It is crucial to develop a process for linking wildlife presence to desired local benefits. Here, we worked with the communities to establish a points system, where each wild animal camera-trapped received a certain number of points. Species which were more threatened, traded or caused more conflict generated more points. However, all species over the size of small mammals generated points, to ensure that a wider diversity of species were conserved.

Our project is based on the premise that farmers want sustainability and are incentivised to achieve this. No farming operation will be viable in the long run unless it is done in an ecologically and economically responsible manner. Climate change has led to an increased frequency of drought, as well as an increased severity of drought in the western regions of South Africa. Stocking rates are effectively falling as a result of climate change, and this necessitates the need for farmers to diversify income in order to survive. Failure to change will have a devastating impact on biodiversity.

We are incentivising farmers to protect biodiversity through the adoption of more sustainable farming practices, e.g. grazing rest, correct stocking rates and habitat restoration activities. While these lead to fewer, but better quality animals, the farmer still experiences a loss of income. We help the farmer compensate for this through the adoption of non-farming activities such as ecotourism.

Through continual engagement with the farmer, we are able to address concerns as they are raised and ensure that the farmer perceives active engagement in the partnership as an incentive to improve his farming operation.

In South Arica we are fortunate to have a very progressive legislative programme for conservation on private land. The Biodiversity Stewardship framework allows for the voluntary declaration of private lands into the protected areas network following a clearly defined process.  As the process is well established, it is relatively easy to implement it and commitments are well understood. However, governmental conservation agencies have constraints on their capacity and rely on NGOs such as the EWT, to facilitate the process of identifying suitable properties, engaging with willing farmers and/or landowners, and developing the associated tools such as the farm management plan and annual plans of operation.

Landowners sign an agreement with the provincial conservation authorities formalising the declaration into the title deed of the property. This framework largely results in a win-win as biodiversity is conserved, the country is better able to meet its conservation goals in terms of multi-lateral agreements, and the farmer has a more sustainable farming operation to support his livelihood. Subsidiary benefits can be accrued to local communities through entrepreneurship opportunities. To pursue our conservation exchange, we merged this framework with other agreements between the farmer and the EWT.

It goes without saying that change cannot take place unless based on sound partnerships that have clearly defined roles, responsibilities and deliverables. Changing farming practices is challenging as these ingrained practices have been passed down for generations. The EWT is able to assist the farmer to bridge the gap between traditional farming techniques and the skills required to transition toward nature-based tourism models.

We found it essential to select farmers who are open to change and then to build their trust through the provision of proven deliverables and mutual respect. Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly outlined and defined in order to speed up the operationalisation of projects and avoid misunderstandings. Our project set holistic goals that supported the farmer and his family, the farm workers, the conservation of biodiversity and provided a unique experience for the outdoor enthusiast.

Building lasting and open partnerships are one of the hallmarks of this project. It is part of the foundation for our success.

To ensure that local benefits are tied to wildlife presence, the first step is enabling communities to monitor wildlife on their land. Each village selects two 'community camera-trapping officers' who are trained and employed to use camera-traps, which they place at what they think are the most wildlife-rich areas of their villages. Camera-traps are checked every month and images shown in the village to raise awareness.

In both our terrestrial and coastal sites we initiate community-led SMART patrol units that enable communities and government agencies to protect ecosystems in tandem. In our terrestrial sites, we identify, train, and equip local community members in using the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) to protect their forests in tandem with government park rangers. Teams are made up of 3 to 4 community members, 1 government staff, and 1 of our program team members. These teams carry out 7-10 days per month along paths generated by the SMART software based on historical data. Along with creating opportunities to track data on wildlife encounters, the SMART tool also allows tracking incidents of poaching and other illegal activity inside the protected forests. In our coastal site in Kubu Raya, SMART patrols are carried out by boats 3 days a week (12 days a month). These dates are chosen randomly to create uncertainty in the patrol schedules.  

A key component of our sustainable fisheries program in our coastal site is the ‘participatory fisheries management’ intervention through which we co-implement periodic river closures. We designed this intervention in light of communities’ worry of collapse in fish, crab, and shrimp populations that had directly led to reduced household income. As this decline in fish stocks stemmed from lack of clear fishing grounds, inter-and intra-village conflict, and high rates of migrant fishermen from other areas entering the fishing grounds, we proposed the idea of a 3-month long river closure. Mud crabs were chosen as the species that would be targeted as part of the river closures particularly because they were among the most valuable commodities to small-scale fishermen and also a fast-growing species. 

Before a river is closed to fishing, community fishermen use a map of their village's rivers to choose the location of the river that will be closed and decide the timing of the closure. The only thing they do not choose is the length of the closure, which has been chosen for 3-months in consultation with mud-crab experts. Once the rivers are opened to fishing, the small-scale fishermen are able to reap the benefits through the increased size of crabs and higher yields.

The purpose of our Sustainable Agriculture and Agroforestry program is to enhance soil nutrition and fertility while also regenerating degraded forest lands and ensuring food security. As part of this program, we develop groups of 15-20 farmers from a CC who are then mentored by a peer-selected lead farmer trained by us. This enables us to readily share information about improved techniques and maximize knowledge sharing and learning among the farming communities. Furthermore, since 2017, we have supported communities to select and plant over 60,000 seedlings of native species in the buffer zones in our terrestrial sites and replant abandoned aquaculture pond with 38,000 mangrove seedlings in our coastal sites. This not only ensures food, nutrition and livelihood for participating smallholder farming communities but also creates crucial habitat and connectivity for wildlife, and generates regulating and provisioning services.

Our Literacy Program creates access to basic education for our partner communities, especially rural women and youth, who lack the ability to complete their education. Our evaluative admissions method ensures students graduate through our literacy program in the shortest possible time in order to capitalize on opportunities for employment and further studies. We take the support of organizations who are experts in the education sector in Indonesia such as  Pusat Kegiatan Belajar Masyarakat (PKBM). PKBM is a registered Indonesian NGO that provides literacy training and administers government national exams. Students who pass the national exam receive a certificate that helps with job placement and improves access to the labor force. 

As part of this program, we also support the training of local tutors in partnership with local government schools and PKBM. By training local people to become tutors in their communities, we reduce the costs for community members to gain access to basic education in hard-to-reach communities.

We train local women and girls to become health ambassadors (HA) in their communities and act as extension agents for public health services. As part of this program, we work with local government health offices to improve access to health services, community health, and improve women’s reproductive rights through the extension of government health services in partner villages. We follow the People- Health -Environment (PHE) approach that aims to improve community health through health advocacy and improve access to basic services. Once potential HAs are identified, they are provided with a set of training from our staff and 3 additional training from the relevant government agency. Once they have successfully completed these trainings, HAs start to make weekly visits to households in their communities. During these visits, they evaluate each household’s activities and provide information on pre-and post-natal health, contraceptives, sanitation issues, impacts of smoking, and nutrition. Information is provided through posters and videos played on smartphones carried by health ambassadors