Dredging, recognized as a serious threat to the marine turtles, was identified by IUCN as a priority.  IUCN, with experts from the Species Survival Commission’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group designed and developed a dredging protocol to be followed during port operations. These included installing turtle deflectors on all dredger drag-heads to help ensure turtles were not pulled into the dredger. Trained observers were assigned to all dredgers to monitor this process. These observers would check screens on inflow and overflow pipes on a 24/7 basis. These measures (deflectors, screens, and human observers) were put in place to ensure that the dredging was “turtle friendly”. Such measures were the first to have been put in place in the history of dredging activities in India.

Lighting was the second major threat identified because excess glare is known to distract turtle hatchlings as they instinctively move towards brightly lit areas and away from the sea. For this, the IUCN Commission experts provided specific guidelines for the port’s lighting plan, which was adopted by the port authorities. IUCN further supported Tata Steel in identifying the right design for these lights. Today, Dhamra Port is the first and only port in India to have installed “turtle friendly” lighting.

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.

To strengthen governance, improvements needed to be made in the participation of government and local stakeholders in the management of the micro-basin.

At the local level, the organizational base of the communities was reinforced, through community leaders and their understanding of the importance of water recharge areas. It was further supported by the Communal Forestry Nursery Commissions, generally administered by women; and the Community Development Councils, which were more strongly integrated into the Esquichá River Micro-basin Council. Thus, participation was catalyzed from the bottom up, notably with youth also participating, especially in reforestation events that entailed >1000 people.

The role of the state also increased through dialogues and agreements with municipalities, and access by communities to forest incentives. The greatest added value was a local empowerment achieved by social mobilization (including women), "action learning" (process that involves the implementation of EbA activities, coupled with a practical capacity building program), organizational capacity, community and micro-basin governance processes. What has been achieved is a reflection of a strong community commitment thanks to participatory governance.

The Esquichá River Micro-basin Council acts as a platform for dialogue, advocacy, capacity building and appropriation of lessons learned and tools; therefore, it is a key means for up-scaling EbA to different levels. With a view of vertical scaling, lessons of its work have influenced different levels: 

• the Municipality of Tacaná that will include EbA measures into municipal planning. 
• the Coatán River Council (only with national Guatemalan authorities) which facilitates inter-sectoral cooperation and management with a basin-wide vision, beyond the mere political-administrative sphere.
• the Coordinator of Natural Resources and Environment of San Marcos Department (CORNASAM). CORNASAM coordinates the efforts of governmental actors and NGOs, as well as the municipalities of the Department of San Marcos. 
• the National Secretary of Planning (SEGEPLAN) in order to improve guidelines given to municipalites planning.
• the Ministry of Environment (MARN), that is using lessons learnt to scale up a Green Climate Fund project that implements EbA measures.
• the Forest Institute (INAB)

Further work is needed to have a binational coordiantion of the Coatán river basin, shared among Guatemala and Mexico to have a higher impact on the benefits of EbA.

The objective is to establish and capitalize a trust fund, which is anchored to the Sustainable Environmental Investment Fund (FIAS), in order to protect, preserve and conserve the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR), ensuring its financial sustainability.

The main long-term milestone to be achieved with this fund is to increase the 40 miles of the GMR. In addition, the fund will be used to develop and implement a plan for the prevention, conservation and preservation of the GMR. To achieve these milestones, three main programs were defined. However, two cross-cutting themes were identified as crucial to achieving good preservation and conservation of the GMR, namely Climate Change and Environmental Communication and Education.

The three programs are:

• Maintain and strengthen the Monitoring and Surveillance program of the GMR to protect the marine heritage;
• Guarantee the conservation of the GMR and its ecological integrity, through monitoring and research for the rational use of its environmental goods and services;
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the Emergency Plan for the GMR.

The reasons that prompted the process of updating the fee were:

• 20 years without updating the value of the tourist operation patent fee:
• It was derisory compared to the income that tourism operators receive;
• The cost of administration and management of the reserve where users benefit from its environmental services;

Relevant aspects of the agreement reached to update the fee:

• Sociabilization with the tourism sector for payment agreements;
• 4-year negotiation process
• Different types of negotiations (larger and smaller depending on the type of tourism);
• The value is updated each year based on the unified basic salary SBU in force in Ecuador, the formula multiplies the Net Registration Tonnage of the vessel by 80% of the SBU;
• Payment facilities to the operator, i.e. the value can be paid in three installments.
• The Reserve has optimized its systems to make the collection order online and payment through bank transfers.
• Smaller vessels pay less
• The state charged 492,000 USD for 162 tourist vessels, with the increase the charge will be progressive, in 2018 will be collected 1'902,847 USD; in 2019 2'885,540 USD; and from 2020 onwards 3'915,312 USD.

The process of planning how the Environmental Fund may be used begins when the VSLA review and update their constitution and by-laws (CBL) at the start of their next cycle. Broadly defined goals are transformed into specific uses, using existing management plans as ‘shopping list’ of interventions that the EF can support. 

The conversation on how the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) can help generate financial resources begin once VSLA constituency is convinced that the marine environment must be protected and that the VSLAs have the capability to support conservation and protection of marine resources. The individual contributions are set and broad goals are identified and integrated in the group’s constitution and by-laws.

FONCET was one of many financial mechanisms that were created for different natural protected areas as part of TNC´s Parks in Peril Program. FONCET started out only for El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve and was the only local fund to succeed. Later on, FONCET started to invest in other protected areas trying to replicate the model.

First donations were used to create strong bases for the organization, carefully selecting, hiring and training high skilled and committed individuals, as well as developing legal and operational manuals, transparent administrative procedures, strategic plans, strong communication, fundraising and technical capacitates, among others. FONCET invests in having the best team since the success of an NGO strongly depends, among other, on the people in charge.

Restoration of the forest has a higher success rate if native trees are used/planted.  Native tree species will allow the forest to recover and conserve natural habitat. This will optimize the supply of forest benefits and ecosystem services; reduce the risks of natural hazards such as landslides; and enhance options for sustainable livelihood.