The project was funded entirely through a crowd funding campaign running for 50 days on www.indiegogo.com. This fund raising campaign was initiated by Nature Seychelles in partnership with ClimateCaring.. Individuals were invited to donate £1 (1,25 USD) for each of the twelve hours the sun is out in the Seychelles Islands, finally totaling to a contribution of 15 USD each. There were a total of 95 individual backers. The largest donations of up to 12,500 USD came from a UK energy company and the US Embassy based in Mauritius. Other donations came from private sector companies via their corporate responsibility funds.

Nature Seychelles was looking for funding for a new PV system on Cousin island. The institution was thinking about an innovative approach using crowd funding since traditional donors such as the UNDP/GEF had turned down the project.  ClimateCaring a new company specializing in off-grid systems expressed an interest in undertaking this and accepted to be paid from the proceeds of the crowd funding campaign if successful. Indiegogo was chosen as the crowd funding platform to work with because it was the only one at the time that allowed funds raised to be retained if the campaign target was not reached. Resulting from this partnership, marketing materials including videos were designed, small gifts secured and the online fund raising campaign was designed and initiated.

The protection of iconic surf breaks needs to have a strong advocay group/base to support a wide range of actions both at the national and local level to secure the protection of the break. These actions include: participating in campaigns, networking and identifying potential technical cooperation, identifying  key persons which can offer pro bono support, assisting in developing technical files describing the surf breaks and their characteristics, etc. 

Though ensuring the registration of a surf break is no easy task, it is critical to ensure thata once a surf break is recognized and registered, actions are taken to ensure that the promises and advantages of protection are delivered to all actors, and local fishing communities in particular. This building bloc implies, for example: regular capacity building and interaction with children and youngsters; cleaning of beaches campaigns; recognition of local champions and leaders; monitoring development initiatives (e.g. in infraestructure which may affect a surf break), regular mettings with local actors to explore ways in which the local environment an be improved, etc.    

Legitimizing the formal recognition and protection of a surf break is key to ensuring sustainability and maintainance of the site over the long term. Meetings to explain the advantages of protecting the surf break and its multiplicatory effect, enables direct actors at the local level in particular to commit to the idea and be the direct agents of change and local protection. Likewise, involving local authorities facilitates broad consensus towards a common goal shared by all participants. This is achieved through local workshops and incidence activities.   

Women in Vanuatu play a critical role in the use and management of marine and terrestrial biodiversity, deciding what resources are harvested and in what quantities for sale in markets. By empowering women through participation in conservation committees, the NPMLPA network has been able to effect change at the individual and household level.

The coral gardening project is especially relevant for island women and girls. Many of them learned how to guide visitors to snorkel and collect fragments of coral for the climate reef garden. Women are typically those who collect the living coral fragments that have broken off the reef and are perfect for planting. Each piece of coral is extremely delicate and must be handled with care. Monitoring indicates that coral fragments collected by women have a 75% survival rate while those handled by men have only a 55% success rate. Since the inception of the program, GIZ has worked to encourage women to take the role of resource champions in each of the Nguna-Pele committees, offering special gender-focused trainings and capacity development workshops. The obvious benefit to women is that they can earn previously unavailable income from guiding for and helping guests plant coral fragments.

Coral gardening, also known as mariculture, is undertaken by collecting small pieces of broken coral in shallow waters and re-attaching them to so-called spiderweb cages (portable metal frames).

The coral fragments are eventually transplanted to large coral frames in places where the reef has been destroyed by cyclones, crown of thorns starfish or other climate change-linked hazards. The coral beds are placed in around 6 meters of water, enough to keep them safe from cyclone swells, where they can grow into full size coral colonies.

The project uses coral varieties that are particularly resilient to the climate change impacts of bleaching and ocean acidification. The artificial reefs create new habitat for fish, and provide coastline protection from waves. 

Since 2013, CCCPIR has partnered with local tour operators and bungalow owners to upscale and promote the coral gardening activity. In exchange for a financial sponsorship to the community, incoming international visitors have the opportunity to proactively contribute to adaptation during their stay. Tourists are briefed on the program, learn about climate change and its impacts on coral reefs and then snorkel together with island reef champions to collect the climate resistant coral fragment and attach them on the underwater gardening beds. Specially built coral beds were strategically placed near popular tourism snorkeling areas. The coral beds are in around 6 meters of water, enough to keep them safe from cyclone swells, but shallow enough for tourists to interact with and enjoy. Visitors can come for the day to the island, or, like some school groups from overseas, stay for many weeks planting hundreds of coral fragments.

The visitor adopts each fragment planted, and the money raised goes towards community climate change adaptation activities. The coral becomes part of the “family” and repeat visitors can follow the growth and success of their planted coral colony.

A pasture and water management plan was developed to promote integrated management of pastures, water and livestock resources throughout the communal territory of Miraflores. The goal was to strengthen community organization so that water could be distributed more effectively and grazing areas could benefit from improved rotation. The process to develop the management plan was facilitated by The Mountain Institute using a methodology to strengthen capacities, stimulating collective and social practices within the community. The plan is defined as a set of ideas that emerge from a given population, based on their own perspectives. This is achieved by means of an in-depth process of analysis. The management plan can also serve as a tool for local management in the medium term.

According to the keen interest of this community, analysis and planning have focused on grasslands and water. The plan also encouraged the community to establish a committee to maintain and operate the renovated water infrastructure so that the water continues to flow and grasslands continue to be irrigated.

1.By consensus of the interested parties, INCOPESCA, ADIO, UCR, and SINAC created a commission of co-management and created a legal framework established with executive decree DAJ-020-2005, in order to work together and this group of Co-management launches a management plan for the conservation and sustainable use of turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) nesting on Ostional beach.