Creation of conservation association unites local communities
The nine communities surrounding Mbe were helped to come together to form a single community organization to represent their interests and promote conservation. In the past, these communities have not always cooperated readily and there is some historic distrust and rivalry. The Conservation Association of the Mbe Mountains (CAMM) was created with a written constitution and officers elected to a General Assembly, Management Committee, Board of Trustees and a Technical and Supervisory Stakeholders Group. Regular CAMM meetings now promote dialogue and have improved trust between the nine communities. CAMM also represents local interests and perspectives when dealing with local and state government. WCS facilitated legal registration of CAMM in 2013 and is supporting capacity building of CAMM and construction of a headquarters.
The communities needed to trust each other and work together towards a single purpose. Significant time was needed to establish this trust, since there are frequent disagreements among the communities. Presence of an NGO to facilitate the process was critical to success. The initiative also had support from influential local politicians and businessmen as well as the Cross River State Forestry Commission – government agency responsible for the management of wildlife and forests within the state
To fully secure local land tenure the nine communities, or CAMM, require a certificate(s) of occupancy from the state government. A benefit sharing formula was required since the communities do not own equal areas of forest within the Mbe Mountains.The nine communities don’t yet trust each other fully and there are periodic disputes, which are best resolved by CAMM. Within each community there are often a number of men known as elites who typically act for selfish interests rather than for the common good. As CAMM has become stronger it has been able to reduce the influence of these elites. The influence of the Chairman of Boki Local Government Area has also helped. The penalties against poaching are low and not always enforced by CAMM. Stricter penalties may be required, legalized as local government bylaws. The CAMM constitution is large and cumbersome and needs to be streamlined. Levels of capacity within CAMM are low - needs close mentoring and long-term financial support from WCS.
Instructional guideline for supporting façade greening
The guideline for façade greening was prepared by the Austrian Association for Building Construction and by the University for Soil Culture on behalf of ÖkoKauf Wien, the program for the ecological procurement of the city of Vienna. The guide was presented in February 2013 within the framework of a conference in the Vienna University of Technology. It offers valuable specialist information to architects, planners, developers, public institutions, as well as interested citizens and serves as a decision-making aid when choosing the ideal type of greenery for different facades. Contents include general information (e.g. target groups, scope, definitions, advantages of a green façade), as well as information on various facade greening systems, their ecological and technical functions and design possibilities. A system overview, funding options and a checklist serve to help users prepare and plan façade greening by examining the necessary conditions and prerequisites. Finally, the guideline highlights best practice examples from the Vienna area and further references to literature and regulations.
It was necessary to draw on the various facets of appropriate knowledge to develop the guide, including e.g. engineers and an association for greening buildings. Financial resources for the content creation, print and publication were planned in the annual project budget from the environmental department – MA22. There were no additional funds. The drafting of the guide was politically desired and was integrated into the political program.
There was a high demand for the guide - the first edition (3000 copies) was already out of print within the first year after publication. A new edition will be published in early 2017, which will be complemented with additional shorter information brochures (folders, leaflets, etc.).
Securing sufficient funds for a multi-purpose EbA solution
As this solution serves various goals and meets several objectives, it was possible to secure sufficient funding from diverse parties, domains and funding bodies to cover the entire implementation of the project. In the case of the creation of Lake Phoenix, this included funding for water management from the water board; funding for ecology from the ecological funding program by the federal state; funding for urban development from etc. The water board, for instance, provided the amount of money that was already budgeted for the construction of a flood retention basin. This basin was not needed anymore, as the lake solution already provided the required flood retention function. Some additional potential funding sources were not even used in the end, because it would have slowed down the marketing of the real estate and would have tied the project to certain restrictions, which were not desired by the decision-makers.
Given that the solution serves various goals, funding was able to be secured from a range of parties, sectors and sources. The marketing of real estate properties along the new lake shore was a financial aspect considered from the project’s start in order to make the project implementation financially partly self-supporting. The project consortium took great care of timing, for instance regarding the deadlines of the various funding programs.
Establishing the diverse benefits provided by a solution is an important step in the planning process, as it highlights the various sectors and stakeholders who can potentially be involved in and benefit from the solution. Drawing attention to the potential benefits, and underlying this with a sound scientific evidence base with which to approach these parties, can facilitate the successful generation of funds from a range of sources. Innovative financing approaches can also act as ‘self-sustaining’ and generate funds during the course of the project to fund some of the foreseen activities.
