The program is community-driven which means the youths in schools and youth clubs as well as community members especially women in natural resource management committees are both participants in and beneficiaries of restoration efforts. The program enjoys great support from the traditional leaders. The community decides where restoration should be done, and how and when it should be done.  

The local residents who were previously excluded from the various cultural tourism activities and festivals centering on the World Heritage property started to independently host village activities and built up their capacities for delivering and managing events. 

The initial residents group started to participate in the operations of the Suwon Heritage Night Walks in 2017 as traffic control staff. As the number of festivals that were hosted to celebrate Suwon Hwaseong as World Heritage increased, such as the Hwaseong by Night, World Heritage Festival, and Media Art Shows, the number of jobs available for the residents also increased. 

The Haenggung Village Cooperative Association was established on 31 May 2021 and it consists of 46 members. The main line of work is creating content and activities for visitors. 
The association is composed of 4 sub-groups each named “jigi”, which in the Korean language means friends: 

• Haenggungjigi, who focuses on providing event support, information, sanitation and the operation of activities; 
• Donghaengjigi, a group that creates the content and stories of the village tours; 
• Surajigi that promotes and shares research and education on food; 
• Cheongnyeonjigi, the group that monitors and conducts evaluations of activities. 

Beyond facilitating access to hard-to-reach locations, sailboats also provide useful modes of transport for deploying scientific instrumentation. The boats can carry scientific equipment, both for deployment in the ocean, but also for continual measurement by sensors that are permanently onboard. The race boats’ speed means that data from different locations can be captured across short timespans, something which is not achievable by most research vessels. Yachts can also be used to pilot and test new research technology and techniques, such as technology that allows results to be shared in real-time, and the OceanPack – a device which records essential ocean data from aboard the yachts. 

In a racing context, carrying devices that take meteorological measurements is not only beneficial for science partners, but also for the race participants themselves, as it helps to inform and improve weather forecasts that will impact their own decision-making and performances throughout the race. 

Using racing yachts for data collection paves the way for the installation and deployment of measuring devices on other vessels such as fishing or commercial boats, as well as other sailing boats. 

This building block empowers local communities, government agencies, and other stakeholders with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to implement and sustain effective mangrove restoration initiatives. 

Wetlands International initiated capacity-building efforts by engaging local communities in Lamu and Tana through CBOs, CFAs, and key government agencies, including KFS, KEFRI, KMFRI, the Lamu County Government, as well as CSOs such as WWF and the Northern Rangelands Trust. Women comprised 50% of the participants, primarily involved in the hands-on mangrove restoration efforts. 

Following nominations by respective institutions, the trainees underwent training on sound restoration techniques based on the CBEMR approach. The training was conducted in English and translated into Swahili for better comprehension. It was both practical and relatable, breaking down mangrove science while seamlessly integrating indigenous knowledge. CBEMR also emphasises the importance of monitoring the outcomes of the restoration initiatives to ensure the efforts are successful and sustainable over time, allowing stakeholders to make necessary adjustments and learn from the process. In addition, the CBOs and government officials were also provided with simple-to-use tools such as refractometers and pH strips to conduct salinity and acidity tests in their areas of operation. 

Subsequent training was also conducted across the mangrove regions with support from various CSOs and the Global Mangrove Alliance.

The Ocean Race Teams Sustainability Charter and Code of Conduct was co-created with the teams to express a fleet-wide commitment to sustainable operations and supporting a healthy ocean. The charter includes themes of Advocacy, Science, Learning and Operations. It seeks to get all teams, staff, and sailors to stand up for the ocean through sustainable sailing, team, and personal actions. 

On the science front, teams must pledge to agree to:

• Supporting science-based decision making.
• Participating in increasing knowledge and understanding of our ocean.
• Hosting scientific equipment onboard.
• Participating in sailor and citizen science programmes.
• Contributing to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science in collaboration with The Ocean Race.

Including science within a charter and requiring stakeholders to undertake various science-related activities whilst competing in a sailing race embeds science, as a core value, into race practices. This is unique in the sporting world as it requires teams and athletes to take on environmental responsibilities as well as their existing sporting responsibilities.

The underlying premise for The Ocean Race – racing to circumnavigate the world – means that the race naturally takes competitors to some of the most remote areas in the world. This makes it a unique platform for undertaking scientific research as it gives scientists access to remote areas, such as the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, that would otherwise rarely be accessible. Ships sailing outside of regular shipping routes play an essential role in the ability to deploy scientific instrumentation, such as the drifter buoys and Argo floats that are deployed during the race, across under-sampled locations. This affords rare opportunities for gathering data from parts of the planet where little information has been recorded, making the Race a crucial platform for collecting data that is otherwise unattainable and filling data gaps, contributing to furthering our understanding of our oceans. 

