Local | PANORAMA

West Asia, Middle East

Jabir gazelles' conservation through integrated management approach in Hormuz island, Iran

Salman

Rassouli

Incorporation of Beneficiaries into Public and Private Financing Programs

The objective of this building block is to provide financing, either public (through payment for environmental services programs, forestry incentives, non-reimbursable cooperation projects) or private (commercial bank and second-tier bank loans), to livestock producers who carry out good practices and promote restoration.

In this case, the cooperative had proven experience in placing loans for housing solutions, productive loans and had accreditations that allowed it to function as a second-tier bank with a mobilization of USD $210,400.00 in agricultural loans; in addition, it had the FONAFIFO environmental services payment program where 13,635 trees were subjected to incentives under modalities of protection of springs and agroforestry systems.

Identify a local, subnational or national partner with experience in credit placement within the selected value chain that can develop and prioritize credit lines, acceptance criteria, maximum disbursement amounts, generate competitive interest rates and reduce risk.
Identify national programs linked to the value chain that encourage good practices or make payments for results.

In the case of private financing, it is important to provide technical support in the execution of the loan, since it allows the proper use of resources and ensures that the borrower achieves his goals.
In the case of public financing, it is important to identify different elements of the productive system that can be subsidized by national programs, for example, equipment that reduces operating costs; business development programs that could reduce marketing costs, etc.

Implementation

Local

Incorporating Good Practice Producers into a Value Chain

The objective of this building block is to provide continuity to the good practices implemented by livestock producers by incorporating them into value chains that value products from sustainable sources.

This can be achieved through the analysis of value chains that are linked to the sector in which the producer operates. In this case, a dairy value chain was linked, since this is where the greatest added value can be obtained for both the livestock producer and the Coopepuriscal R.L. Cooperative.

Another important aspect is to determine where the producer is in the chain (micro, meso or macro) and what type of activity he/she carries out (primary or support). In this case, the producer is at the micro level with a primary activity (delivering raw materials without much value added).

Find trading partners who are interested in quality products that demonstrate that they are environmentally friendly and have been produced with sustainable practices.
Trading partners are willing to improve the quality of their supply chain with local producers.

Preferably there should be an organizational structure (cooperative, association, etc.) that will reduce transaction and intermediation costs for producers and allow them to receive better income.
Agreements with commercial partners should incorporate, as far as possible, a stable demand for raw material, which will encourage livestock producers to invest in improving their production system.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

Curso de Cadenas de Valor y Restauración de Paisajes

Monitoring and evaluation (Ecological monitoring and benefit evaluation)

Ecological monitoring: The project continuously monitors and regularly evaluates vegetation restoration and adjusts vegetation management measures on a timely basis based on changes in vegetation growth, soil moisture and other indicators by employing local people as seasonal workers.

Benefit evaluation: Helping the community residents to improve their income by 2,000 yuan on average per household who adopted the new techniques, enabling farmers to directly benefit from the achievements of ecological restoration.

Access to communication with the local farmers at early stage.
Local expertise and the seasonal workers from the local communities enabled the monitoring of ecological restoration progress
Local village councils and the farmers who took part in our community surveys contributed to the evaluation of social and economic benefits.

We replanted more trees where some of the trees didn’t grow properly after we finished planting in the first round. But after monitoring and testing, we realized that there is not enough moisture to support planting this quantity of trees. We adjusted replanting plans by either not planting more or reducing the replanting density. We planted different native tree species in the single tree species area in order to increase the biodiversity and resilience to climate change.

Monitoring

Review phase

Local

Community development (Environmental awareness, volunteer opportunities, and skill trainings)

Environmental education: raised environmental awareness among community members and helped them better understand the balance between ecology and development through environmental education workshops.

Volunteer opportunities: the promotion of dry farming has led thousands of farmers in the surrounding communities to participate in the project, to be engaged throughout the process of trial planting, adaptation & adjustment as seen fit, and harvesting. They did not need to test out the effects in their own fields.

Skill trainings: improved the ability of the community to apply new technologies and new models to farming and herding methods. Assisted the community to set up new cooperatives.

The local village council provided strong support that enabled local farmers to attend the workshop and training sessions.
Workshops and trainings taking place in their villages and at times that were convenient for the whole family, made it possible for more farmers to attend, without having to travel far.
The poverty elimination campaign from the government helped raise the awareness of the community that skills training would lead to better income – and therefore more willing to learn.

