Local | PANORAMA

To Foster that Wildlife Friendly Actions (i.e, guanaco use) could bring solutions on the conflict generated between conservation and livestock production paradigm.

Communication is vital for any company, business, or professional activity. It is useless to have a lot of knowledge and great abilities to generate a good product if we do not manage to make ourselves visible in an effective way, attracting consumers. For large companies (due to having a budget and specifically assigned), it is relatively easy to find the perfect insight and get to shape the campaign. SEO strategies, SEM, usability and UX issues, social media, implementation of channels such as email marketing or SMS, etc. A good campaign knows how to make room in all these areas. However, it is a mistake to think that only companies with large resources can gain a good digital presence or outside it. When we talk about "social communication" we must bear in mind that not everyone has access to each of the available digital platforms, nor are they present in all existing social networks. We consider a "successful" strategy if we manage to gain visibility using the most frequent communication channels available to capture interest and loyalty.

“create, measure, and learn” potential communication (comm) strategies on WFA. These workshops will explain basic guidelines on comm styles, impacts of different strategies, and the scale of those. Some campaigns will want to gain visibility, notoriety, generate engagement in social networks or simply cause a considerable impact to make the audience act. Training for comm actions to build and strengthen capacity within national stakeholders and local communities to expand on WFA.

The PayúnMatrú Cooperative members may be able in the future to teach the methods they learn during this project to other groups that wish to manage guanacos in Patagonia. Wildlife Friendly Actions to obtain guanaco fiber become a standard procedure by guanaco-fiber producers all around the Patagonian Steppe.

The communication efforts applied so far, through small notes on science pages, television, and radio channels to disseminate our project paid off. Since one of them reached the managers of Good Growth, the international company that connects science, customers with the world´s most successful Brands. With the help of WCS that is a representative of the WFEN and as such, acting as a link between both companies to sign a contract, which states two important points: a)the parties understand that the costs of a well-conducted management operation imply that the base price of guanaco raw fiber should be 200$; b)the purchase of 100 kilos from the Payun Matru Cooperative.

Generate wildlife friendly certifications that increase the market value of the fiber

Cooperativa Payun Matru members

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanacos

Ramiro Ovejero

Ramiro Ovejero-Wildlife Researcher

Agustina Novillo

Payun Matru Spinning Mill

Cooperativa Payun Matru

Guanaco yarn

Cooperativa Payun Matru

The province of Mendoza has what we currently consider to be the most wildlife-friendly guanaco-shearing project that has been underway for ten years. Due to the type of management carried out in La Payunia, there is the possibility that the products can be certified Wildlife Friendly. The Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network (WFEN) is a global community dedicated to developing and marketing products that conserve endangered wildlife while contributing to the economic vitality of rural communities. The Network sets the global standard for selling "green" products and helps members reach new and dynamic markets. WFEN's Mission is to protect wildlife in the wild by certifying businesses that ensure that people and nature coexist and thrive. WFEN certification will seek to promote wildlife conservation by facilitating responsible production practices, business development, education, and branding. It will also seek to access new and dynamic markets and achieve a fair price for wildlife-friendly products.

First, an applicant must submit the WF Global Products Pre-Assessment Form and Reference Form, to apply for the Certification. The Pre-Assessment Form provides background about producers, their products, and wildlife conservation conditions in their area to understand if the products may meet the WFEN Mission Criteria. The Reference Form must be completed by someone at a conservation organization who is familiar with the program and its conservation context. A non-refundable fee of $250 must accompany the Pre-Assessment and Reference Form.

Based on the principles of wildlife conservation, economic well-being, and accountability, each of our certified product lines illustrates the possibilities of triple-bottom-line success for people, planet and profit.

A direct link between production and conservation is essential for certification by the Network. Products that donate a percentage of profits to conservation but do not abate threats to key species fall outside of WFEN. To help ensure communities living with wildlife adopt conservation practices, the associated benefits should be tangible and significant. Certified products must contribute to increases in local incomes and/or improvements to livelihoods. The product’s conservation mission includes a clear enforcement mechanism, such that failure to follow through with required conservation actions results in immediate consequences, including forfeiture of any economic reward. Inability to make substantive corrections in a reasonable timeframe will result in suspension from the Network, including loss of certification and provision of information to vendors and distributors.

