Creating dynamic plastic waste value chains through collaboration between local community groups (youth, women) and the hotel industry. Where community groups collect and sort the waste. The value of partnership is very critical in ensuring streamlining circularity as well as ensuring synergies are pulled concertedly.

Partnerships have been very key in getting stakeholder buy-in as well as ownership on the project. The proposition in the partnerships aimed to decentralize the ownership of the eco-points, spur collections rates and develop a seamless sustainable plastic waste value chain. 

During the last 12 months, 3R established various partnerships with different stakeholders. One of the partnerships was with an NGO, ParCo, whereby they established two eco-points, to receive and buy plastic waste from the local community waste pickers. 

Without an understanding of the biological processes under threat, it would have been impossible to design solutions. For instance, knowledge of the need for dune structures and the importance of native flora as stabilising agents, or salinity impacts on eggs, seasonality of nesting, etc. were crucial in designing the stepwise approach.

An open, transparent discussion of biological needds and constraints, and options for solutions to the chalneges was a key building block in the process.

The analysis allowed us to create alternatives for the management of the territory. Here, a participatory commitment was generated with the communities, in order to understand the main vulnerabilities of protected areas to climate change. We use tools, such as the Analysis of Social Vulnerability to Climate Impacts at the local level within protected areas of the CONANP (National Commission of Protected Natural Areas). This tool helped to identify the level of access or control over natural resources and the collective capacity of the inhabitants to adapt to adverse changes.

In 2011 a carrying capacity study (free and autonomous diving) was carried out in Cabo Pulmo by the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur (UABCS), funded by Friends for the Conservation of Cabo Pulmo (ACCP) and supported by Tourist Service Providers (TSP). This study established the basis of the Public Use Program and its results were discussed and modified based on the experience of all stakeholders. In 2014, the Sub-Council for Public Use was established, which is made up of CONANP, the TSP, Niparajá and UABCS. Within the agreed rules is a system of warnings where the TSP inform CONANP about each of their trips through VHF radio, in real time, recording the number of tourists and the places they will visit. The meetings of the Sub-Council for Public Use also defined the maximum number of vessels simultaneously per site, in order not to present a saturation of vessels, as well as other agreements related to the management of tourism activities. During 2016 we carried out the evaluation of compliance with the rules; of the 55 agreements, 90% were implemented and respected by the TSP. The active participation of providers since the inception of the rules has ensured their wide compliance.

We organized expert workshops to build a common base of the understanding, what ecological connectivity means and how we define it on a landscape level in different sectors (e.g. agriculture, forestry, urban planning).

Only in a second step methods, procedures and data were defined and implemented.

Effective customer service is achieved through the development of an online payment system and customer service enabled mobile app (currently under development). These measures enable clients to interact with the service, submit applications, requests, and payments and even look for any upcoming value chain services.

The spatial database elaborated for the Azores archipelago was essentially based on the compilation of already existing and available cartographic information. This was due to the limited time period for the implementation of the MarSP project and the need for validation of information by the competent entities/authorities, in the case of the elaboration of new cartography. Thus, the new information collected was composed of information produced during the participatory process. The participatory process, with the resulting production of cartographic information, was based on two distinct steps: (i) development of individual interviews, with the main actors representing each of the sectors of maritime activities identified for the Azores and (ii) workshops for discussion and/or validation of preliminary results obtained during the research and sector interviews performed, and for adding more information (during the 3rd stakeholder workshop). To collect the data in the interviews conducted, a web-based solution (SeaSketch) was used. This solution brings together powerful tools to empower and improve the MSP process.

In order to understand the current and potential situation of maritime uses and activities in the Azores, an extensive sector analysis was elaborated, including nine sectors. For each maritime sector identified in the region, a sector briefing was done. Each sector briefing includes information relating to its characterization, the relevant legal framework, current and potential spatial distribution, a SWOT analysis, an analysis of interactions (with other sectors, with the environment and land-sea interactions), as well as an analysis of pressures resulting from different drivers of change (e.g. climate change, demographic changes and blue growth policies). This work involved an extensive collection of information, both through literature review and collected from stakeholders during the engagement process.