Many of the rural poor are caught in a ‘poverty trap to meet short term livelihood needs and forced to unsustainably exploit the natural environment. The exploitation leads to increased vulnerability and further constrains their development opportunities. Therefore, to reconcile aquaculture productivity with mangrove conservation and restoration, we introduced the Bio-rights financial incentive mechanism in Demak. In return for active engagement in conservation and restoration measures, communities received financial and technical support to develop sustainable livelihoods. Bio-rights agreements are conditional: payments to communities are only completed after successful restoration. The approach covers part of the costs the farmers or the community face to change their current unsustainable practice (degrading the very mangrove greenbelt that they rely on for coastal safety) into long-term sustainable livelihood strategies. This motivates them to take a long-term interest in their conservation work as well. Some community groups set aside a portion of the capital in a group savings fund.

AMA connects aquaculture with mangrove greenbelts along shorelines in estuaries. Greenbelts are nonexistent in most farms. In contrast to most silvo-aquaculture systems where mangroves are planted on dykes and in ponds, in AMA they are located outside the pond, where magroves contribute to climate mitigation. Mangroves on dykes and in ponds hamper pond maintenance and their litter and shade reduce productivity. Leaves decompose in ponds, providing feed sources to shrimp and cultured organisms. However excessive litter increases ammonia levels, decreases dissolved oxygen content, and reduces pond productivity. 

In AMA, the pond management is not hampered by leaves or shade, and benefits from an improved quality of inflowing water. A single farmer can practise AMA, but ideally all farmers along a canal improve the landscape. As farmers need to give up part of their pond area, which represents production potential, they are compensated with improvements in yield. Profits are obtained from the smaller pond, applying best practices from the Coastal Field Schools.

Creating working relations involving all sectors of society (private, government organizations and civil society organizations) helps to strengthen and authenticate the efforts made under the Program. This also encourages dialog that facilitates the opportunity to lead or resolve conflicts that arise from the production activity, within a framework of respect and tolerance, recognizing that in a territory there are different visions and interests, and all must be fairly considered. Alliances promote synergies that enhance individual efforts and active participation of all sectors of society. They enable the creation of an idea of territory, of collaborative planning, promoting more equitable power relations and the generation of a common vision between actors that were traditionally disconnected or even antagonistic to one another, although they shared the same limitations and potentialities. Within the framework of the Program, alliances put emphasis on the socio-environmental aspects of the territory, which are often disregarded from a perspective exclusively focused on production.

Communication enables an understanding of the objectives and the actions that have been taken to achieve adoption of the principles that sustain the program, by all the members of the organization and the local community. It is a way to highlight the effort made and the policies implemented in order to ensure the sustainability of the productive processes. Communication within the organization allows dissemination of the vision, values and actions put in place to improve environmental performance, the commitment to the community and the quality of the products offered External communication specifically allows dissemination of the organization's efforts to improve its productive and environmental performance to the local community, buyers, suppliers and any other social actor relevant to their interests. 

Monitoring is the sustained study of certain environmental indicators (flora, fauna, water resources, etc.) in order to establish a baseline that facilitates tracking the behavior of the environment in relation to the production systems. This information allows for implementing improvement measures in aspects related to land management while strengthening positive actions and mitigating, through corrective actions, components that may be unfavorable in the production-natural environment relationship.

EarthRanger combines different data from different sources. A key aspect of this is reports from the field as rangers carry out their patrols. To ensure robust data is collected and in a format that can be analysed, a ranger patrol report schema was needed. Ol Pejeta designed a set of report types relating to different categories of incidents or issues, such as a wildlife sighting or a security incident. Within each report type, standardized data fields were developed, ensuring data is simple to input and can be compared. Rangers use handheld devices to capture these reports and photos quickly and effectively, building a rich picture of what is happening across the Conservancy. These reports, together with the other data sets integrated in EarthRanger can be used for rapid response to serious incidents, as well as trend analysis to inform longer term strategic conservation planning and management.

EarthRanger provides the platform for integration but the data sets and information to be integrated needed to be determined. Ol Pejeta therefore designed the platform solution, adapting it meet the conservancy’s needs – evaluating what information would be useful and how it could be integrated. This was partly based on what data was readily available as well as understanding the key factors in supporting critical operations. This included combining data from the field (animal, radio, vehicle tracking) to inform security and ecological monitoring efforts. Cameras that monitor wildlife corridors also provide alerts if vehicles, people, or animals pass by. The Conservancy also operates an integrated livestock and wildlife land management approach. Livestock bomas are mapped and if collared predators are close an alert is sent so teams can respond accordingly.