Appropriate Strategy

Godrej Group has Good & Green strategy that dictates mangrove management. Godrej mangrove management is done by three pronged scientific strategy of Research, Conservation & Awareness. Output of each activity is input for other activity. For example insights from biodiversity research help to conserve biodiversity. Conserved biodiversity is used for public awareness through nature trails and other awareness media. Biodiversity observations of nature trails are recorded in research documents closing the loop.

Skilled professionals, adequate infrastructure, organizational commitment, partnerships with education & research institutes, commissioning of special research projects to external experts

Research, Conservation and Awareness are cyclic and linked to each other to manage local biodiversity.

Entirety

Local

Appropriate Infrastructure

Godrej has maintained access roads, nature trails, theme gardens, marine aquarium, watch tower, mangrove information centre and other infrastructure for mangrove research, conservation & awareness. Additionally Godrej has installed sewage & effluent treatment plant for stringent water pollution control. Godrej has initiated integrated waste management system to ensure zero waste dumping in mangroves.

Dedicated Environmental Engineering Services department with skilled professionals & adequate infrastructure to prevent pollution, 6 ETP-STP to treat & recycle wastewater, SWM facility to prevent garbage dumping, Security to stop encroachment % destruction

Identify indirect adverse factors that can affect mangrove ecosystem and provide adequate infrastructure to prevent and mitigate risks. Keep infra management with one dept to coordinate diverse management activities

Entirety

Local

Appropriate Governance

Godrej has dedicated Wetland Management (WMS) Department with skilled professionals to manage mangroves. WMS Dept supported by Horticulture Department for plantation, Construction Department for infrastructure management, Planning & Development Department for initiatives planning monitoring. WMS initiatives are monitored on weekly basis and presented to Godrej Management Committee every year. Department targets are linked to Godrej's Good & Green sustainability strategy targets to ensure systemic approach to mangrove management

Internal management & technical capacity of Godrej & Boyce, Commitment of Senior Management to mangrove conservation, Cascading of targets at all levels & their review

Formation of dedicated department with human, infrastructure, financial resources is important

Application of management principles & processes helps in continual improvement

Entirety

Local

Encourage the generation of a chain that increases the commercial value of the guanaco fiber by linking the primary production sectors with the national and international textile sectors.

Work with different actors at the local, national, and international levels, to contribute to the design of a fiber value chain that can trigger the activity. The work will consist of the identification of key public and private actors in order to provide tools for the commercialization of the product. The activities that will be developed in this stage of the project include meetings with the textile sector, application authorities, and various important local actors in this area.

-Meetings with representatives of national organizations to evaluate background, regulations, marketing, and support possibilities for wild guanaco management experiences.

-Meetings with selected fashion designers at the national (i.e Buenos Aires) or international (i.e Canada) scale, to generate a fair value chain and promote WFA experience.

-Value-added options will be identified at the national/international level through meetings with actors from the public and private sectors, to expand WFA as a “Based nature Solution".

Wildlife camelid management actions began in the 80s, based on the philosophy of the "ICDPs", seeking to link biodiversity conservation with improving the life quality of life of local people. These projects, which initially focused on the vicuña, were based on the application of economic incentives to promote the use of wildlife. We prove that wild guanaco use could improve the numbers of those initiatives because of the wider distribution range of the species. In Argentina, the production of SAC fiber could easily double due to an increase in the number of sheared populations and an increase in the frequency of shearing. This would clearly lead to a change in the production paradigm in contrast to the current one. Guanaco fiber is amongst.The Cooperative decided to add value to the raw fiber in order to increase the value. By 2010, most of the projects had stopped due to difficulty in marketing guanaco fiber with a price of USD $40-60 per kilo. The "problem" is there are only two trade companies that buy raw fiber that is exported mainly to Italy and control the market prices.

Partnership with the National Fisheries Authority

In the process of developing the application, The Nature Conservancy and the National Fisheries Authority (AUNAP), signed an agreement of understanding with the objective of making joint efforts to share, generate information and knowledge and identify issues of mutual interest about the country's fisheries resources.

Under this agreement, the organizations have developed and improved the MIPEZ application. Among the activities developed is the registration in the APP of more than 6,000 fishermen linked to the authority; the socialization and training of more than 50 fishery promoters who serve as replicators to train other fishermen.

This agreement is an important milestone for the Authority, the fishermen of the basin and the Conservancy. It contributes to the management of the macrobasin's fisheries, since it provides the authority with a science-based tool, fed by fishermen, with consolidated information to improve decision-making processes in the management of fishery resources.

