Years of overgrazing and poor grazing land management has resulted in the degradation of significant parts of the rangeland ecosystem around Mt. Kulal, a critical resource for the local communities depending largely on pastoralism for livelihood.

This project applied community-based ecosystem restoration techniques and approaches to help revive grazing fields. This is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed through a combination of different techniques. In this project the following techniques were employed:

• Pasture enclosures to enable portions of grazing land recover without disturbance and for local grasses to mature and deposit their seed for natural regeneration.
• Reseeding of heavily degraded pasture lands with local grass species to aid recovery after rains.
• Customary community-managed wet-season dry-season grazing patterns to enable sustainable exploitation of pasture and seasonal recovery.

The table banking aspect of the project was responding to the needs of the community to access affordable loans for businessess and farming activities.

We supported the group in training on financial management and accountability.

The table banking aspects has attracted the younger people who are interested in doing farming as a business. This has helped in improving livelihod food security

The Seed Sovereignty Project has been able to work with women farmers to restore beneficial and traditional seed varieties that had been lost like sorghum, millet, legumes and other grain crops.

Practical implementation steps include:

• Site selection and community involvement;
• Engineering and design;
• Water use assessment;
• Excavation and construction;
• Operation and maintenance (establishment of water management process, including: Water committee, care takers and provision of trainings)
• Monitoring and evaluation

Following the Devolvement of Kenya in 2010, PELUM Kenya devolved itself in to six networking zones namely: Central Rift Valley Zone, Lower Eastern and Coastal Zone,  Nairobi/Central Zone, Upper Eatern and Northern Kenya Zone, Western Zone and Nyanza Zone.

PELUM Kenya has therefore been focusing on a zone during implementation of the Green Action Week campaigns as a way of promoting horizontal networking. The members of a zone are involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the campaigns with one of the member organizations being the lead member organisation and in close coordination by PELUM Kenya secretariat and zonal staff. This provides a platform for learning and sharing among Member Organizations

Sand dams (some times called more general groundwater dams) store water under the ground. A sand dam is a small dam build above ground and into the riverbed of a seasonal sand river. Sand accumulates upstream of the dam, resulting in additional groundwater storage capacity. Similar to sand dam a subsurface dam obstructs the groundwater flow of an aquifer and stores water below ground level. Sand and subsurface dams are suitable for rural areas with semi-arid climate in order to store only seasonal available water to be used in dry periods for livestock, minor irrigation as well as for domestic use.

Benefits include:

• Storage of rain water in seasonal rivers
• Minimum evaporation since water is stored in sand
• Reduction of contamination by livestock and other animals since water is under sand
• Filtration of water flowing through the riverbed sand improves water quality

The campaign employs a multi-stakeholder approach by ensuring that relevant stakeholders including the relevant Government Ministries, Schools, Private Sector, Farmers, Media, PELUM Kenya member organizations and othe CSOs are involved in the campaigns as a strategy of enhancing sustainability of the project beyond the project period.

The project targets the wider public through mass awareness creation so as to raise awareness on the need to grow and eat organic foods.

Media is embraced to reach to the wider public through both electric and print media methods. This includes continuous update of PELUM Kenya’s social media sites with organic food and farming messages. The media practioners are also invited to cover and air the various activities.

It also targets to build capacity of small scale farmers to further embrace organic foods and farming for healthy environments and people. This is done through exchange visits to successful organic enterprises and organic exhibitions.

As a way of enhancing the spirit of networking within PELUM Kenya network, all the member organizations of PELUM Kenya in the focus areas are involved in all aspects of this project.

Effective communication has been a key factor in enhancing ecotourism and protecting Jabal Mousssa. The Reserve enjoys today a nation-wide recognition as a young, yet professional ecotourism destination. Public support has played a key role in putting pressure on the violations that have long been taking place.

Thanks to effective communication, Jabal Moussa is also today a reliable brand name: whether food and handicraft products, hiking packages, or tree seedlings, people are increasingly fond of the Jabal Moussa products, tagged with our logo and registered trademark.

Our mascot, the Rock hyrax (or "Tabsoun" in Arabic) a previously unknown peculiar animal, is the hero of 2 books of a children's book series. Whether the real-life animal or the costumed mascot, it is becoming increasingly popular among children and adults.

APJM keeps a close relationship with media stakeholders in Lebanon, and APJM team uses a variety of communication tools to reach its partners: annual report; social media; website; email communication; direct conversations; group meetings; feedback sheets...

While the message is unique, the form is adapted to the audience: locals, children, visitors, donors...  Honesty and transparency are among the core NGO values.

The "helicopter approach" has become part of our philosophy and is an important key to success in Protected Areas. As an NGO, we constantly hover between local and international, and we aim to be rooted locally, while universally connected.

We thrive to balance between local assets, skills, and needs, with international concepts and expertise, without the need to stop at any "intermediary".

We seek to be adaptive and collaborative in our management of the Reserve: we seek the guidance of locals to adapt techniques and recommendations to our local context.

Our staff and board members are predominantly local residents; we have direct links with local stakeholders, and we advance personal relationships over numbers in large scale surveys. On the other hand, we aim at adapting the international concepts of the Man and Biosphere Programme, and we seek to have an active role in regional and international networks, and to build partnerships with multilateral donors and international foundations.

We believe that by having been locally rooted, and internationally connected, we became trustworthy partners on both levels.

It has always been at the core philosophy of APJM, and as means of sustainability, that every project should generate impacts and be sustained beyond the life of the project, or its funding.

Therefore, while NGOs might fall into the trap of designing projects based on the donor's needs, APJM's projects are designed to directly answer the gaps identified locally. The needs were first identified in 2009 during a socio-economic survey describing the socio-economic profile of the local communities, or during scientific research done by experts, and were later on updated by APJM staff or experts.

Activities are subsequently planned to answer APJM's mission and vision, and fit into APJM's Management Plan and Strategy. The project management structure is designed to fit into the organizational chart of APJM. As activities often target or are implemented in partnership with local stakeholders, activities also build on existing local skills and know-how, and aim at their leverage.

Most project activities are therefore sustained beyond the project funding, on both financial and operation levels, and projects turn into programs, or sub-activities of programs.