Effective policy lobbying and advocacy must address the implementation of both existing and newly finalized policies to ensure they meet their intended goals. This involves continuous monitoring to track progress and assess the effectiveness of policy implementation. All partners involved in a program or policy must participate in this ongoing process to ensure alignment with objectives and adapt strategies as needed.

The natural resource sector in Kenya is governed by a complex web of laws and policies that directly impact community lifestyles and livelihoods. However, many community members lack knowledge of these laws, leading to confusion, especially when different government departments enforce contradictory regulations. 

NACOFA has taken on the responsibility of informing and educating communities about the relevant laws that affect them. By doing so, NACOFA helps protect communities from unwarranted actions by government officers. An example is the development and implementation of Participatory Forest Management Plans (PFMPs) and Forest Management Agreements (FMAs). Despite these agreements being signed between KFS and various CFAs, there are instances where KFS fails to honor the commitments, making community awareness critical for accountability.

Stakeholder mapping involves reviewing the diverse interests of stakeholders across various sectors at both local and national levels. This process should be as comprehensive as possible, mapping out existing influence and power structures to determine who to engage directly or indirectly. Prior to stakeholder mapping, a thorough analysis of existing policies is conducted to fully understand the issues and why they matter to the community. This understanding then informs the stakeholder mapping activity, making it clearer who to engage with.

The first step involves identifying local environmental challenges at the community level, such as water shortages, diminishing grazing areas, food scarcity, soil erosion, landslides, or flooding. NACOFA gathers community input on possible solutions and explores the links between these challenges and forest or environmental degradation.

Next, NACOFA studies the existing laws and policies that could address these issues, identifying any gaps, or determining if enhanced implementation or enforcement is needed. This process allows NACOFA to pinpoint the responsible government institutions, key officials, CSOs, partners, and community groups to collaborate with.

In order for the producers to successfully implement their projects, various regional figures were called upon to provide them with the necessary support and accompaniment. The Local Technical Assistance teams, Local Community Promoters and Regional Operational Liaisons provided the groups with technical support to develop their proposals, collect evidence of implementation and prepare subproject reports. In the area of procurement, contracting and finance, the Regional Administrative Liaisons provided support and advice for the completion of procurement, contracting and verification procedures, through financial reports. For groups that were not legally constituted, the National Executing Agency (Rainforest Alliance Mexico) was in charge of administration, direct preparation of all procurement procedures, execution of allocated resources and the corresponding verifications. This shared responsibility with the beneficiaries made it possible to reduce the gap that exists for the groups and to fully comply with the highest standards in the execution of procurement, contracting and financial management during the implementation of the subprojects.

The objective of the MDE Mexico was to strengthen the capacities of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities that depend on forests and jungles through participatory and inclusive processes for the consolidation of productive projects in forest landscapes. The training began to take shape as soon as the subprojects were selected by the Evaluation Committee, whose members received training to facilitate analysis and dialogue on the proposals received to guide the evaluation and selection process.

On the other hand, the Local Technical Assistance provided the beneficiaries with accompaniment and specialized advice for the participatory construction of the technical proposals and the planning and monitoring instruments, which ensured the development of capacities and the appropriation of the instruments in each Working Group.

In addition, in order to provide technical support to the beneficiaries in the execution, monitoring and evaluation of the subprojects, a training program for change agents (Local Community Promoters) was implemented for community productive projects with a REDD+ approach.

Likewise, Knowledge Exchange Workshops were implemented among beneficiaries to strengthen their capacities with the knowledge of other more experienced groups.

In addition to grassland restoration, the Mapimí BR promotes the implementation of good livestock management practices. CONANP works with the local population to plan the use of pasturelands and promote restoration actions, such as cattle exclusion areas, micro-watersheds, and the planting of native grasses, which improves the productive system and conserves the pasturelands. In this way, the resilience of the pasture is increased; the soil is reactivated to improve the habitat of wildlife, particularly the Bolsón tortoise, and the environmental services provided by the pasture are maintained, while increasing the capacity of the ejidos involved to deal with the degradation of ecosystems in a context of climate change.

The positive results obtained in the ejidos involved have strengthened the relationship between CONANP and the human communities that form part of the reserve. At the same time, they have motivated interest in replicating the restoration work in other sites. Participants have shared their experience with the restoration work in peer-to-peer discussions and a video was produced with the support of the Resilience project.

In the context of integrated management to recover soil productivity and organic capacity, and with the objective of reducing the vulnerability of the socio-ecosystem to climate change, support was provided to women and men from local communities to restore pastures. The implementation of the activities followed an ecological function recovery approach, focused on improving soil conditions to enable grassland restoration. In the case of arid zones, such as the Mapimí BR, it is necessary to change the perspective of excessive afforestation for one of soil reactivation, since the latter is what sustains life in this ecosystem.

The micro-watersheds allowed the recovery of the pastureland, which serves as food for the Bolsón turtle and is beneficial for cattle ranchers because of the increase in forage production. In addition, the landowners received training and paid wages for the restoration work. In addition, it is necessary to work with the producers so that they use the new pastures in an orderly and rational manner, in order to make the productive activity more efficient.

In order to implement resilience actions and mitigate the impacts of droughts, temperature increase and extreme weather events on socioecosystems, local partnerships are necessary. The articulation of efforts with local actors makes it possible to act according to common objectives, and allows for good coordination, the effectiveness of intervention actions, and local ownership in the long term. Working through alliances multiplies the resources available to generate actions, strengthens capacities and ensures sustainability/replicability. The continuity and permanence of the actions depend on the commitments established with other institutions, governments, civil society organizations and, above all, the trust generated in the communities, who are the ones who make the decision to manage the territories according to their needs and possibilities. The permanent presence of CONANP, through the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve team, and the participation of the community and organized civil society, in this case Pronatura Noreste, A.C., were decisive for the success of the adaptation measure implemented.

Community organization has been a determining factor in the development of the restoration work. Initially, informative meetings were held, coordinated by BR personnel, to inform about the project, the objectives to be achieved, and to identify the intervention sites. A workshop was also held to identify the effects of climate change on the conservation targets and productive activities in the region. Subsequently, working groups were formed in the communities to carry out a field activity, with training and technical support from CONANP and Pronatura Noreste, A.C. for its implementation.

This organizational process was based on the efforts made by the Mapimí BR team to promote, through the Advisory Council, participatory planning, collaboration and joint decision making with respect to restoration. In this sense, livestock management programs have been established, involving landowners and land users in specific actions for grassland restoration.