A working agreement between the authorities, NGOs and communities makes it possible to generate collective benefits and effective management guidelines for the resource.
Involves fishermen, who are normally invisible, in the management of the resource and in basin decisions.
Allows the Conservancy to contribute scientific information to the management of the fishery resource in the macro-basin and to develop applied research.

The administrative and contractual processes of public organizations take longer than other institutions.
Multi-stakeholder alliances are fundamental tools for the development of effective processes in the territory.
The participation of local communities and local fishermen's organizations is essential to generate policies and guidelines for resource management.

acuerdo_de_intencion_aunap_y_tnc_firmado.pdf

MIPEZ indicators portal

Example Dashboard

TNC

Example Dashboard

TNC

The SIMA page (decision support system for the Magdalena Macrobasin) presents statistics that compile data from fishermen. This page shows aggregate data on fishing operations, by different types of indicators: species fished, costs, gear used, fishing areas, among others.

Dasboard provides access to aggregated statistics of the information entered in the application.
It offers information for decision making to authorities and fishermen's associations.
It can present information segmented by department, municipality, association or fishermen.

It is essential to have permanent resources for the administration and maintenance of the platform.

Mobile application

FISHERMEN WORKSHOP

TNC

The general structure of the application can be replicated in other watersheds, under different social and ecological contexts. It is only necessary to upload the information of the fish species in the basin.

User-friendly design for use by people with low educational backgrounds
Content reviewed and tested with local fishermen, environmental authorities and scientists
Dashboard, showing aggregated information and indicators of fishing activity
Does not require a permanent internet connection or high-end equipment.

The use of smart cell phones is not widely distributed in fishing communities.
It is essential to conduct face-to-face training and field tests with fishermen to improve the use of the application.

Dasboard indicadores MIPEZ

Promote sustainable use of wild guanaco populations through demonstrative experiences of live shearing in La Payunia.

Guanaco Herding

Antonella Panebianco

Pre-Shearing Corrals

Antonella Panebianco

Cooperativa Payun Matru members

Antonella Panebianco

sheared guanaco

antonella Panebianco

Inclusive and sustainable Payunia (PA.IS)

Cooperativa Payun Matru

Payun Matru Spinning Mill

cooperativa Payun Matru

Payun Matru Spinning Mill

Cooperativa Payun Matru

Payunia Management zone

Pablo Gregorio

Physiological Indicators

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco Wool fleece

Ramiro Ovejero

Ecological Indicators

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco wool sheared in one afternoon

Ramiro Ovejero

Pre-Shearing Corrals

Ramiro Ovejero

Guanaco Realease

Ramiro Ovejero

The annual shearing of guanacos by the Payún Matrú Cooperative is being closely supervised by the Mendoza Department of Renewable Natural Resources to ensure that the potential economic income provided by guanaco wool is feasible and sustainable. At the same time, Cooperative members understand that by making "good practices" they receive "good benefits". CONICET has tested and developed methods for minimizing the stress of individual guanacos during capture and handling, that reduce negative impacts at the population level. Our knowledge of ecological, physiological, and behavioral processes that "constrain" these camelids in La Payunia, based on more than 10 years of study, put us in a unique position for advising and teaching the cooperative and government stakeholders how to minimize impacts of live shearing on this population. We will continue training members of Payún Matrú Cooperative in "good practices" to make capture and shearing of wild guanacos within Wildlife Friendly Actions. The following activities will be carried out at this stage:

1)Pre-shearing surveys on population parameters, 2)Training of the personnel (without experience) in charge of guanacos handling during herding, within the corrals, and during shearing is key to the success of the activities. 3)Management of wild guanacos: Capture, shear, and release of wild guanacos will be carried out in two events, between September and November. 4)Physiological indicators: physiological stress in the function of handling conditions.5)Post-shearing surveys on population parameters such as social structure and population density.

-As we are working with wildlife, pre-shearing surveys on population parameters help us to select the best area to build the management structure.

-Training of the personnel is fundamental (and the key for the success of this solution) for the good management of the animals, avoiding guanaco mortalities and operator injuries. The management of wild guanacos is different from any other domestic animal, and it is necessary to use particular structures and tools, as well as to learn specific maneuvers for their manipulation, keeping animal welfare in mind.

-Stress approach give us a key physiological indicator to reduce stress in relation to handling time.

-Post-shearing surveys give us key population parameters such as social structure and population allow us to compared with data before the live-shearing experience and define the impact on social disruption.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

National