Bottom Up - Grassroot initiative
Local stakeholders learn to become environmental leaders. They learn about their water reality. When people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet and engage with similar groups of stakeholders from other communities across the conflict. The common ground for these cross conflict meetings is the safeguard of the shared watershed and the communities engage in productive meetings to identify solutions. Together they identify projects that speak to the self-interest of both sides. Through this process, the communities gain the capacity to advance solutions even within a turbulent political environment. In most cases, the combination of a strong youth program and outspoken adult leadership creates the political will of mayors and other municipal leaders to get involved.
The local community's leadership needs a respected leader from the local community to provide the best leadership. It is important that a regional project manager with strong project experience mentors the local leader.
Local leadership from the local community is especially important in a conflict situation to secure the trust that the leader acts in the community’s self-interest. Walks in the nature and along shared water bodies provide the best opportunity for communities to understand their water reality. Only when people understand the local problems and their community's responsibility, they can meet other communities. Community members voice an appreciation and need for an organization as EcoPeace to facilitate cross border meetings to ensure that the meetings provide a “safe-place” for the local communities to discuss issues effecting cross-border and neighbor communities. Participants were free to talk about their realities while using constructive means to seek solutions. Meetings and collaboration on environmental issues delivers a capacity to create and sustain strong networks of cross-border communication with long-term impact beyond the cross-border initiative.
Documenting and sharing the success story
This building block focuses on documenting and disseminating results so that the experience can be captured and replicated elsewhere. Sharing and disseminating successful project results can encourage other interested parties to conduct site visits to observe the project first hand and meet the people involved. This kind of peer to peer learning can often be the first step towards replication. Documentation can also be used as a powerful advocacy tool to create leverage for greater commitment to waste management policies at regional and national scales. Documentation can be in many different formats ranging from a brief project summary or personal testimonies from the people involved, to powerful images that show the project in action or short film clips that can be embedded in websites and shared on social media etc. The greater variety of visual documentation the project has, the greater influence it can have on decision making processes related to waste management (or any other issue of concern). Documentation of results also plays an important role in the review and evaluation phase so that project leaders can identify the contribution of each building block to the overall outcome.
Ability to document project results in a visually appealing way, access to dissemination pathways.
One of the most powerful media for sharing results is through personal testimonies on film. However, this can be expensive if done through a professional media house. However, there is plenty of free, online digital editing software available that can be used to produce a film clip ‘in-house’ for a fraction of the cost.
Theory of Change (ToC)
A Theory of Change (ToC) is a road map that plots the journey from where we are now to where we want to be. The ToC serves to create a common vision of long-term goals, how they will be reached, and how progress will be measured along the way. A ToC forms the basis for strategic planning, and it clearly articulates how shifting behaviors and social norms will reduce threats to biodiversity. There are seven elements of a Pride campaign ToC: Conservation Result points to the conservation target (ecosystem or species) the campaign is trying to conserve, and what the expected long-term result is. Threat Reduction points to the main threats to the conservation target that can be reduced. Behavior Change focus on the human behavior that must change in order to reduce the identified threat. Barrier Removal identifies the barriers to adoption of the new behavior and how can they be removed. Interpersonal Communication describes what conversations are needed to encourage people to adopt the new behavior. Attitude identifies what attitudes must shift for these conversations to happen. Knowledge is the cognition needed to increase awareness and help shift these attitudes.
• Campaign site and thematic knowledge and experience • A prior analysis of site conditions including geographic scope, conservations targets, threats and contributing factors. • Clear long-term goals of implementing partner
Some of the key elements of success related to the ToC include, a clear, unequivocal connection between the expected conservation result, and the threat the campaign is trying to reduce. Even though the selected threat may not always be the most important menace to the conservation target, it has to be one that can be mitigated through human behavior change. Likewise, identifying a specific behavior change that is directly linked to the selected threat is vital.
Awareness-raising of fishermen on the West African coast
In each country, a focal point supports awareness-raising through a poster in the national language, a radio spot and a T-shirt.
Only available in French. To read this section in French, please download the document "Blue Solution Template in French: ‘AfricaSaw, Réseau d’alerte/sauvegarde du poisson-scie, Afrique de l’Ouest’” from the bottom of this page, under 'Resources'.
Only available in French. To read this section in French, please download the document "Blue Solution Template in French: ‘AfricaSaw, Réseau d’alerte/sauvegarde du poisson-scie, Afrique de l’Ouest’” from the bottom of this page, under 'Resources'.
