Supporting related economic activities and alternative incomes
Awareness raising and knowledge exchange activities
Successful conservation of sea-turtles in Con Dao National Park
Tagging a mother turtle
Con Dao National Park
Baby turtle running to the sea
Con Dao National Park
The sea-turtle conservation programme was started in Con Dao since mid-1980s. In more than 30 years of implementation, Con Dao national park now has a comprehensive programme of different activities that includes:
Breeding ground surveys and monitoring
Law enforcement: protection/patrolling
Support breeding activities: remove eggs to the hatcheries (support incubation), releasing baby turtles to the sea
Communication and education programme for different target groups, including local schools and fishermen, and visitors
By 2020, outcomes of this programme include:
Identify and protect 17 breading grounds (beaches) in the islands
In 2020, c. 750 mother turtles were recorded breeding from January to November (mostly from May to October).
2,395 hatches (227,858 eggs) were removed to the hatcheries, 2,195 hatches were hatched, 171,949 baby turtles were released to the sea. (197 hatches with 17,139 eggs are still incubation at the time of documentation).
Communication campaigns were organized with army, police, district offices, schools, fisher communities, and visitors.
Collaborate with private sector (Six Senses) to establish a new breeding ground and hatchery in Dat Doc beach.
Collaborate with IUCN to conduct 4 courses for volunteers to support sea-turtle conservation in Con Dao.
- Determination of the National Park management board and related agencies of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
- Support from international conservation communities.
- Support from public.
- Sustainable financing from diverse sources.
The success of the Con Dao sea turtle conservation programme comes from a combination of efforts from the park management, international support, public interest and involvement. In particular, private sector participation is one of the key factors that will help shape in the future an important additional resource for conservation efforts (see BB 3).
Locally produced, low-cost, zero-tillage seeder uses locally available parts and mechanical skills to expand markets for repairs and technical services and create local jobs. This building block has permitted favouring of subsidies for conservation farm machinery and withdrawing of support for those allocated in conventional practices. One of the complementary innovations of this solution as a practice is a locally produced low-cost, zero-tillage seeder. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas worked with national partners and lead farmers to develop, test, and promote the designed or the locally-modified seeders. The designed technology uses local inputs and mechanical skills to expand markets for repairs and technical services and create local jobs.
Work with farmers to develop, test, and promote the modified seeders accompanying CA
Promote local resources
Trainings to farmers in terms of use and agronomic practices
In leadership and awareness, leadership to coordinate efforts to reverse land degradation are scattered and not properly recognized. Therefore, there is a need of local initiatives and tools to enhance involvement and sustainability of the solution. The local technology included in this solution, a low-cost, zero-tillage seeder, has permitted an empowerment of local people through the creation of jobs and use of local inputs.
By training farmers on conservation agriculture, they learn new smart agronomic practices to diversify the cropping systems, save energy and labour and stabilize yields under dryland conditions.
Integrating a gender approach
Participatory engagement by farmers in the training
Educating people on conservation agriculture technique
For the producers and community authorities, there are specific demands for information, training, dialogue and coordination of activities. Innovative agricultural development approaches are needed to inform and demonstrate the benefits of conservation agriculture to farmers. This can be achieved through activities such as: Intensive guidance of farmers to change the centuries-old conventional farming heritage. On-the-job training and creation of ‘conservation agriculture services’ for farmers in areas such as planting and weed control and for support around other practical issues for the adoption of conservation practices.
The reproductive platforms include programmed natural mating plans, Artificial Inseminations, services for pregnancy diagnosis to improve management, estrus synchronization and sires’ certification and the supporting CapDev activities targeting technical staff and farmers, members of the Community Based Breeding Programs’.
Participation of farmers in the trainings
Continuous funding by local institutions
Identification of gaps in knowledge
Continuous engagement by federal and regional actors
The knowledge acquired to support reproductive platforms in support of the breeding programs in low-input systems is composed of modules which can be easily replicated through capacity development and technical fine-tuning. Capacity development of Ethiopian researchers and extension staff must continue to the expansion of Community Based Breeding Program’s and the orientation at the government level to adopt this approach for the genetic improvement of the indigenous sheep and goat breeds. Identifying gaps in the current state of knowledge encourages new investments in research and potential for further replication.
Fully operated by the regional research institutes in Ethiopia and providing a wide range of reproductive techniques and biotechnologies, the network of labs forming the reproductive platform, provides support to the implementation of the sheep and goat breeding programs in Ethiopia simultaneously to a number of services intended to improve the reproductive management for higher productivity. Initial co-investment by the regional research institutes in Ethiopia and ICARDA resulted in the latter upgrading the capacity level of the regional staff and supplying the labs with the required equipment and supplies to function autonomously.
Investment and involvement by the national institutions and ICARDA
The scaling of the breeding programs to new communities and villages generated a new demand in terms of reproductive technologies for a wider dissemination of improved sires
Adoption by the national actors of community-based breeding programs to develop the sector of small ruminants
Contextualized approaches from a technical and institutional angle to establish the reproductive labs and the services provided
Developed technologies are mainly based upon locally available supplies and equipment for the business model to be replicated with a minimum external support
Crop modelling to simulate yield gain of lentil has further helped to manipulate planting date and lentil phenology in the target region.
Seed hub for informal seed production as a sustainable way to tackle local development of lentil production
Regular and close monitoring by creating farmer groups
Strong support and increased seed availability was achieved by strengthening informal and formal seed systems
Digitization through remote base sensing and real time mapping
Knowledge of environment and genotype × environment interactions are important to develop stable biofortified cultivars or to design location-specific breeding in any biofortification program. In lentils, accumulation of Fe, and Zn in the seeds varies with the weather, location, and soil conditions such as nutrient hungry soil, high pH, temperature, precipitation, and soil organic matter. Multilocation testing of varieties/advanced lines of lentil in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, and Syria showed significant genotype × environment (G × E) interaction for Fe and Zn. It has been observed that Fe concentration is more sensitive to environmental fluctuations compared to seed Zn concentration. Our study also suggested that high iron and zinc can be combined in short duration varieties without compromising the grain yield.