Much support was given to improve fisher capacity to manage their access to and use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). The programme recognised that the establishment of marine managed and protected areas as a method of marine management has resulted in increased reliance on Fish Aggregating Devices installed outside the marine managed and protected areas, for sustenance of the fishery sector.  Fishers within the Carriacou Fisher Folks Inc also recognised this and the need for attention to be paid to the monitoring and management of this resource.  This beckoned the implementation of FAD Data Management training for fishers of Carriacou and Petit Martinique.  The training was facilitated through the Fisheries Department of the Government of Grenada, and included information sharing on, but not limited to data on marine conservation, history of FADs in the region, the importance of data collection, legislation, its challenges, development of informal protocols and rules, identifying fish species as well as data collection methodology and post data collection analysis.  The workshop also realised the commitment of fishers to establish GrenFAD, which will take the leading role in the management of the FADs.  The fishers agreed and signed off on the soft rules for FAD Fishing, membership and FAD fees, data collection, data collection templates and protocols for data collection and management.  Actors in the fishery sector and marine management/protection were also trained in the use of underwater drones for remote sensing. The Programme provided support for construction of at least 6 FADS for the St. Marks fishers in Dominica. In the case of Saint Lucia, the provision of navigational tools to assist in accessing the FAD locations, which are often many miles offshore, and generally speaking to assist with safety at sea.

Posterior al análisis rápido se dio el paso de analizar las acciones que los actores locales (Municipios, ONG, Universidades) realizan en favor de la gestión de los humedales urbanos costeros. Para esto, se generó un panorama de respuestas por medio de entrevistas y talleres. 

Se evidencio un amplio panorama de respuestas, pero la mayoría con desafíos por la factibilidad legal (por ejemplo,  la presencia de asentamientos irregulares dificulta el acceso a servicios públicos, como limpia pública y drenaje de aguas residuales), desafíos financieras (por ejemplo, el Estero de los Cabos se contamina por el servicio deficiente de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales, pero para corregirlo, se requiere inversiones grandes), desafíos técnico-ambientales (por ejemplo, retirar el lirio acuático sin atender la contaminación por materia orgánica y fertilizantes, pues esto estimula el crecimiento excesivo y la factibilidad ambiental es baja) etc., origina dificultad y complejidad para poder dilucidar y encontrar respuestas adecuadas para cada humedal. 

Además de depender de dichos factores, también influye la voluntad y el interés político y técnico de asumir el reto de iniciar procesos complejos relacionados con los humedales. 

Finalmente se planificaron acciones vinculado a: 

• Fortalecimiento de capacidades para la gestión mancomunado de humedales urbanos costeros
• Gestión participativa de acciones de limpieza y protección de bordes de los humedales
• Concientización ambiental sobre humedales urbanos costeros
• Integración de humedales urbanos costeros en políticas publicas

Posterior al análisis rápido se dio el paso de analizar las acciones que los actores locales (Municipios, ONG, Universidades) realizan en favor de la gestión de los humedales urbanos costeros. Para esto, se generó un panorama de respuestas por medio de entrevistas y talleres. 

Se evidencio un amplio panorama de respuestas, pero la mayoría con desafíos por la factibilidad legal (por ejemplo,  la presencia de asentamientos irregulares dificulta el acceso a servicios públicos, como limpia pública y drenaje de aguas residuales), desafíos financieras (por ejemplo, el Estero de los Cabos se contamina por el servicio deficiente de la planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales, pero para corregirlo, se requiere inversiones grandes), desafíos técnico-ambientales (por ejemplo, retirar el lirio acuático sin atender la contaminación por materia orgánica y fertilizantes, pues esto estimula el crecimiento excesivo y la factibilidad ambiental es baja) etc., origina dificultad y complejidad para poder dilucidar y encontrar respuestas adecuadas para cada humedal. 

Además de depender de dichos factores, también influye la voluntad y el interés político y técnico de asumir el reto de iniciar procesos complejos relacionados con los humedales. 

Finalmente se planificaron acciones vinculado a: 

• Fortalecimiento de capacidades para la gestión mancomunado de humedales urbanos costeros
• Gestión participativa de acciones de limpieza y protección de bordes de los humedales
• Concientización ambiental sobre humedales urbanos costeros

Integración de humedales urbanos costeros en políticas publicas

Building resilience of the agricultural sector against the effects of meteorological variations includes building the resilience of small businesses along the value chains which use the produce from agricultural production.  Through the Business Capacity Development measure, two women-only local agro-processing groups which process local produce for the local and national market, benefitted from theoretical lectures and hands-on exercises on crucial business aspects (costs, revenues, new product ideas, design, marketing and the management of their business) so they could apply the knowledge gained to improve the quality of their decision making.  The core topics addressed during the training were:  Entrepreneurship Essentials, Introduction to Marketing; Basic Book-Keeping Principles; Essential Costing Practices; Office Administration, financial education, business management and investment-driven market expansion and borrowing.