakeholder governance platforms, receiving training, preparing internal regulations and plans, and enabling wide-ranging advocacy (e.g. civil society, municipalities and municipal commonwealths). At the basin level, in El Salvador, where several Technical Tables operate, two Environmental Technical Tables were established for the north and south of La Union in order to articulate the basin’s shared management, and linkages were sought with the Goascorán River Basin Council that operates on the Honduran side. At the national level, the recent National Adaptation Plan of Honduras comprises the EbA approach, as does the new Regulation of the Honduran Climate Change Law

An "action learning" approach consisted of training and supporting communities to implement EbA measures. 

• A socio-environmental vulnerability assessment of 2 ejidos (211 families) was carried out in a participatory manner to identify and prioritize EbA measures.
• Technical support is provided complementing families' traditional knowledge, to ensure that EbA measures contribute to food and water security.
• Exchanges and trainings are organized for producers, ejido authorities and municipalities on climate change, food security, sustainable forest management and soil conservation.

Furthermore, the solution focused on generating evidence on the benefits of EbA measures on water and food security:

• In collaboration with IUCN and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) household surveys were carried out to study the benefits of the EbA measures or food security.  The joint methodology was also applied in five other countries.
• A methodology to understand the effectiveness of EbA on water security was developed and was applied in La Azteca and Alpujarras. The methods include: interviews, focus groups and environmental  data collection in the field (e.g. water quality).

Supporting ejido community members to implement EbA measures generates a process of "action learning" that, in addition to teaching, aims to generate evidence on the benefits of EbA and create conditions for their sustainability and up-scaling.

• CRiSTAL Community Risk Assessment
• Mangrove restoration (4.1 ha) and surveillance are considered priority EbA measures.
• Technical support is provided to 33 community members (men and women), complemented with their traditional knowledge, to learn about mangrove restoration techniques and carry out the restoration of degraded areas.
• 5 community technicians are trained to monitor and evaluate the restored areas (measurements of tree diameter, physical-chemical parameters and sediments).
• Monitoring and evaluation is carried out to learn about the food security with 10 families (sample) and study the benefits of restoration on livelihoods on dry and rainy season. Household social surveys used as methodology (guidelines to be published).
• Joint learning on the advantages of income diversification, such as gardens (orchards), agroforestry and beekeeping.

The increase in capacities and knowledge strengthens human capital and contributes to community empowerment and with that, to more possibilities for political advocacy and accessing financial resources.