Ecological restoration effort only can be maintained if the local communities understand the relationship between good ecology and their daily life, particularly when daily production includes land management through farming and herding. Improving the community’s environmental awareness and building skills around sustainable farming, while respecting their culture and valuing their knowledge in the field, made it possible for people and nature to prosper together.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Sustainable land management (Accessible, technology-driven decision-making tools; Sustainable grazing management in degraded grasslands; sustainable “dry farming” agriculture management suitable for arid and semi-arid areas)

Cooperating with Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, the project implemented "smart grassland management” on 200 hectares (3000 mu) of grassland in Helinge’er county, in combination with vegetation growth monitoring and use of meteorological data to determine the right time to start spring grazing. Herder were able to dynamically determine grazing time and intensity, as well as tailor the grazing plan with balanced grass and livestock. After 3 years of pilot work, the project has spearheaded the model of "grazing in warm seasons and feeding in cold seasons", suitable for the local area and other sites with similar conditions in the grassland of northern China.

The project helped the local farmers cope better with the accelerating water shortage, exacerbated by a changing climate. The farmers were embracing, the integrated technologies and practices of high-yield dry-farming, ecological dry-farming and soil testing formula fertilization, selected drought-resistant crop varieties, enhanced film mulching, and innovative irrigation to make full use natural precipitation. The approach—combining accessible data tools and new land management practices—has led to multiple benefits of water and fertilizer efficiency, and increased production and income.

Collaboration with Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and local communities enabled our approaches grounded to the local needs and conditions.
Wide use of smartphones in the rural area make the Smart Grasslands app easily accessible.
Active engagement with the supportive farmers who then play the role of ambassadors to champion the method.

We were able to develop a close collaboration with the local communities by taking time to understand what challenges they were experiencing with existing techniques for farming and herding. We targeted community members who expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo and who hoped to change the production methods. Through this collaboration, and by explicitly valuing the local community’s traditional knowledge, our new scientific sustainable management methods were more suitable to the area and more likely to be adopted at scale. For example: detecting the feeding time (cold seasons) which suits their traditional practice, selecting drought-resistant crop varieties by learning what crops were no longer planted because of water shortage.

Implementation

Local

Ecological Restoration (Nature-based solutions that both restore ecosystems and also sequester carbon, e.g. "trees, shrubs and grass" approach)

In order to restore the degraded land, to increase the vegetation coverage and biodiversity, and to recover the ecosystem functions of windbreak and sand-fixation, the project employs the tertiary structure of "trees, shrubs and grass." Native species of trees, shrubs, and grass were selected for maximum ecological service function, including carbon sequestration and habitat potential. Since 2010, we have restored a priority area of 2,585 hectares of degraded land, as identified by the Helinge’er County Ecological Restoration Plan. Restoration activities included planting nearly 3 million trees that is estimated to capture more than 160,000 tons of CO2 over the next 30 years.

Aiming at gully areas with serious water and soil erosion, the project incorporated engineering and biological approaches, introduced new technologies such as a "biological blanket"(It is a high strength ecological slope protection tool made of a variety of naturally degradable materials. Biological blanket helps reduce soil erosion on the slope) and successfully restored nearly 600 hectare (9,000 mu) of soil and water loss areas in 14 gullies.

Buy-in and agreement from all parties – the Inner Mongolia Forestry Bureau, the local community, TNC scientists, and funders – enabled effective collaboration over a decade to implement restoration activities
Partnerships with the implementing company to make sure the restoration process took in place as planned.
Through philanthropic support, TNC had funds to hire temporary and seasonal workers to implement restoration work and provide much needed additional income for the population which was living at or near the poverty line.

Through simulation and calculation, the most important areas that could guarantee restored ecological service function were selected under the principle of as small an area as possible and as low maintenance costs as possible. Cost is one of the major barriers to ecological restoration and can prevent local communities from participating. During implementing, the method is constantly adjusted according to the actual situation and in order to reduce the cost (labor, transportation, etc.) and improve efficiency. When the economic cost is smaller, the method became more scalable/adoptable by others.

Implementation

Local

Scientific Planning (Ecological restoration and conservation planning for adaptation to climate change)

In Helinge’er County, Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) was used to plan ecological restoration and protection for the county with consideration of climate change forecast. Firstly, demands of regional ecosystem service functions were determined according to the national ecological function zoning and ecological red lines. Secondly, to ensure the key ecosystem types in each ecological function plot can perform long-lasting and reliable ecological service functions, historic and current status of each ecological function plot was evaluated with literature reviews and field investigations (community surveys), and ecosystem trends were predicted under different climate change scenarios. Community outreach was crucial in understanding how the lived experience of farmers and herders compared to the scientific literature and helped build trust with communities.