Social marketing (SM)
Social marketing (SM) uses commercial marketing methods and tools (e.g. diffusion of innovations, behavior-change-focused communication channels and messages, community mobilization) to promote a voluntary behavior change in a target audience, that benefits society as well as the target group. For a Pride campaign, social marketing is an integral component to promote community stewardship of their resources. Creating a clear, consistent and positive identity (i.e., a brand) around the conservation/management of their resources that resonates with community perceptions, values and traditions regarding these resources helps boost community buy in. This brand is linked to a clear request (e.g., what do you want your target audience to do when it comes to sustainable management of their resources), both of which will be underlined and repeated throughout campaign activities (e.g. community events, media outreach) and promotional materials (e.g., posters, booklets, flyers, wall paintings, props, text messages) that form part of the social marketing strategy.
• Adequate size of target audience for (100+). • Determining clear audience behavior changes that lead to conservation goals. • Well designed, planned, executed and analyzed formative research that elucidate conditions of behavior changes. Defining audience characteristics. Clearly define how ready your audience is to adopt new behavior. Tailor communication channels, activities and messages. Involve audience and key stakeholders in design and implementation of marketing strategy increase ownership/stewardship Willingness of implementing partner to adopt SM tools
Campaigns that best follow these ‘steps’ (i.e. enabling factors), developed activities, messages and choose media channels that are relevant to their audience characteristics and stage of behavior change. These well-developed social marketing strategies have proven to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices by the target audience, through creating community support, buy in of audience’s trusted sources and key influencers, as well as clear, focused and concise messaging through marketing materials and the media.
Pride training program
Rare’s Pride Program training is a two-year process through which local conservation leaders receive formal university training, followed by periods of field-based formative research and results analyses. Participants learn how to change attitudes and behaviors, mobilize support for environmental protection, and reduce threats to natural resources. Rare’s local partners not only receive classroom training, but also implement an entire social marketing campaign in their communities, designed around a specific conservation goal. Participants in the program receive a toolkit for community outreach: Training 1 provides trainees with basic community engagement tools, so that they can start embedding themselves in the target audience and earn their trust. Training 2 takes place after a period of 1-2 months of field embedding, and teaches research techniques for qualitative and quantitative formative research. Training 3 takes place after 2-3 months of data collection and information gathering, to analyze data collected and design the Pride Campaign. Training 4 takes place upon campaign conclusion, to evaluate results and produce final report.
• Partner commitment to secure full-time dedication of participating fellows to the Pride program. • Continued full engagement and adequate progress of fellows during the entire duration of the program. • A minimum of high school degree for program participants/fellows. • A basic Pride curriculum, tailored to programmatic theme. • Basic infrastructure as well as training team.
A key element in the success of the Pride training program is to have specific deliverables and frequent evaluations of capacity. These deliverables and grades are recorded in an online tool that allows for multiple party follow-up. The same basic training assessment is delivered at the beginning of the cohort, and upon completion of every training phase. Having participants with different backgrounds and levels of academic training (high school or university degrees), presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is having to adapt lesson content and activities to accommodate for these differences. The opportunity is precisely to take advantage of these differences in skills and backgrounds to recruit participants to share past experiences and help fellow trainees in the learning process as mentors.
Fine-tuning site management
Legalize locally managed marine areas (LMMA) at district and provincial levels. Implement an initial 2-year management plan to be regularly revised. Regular monitoring and reporting includes annual meetings of all members involved in co-management. Consider climate change adaptation of livelihoods in ongoing interventions and the management plan, as well as changes of state mechanism (staff and capacity) and emerging local needs. Mobilize funding from institutions and organizations.
• Support from the local authority who is legally governing the administrative area where the LMMA is located for mobilizing participation of other state and non-state actors • Active support and participation of the community • Support of a non-governmental organisation and seeking the necessary funding for complementary activities to be included into the LMMA plan.
Capacity building, skills development and strong institutional arrangements are important to successfully manage and monitor LMMAs. Vietnam’s LMMA initiatives benefit from the commune experience where cooperation was gradually extended to other stakeholders, including management bodies at district and provincial levels. This approach was successful for local support and to create linkages and networks at national and regional levels. The district People’s Committee maintained the co-management board and the district’s annual budget allocation after the project ended in 2005. Nevertheless, sufficient long-term funding remains a challenge. Therefore, sustainable financing mechanisms that generate revenues from the LMMA’s ecosystem services should be created.