This project encouraged the participation of youth and community volunteers to gain support and increase local knowledge of the importance of protecting local ecosystems. Increased community involvement will work to build capacity while empowering and strengthening local conservation efforts. The group of volunteers we currently work with is a mix of residents and visitors, men and women, young and old and from a wide range of backgrounds.

Efforts are made to keep policymakers involved and inform them of the importance of mangroves in general and restoration in particular to gain their support. 

Enhancing the conditions in the degraded areas,  eleminating threats in the mangrove forest will lead to natural regeneration. However the restauration can be sped up by using nursery grown saplings. New plants from the nursery are used in degraded areas and along the coast to support reforestation efforts. Expanded mangrove forests will form a first line of coastal defense for extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, supporting an ecosystem-based approach to climate change adaptation and mitigation on the island. This also includes a pilot program to encourage regrowth of mangroves in degraded areas and demonstrate intervention method success.

CHICOP closely collaborates with representatives from neighboring communities, facilitated through regular village meetings and the establishment of an MPA advisory committee. The park actively engages with the local communities to gather their feedback and incorporate it into the planning and decision-making processes for adaptive management planning and implementation. A recurring 10-year management plan provides the bedrock for the Chumbe project (now in its 3rd iteration). Feedback to planning is collected through in-person interviews and meetings, ensuring open and transparent communication channels with the local communities. Moreover, by providing extensive employment opportunities for the local communities (both on the island, and through supporting a range of off-island enterprises that contribute to island operations, such as sustainable agricultural products, organic soap production and the like), Chumbe fosters mutual benefits, sustainable livelihoods, and ensures strong representation of local community considerations in all aspects of management.

Education played a crucial role in the successful protection of the marine protected area (MPA). Prior to its designation as an MPA (which is 100% no-take zone), the park was a free fishing zone. To increase awareness about the closure of the site in the 1990s, and help local people understand the importance of conservation and its benefits, CHICOP implemented an extensive outreach program and established an Environmental Education (EE) program by providing hands-on environmental education experiences for local school children, teachers, community members and government officials, that has continued to date.

A stakeholders workshop was conducted to share assessment results, address questions from the 2nd workshop, and discuss an action plan for mitigating identified negative impacts. Actions, activities, and timelines were discussed for each impact.

Based on the collected data, TT successfully engaged donors in funding projects aligned with reducing the negative impacts.

To mitigate the Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) negative impact, TT has constructed a 33km Elephant exclusion Fence and 8 additional 10% fences,  reducing HWC by over 80%.

To address the lack of water, TT provided 110 dam liners, each with a capacity of 56,000 L, resulting in the harvesting of over 6 million litres of surface run-off water.

In support of schools, TT is offering scholarships to 9 students and has constructed and equipped a Science and computer laboratory in a local secondary school.

To overcome information barriers, TT established a BULK SMS platform and grievances log to facilitate communication on key issues, ongoing projects, and address grievances between TT and communities.

TT is currently developing a SAPA review scheduled for July 2023 to assess the impact and change in perceptions resulting from the implemented interventions in communities.

The process involved in Data for decision-making included gathering information by conducting participatory community Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and from key stakeholders, development of digital questionnaires, enumerators training on data collection, community data collection exercise and analysing the collected data to draw meaningful insights.

The data-gathering process involved participatory FGDs and engaging stakeholders, collecting information on the positive and negative impacts of Tsavo Trust (TT). This supported the development of a structured survey. The first Stakeholder meeting presented FGD findings, with participants providing additional insights. A digital questionnaire was created based on this input. Ten trained enumerators collected data from 156 households (approx. 950 individuals), achieving gender balance.

Community meetings shared survey results and ideas for addressing negative impacts. A second Stakeholder workshop gathered additional ideas. These components generated meaningful insights for decision-making.

These key components, including participatory discussions, stakeholder engagement, the development of a digital questionnaire, and data collection from households, were instrumental in generating meaningful insights for decision-making.

The objectives of the Preparing for Assessment block were: 

• Conduct a feasibility check, to determine whether SAPA was an appropriate methodology for assessing the social impacts of Kamungi.
• Plan for the assessment, to ensure that the assessment was implemented as a high-quality multi-stakeholder process
• Conduct community mapping, to help ensure that SAPA included all relevant communities within Kamungi.
• Review existing information, To ensure the assessment builds upon existing data relevant to the design and implementation of the assessment.
• Conduct stakeholder analysis,  To identify critical actors that should be engaged in SAPA

The SAPA team provided an overview of the SAPA to TT and Kamungi Conservancy management, this was followed by a community visit for mapping and awareness of the SAPA process, Two facilitators from Kamungi were identified, a male and a female, and trained for 2 days on gathering data from community members on positive and negative effects TT has had in the area. TT management provided the necessary data to facilitate the assessment and identified and ranked its stakeholders, clarifying their interests and Influence, the preparation phase helped set the base for the assessment ensuring all checkboxes were catered for and paving the way for the next building block