Targets of the protection area target were set, and the degree of human influence in the area was considered. Finally, for the important ecological function areas the current ecosystem status was compared to the key ecosystem types that can continue to play their roles. If they were consistent, they were identified as protected areas. Inconsistencies resulted in restoration areas, and the target ecosystem type for restoration could then be determined.

TNC’s partnership with the Inner Mongolia Forestry and Grassland Bureau helped facilitate field investigations with the community.
The older population of Helinge’er remembered a time when ecological services were highly functioning and were eager to see ecosystems restored.
Partnerships with philanthropic supporters, Such as Lao Niu Foundation, made this work possible. RbD and community engagement work takes time, and it helps to have funders who understand and invest in longer time frames

When TNC first began work in Helinge’er, there was no systematic scientific planning approach for this particular ecosystem, its degradation factors, and community needs. SCP is a broad approach, and our teams had not yet executed this level of planning on in arid and semi-arid ecosystems in Inner Mongolia.

We realized engaging with the local communities and developing collaborative relationships with the local experts weas vital to building a long-term restoration project.

Through extensive field surveys, we were able to combine existing scientific models with local expertise and community knowledge. This hybrid approach helped us adapt to the specific needs of the area and its people.

Planning phase

Local

Sustainability and replicability

Maintaining and strengthening the established stakeholder’s engagement mechanism with overarching provincial, district and divisional governance bodies with sustainable financing solutions and capacity building is required for sustainability and replicability of the solution. 'The National Policy of the Environmentally Sensitive Areas management' provides the required policy framework for replication of this solution. When the communities identify the potential of resilience building of their livelihood through conservation, it becomes an incentive for their active collaboration on co-management and join monitoring of natural resources. Within given Sri Lankan context, there are many environmentally sensitive seascapes, where it could replicate this model, and this is being factored within National Environment Action Plan 2021-2030 for Sri Lanka. Therefore, there is an evident potential for sustainability and replication of this model.

Partnerships with stakeholders at every level
Continuous awareness raising about the importance of BRMS and community lives associate with it.

During the initial phase of restoring the BRMS, a case study was carried out using methods of unstructured focus groups discussions via cause-problem-impact diagrams and structured key informant interviews, and observations of this initiative revealed that community believes on 'CBNRM and Co-management' over 'regulation driven management' of Department of Wildlife Conservation. This solution was accepted and is currently proposed for replication at ESA national scaleup plan in seascapes.
Co-management of implementation activities to ensure sustainability and active lobbying to influence and implement conservation measures was also considered as a lesson learned.

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

Stakeholder Engagement

Key stakeholders such as Department of Wildlife Conservation, Divisional Secretariat & District Secretariats, Ministry of Environment, UNDP, Ocean Resources Conservation Association, University of Wayamba, IUCN, Sri Lanka Navy, Coastal Conservation Department, National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency were involved in this project. Together the technical knowledge and experience of experts in the field, demarcation of the Bar Reef, designing of buoys, buoy deployment and allied activities were implemented.

While above named institutions provided the neccessary technical expertise, training and awareness and input for monitoring and evaluation, key local community members, such as members of the 'Tour Boat Society' (a society which was established for tour guides in the area), were also given the opportunity to participate in the demarcation activities to identify the GPS locations of the areas to be protected at Bar reef with the participation of specialists and other stakeholders. An identified team of locals, such as tour boat operators/guides were also involved as local volunteers to assist in monitoring and maintenance of the buoys and the protected zone.

Since the community involved were heavily dependent on promoting tourism in Bar Reef, and in order to encourage flow of tourists to the Bar Reef, they were motivated to participate in conservation activities.
District/Divisional Secretariats and DWC were capacitated on the true gound level situation and importance of Bar Reef conservation and its biological value for the both the community and environment.
Participatory approach to project design & implementation and mobilization of national, regional & local level champions.

During the course of implementation of conservation activities, it was identified that inclusive community engagement, mobilization and transparancy is much needed. Since this was a transitional community who, depending on the season, engaged in both tourism and fishing activities simultaneously. it was difficult to find a fully focused and committed community to actively participate for conservation activities throughout the year. Further, it was noticed that with changing economic conditions, Easter Sunday attack, COVID-19 sitution and fall of tourism, community was rather less driven to participate in Bar Reef conservation.

In conclusion, with capacity building and awareness raising, active, voluntary engagement in buoy redeployment after off-season, periodic progress monitoring and recording of the changes of the reef and increased community awareness on natural heatwaves, anthropogenic activities that adversely affect the ecosystem, led to motivation and dedication of community to conserve the Bar Reef and ensure sustainability.