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Community-based mangrove management

Mangrove ecology training for community volunteers

NAREI

Community-based mangrove management seeks to address unsustainable human use of mangroves in Guyana by engaging with local communities living adjacent to mangrove areas and facilitating their participation in management and livelihood activities aimed at providing an alternative source of income for community members dependent on mangroves for their livelihoods. Communities were trained in alternative livelihoods such as beekeeping and provided with basic equipment to establish beekeeping in mangrove forested areas. Members were also trained in tourism and bird watching as another livelihood option as they conduct tours in the mangrove forest. Men and women are engaged at all levels of the restoration from planning to implementation and monitoring. Where seedling planting is used as an intervention and community seedling nurseries area established, families work together to collect seeds and grow health seedlings for planting. Volunteer groups, i.e. Village Mangrove Action Committees are established in restoration areas or vulnerable areas and their members trained in the importance of mangroves. These volunteers, 80% women, become the voice of the project in their villages by conducting awareness sessions in schools etc.

The willingness of community members living near or adjacent to mangrove forest or a potential restoration site to participate in restoration or protection activities is critical to success. The needs and aspirations of community members must be taken into consideration and initiatives that would enable them to earn a livelihood from sustainable management of the forest should be implemented. Education on the importance of the forest as coastal protection is also critical.

The participation of the local community in mangrove restoration and protection initiatives is one of the most important factors in the success and long-term sustainability of the program. Though there has been immense community participation at selected locations, one of the greatest challenges remains the commitment and participation of local communities. The Project is challenged to motivate residents at other intervention sites to participate in mangrove protection and awareness and to become involved in the monitoring of their coastal resources. The will to change old habits and action of dumping and illegal grazing still remains of great concern.

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Equitable inclusion of women in Marine Protected Area management

In co-governance of MPAs, defining who participates from the community will either limit or enable long-term success. Women and men have varying roles, priorities, needs and knowledge surrounding coastal resource management and will, therefore, contribute different ideas to and gain different benefits from MPA management. People of all genders, regardless of whether they derive direct income from fishing or not, should be equally included in capacity building and management opportunities for MPAs to fully capture community needs and priorities and foster widespread community support.

The existence of a community that intends to monitor and enforce fishing restrictions of an MPA is integral to success. Women and men in their varying roles can help to spread information about and enforce policies and will help reach a broader community. Additionally, support from donor organizations that value the inclusion of women and understand the local gender dynamics can help foster a shift of gender stereotypes and ensure women and men are included equally.

Some communities in the Philippines have had MPAs since the 1970's, and many of these were established with only male fishermen. This means that there are long-held stereotypes and local traditions that keep women from participating. In the case of Caticugan, these stereotypes created major barriers to women’s formal participation in MPA management, which limited their income and empowerment opportunities. Conversely, women in Maite and Bino-ongan were present and oftentimes led initiatives and management of MPAs, leading to new income-generating opportunities and effective preservation of ecosystem resources. As MPAs continue to be supported by global NGOs and paid for with overseas aid, evaluation frameworks used must integrate gender equality in order to fully assess the current gaps in women's participation. If a funding plan and evaluation framework does not include gender equality, then women whose lives will be impacted are less likely to support management.

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Adoption of innovative technology

In order to sustain their productive activities in the face of climate change and economic uncertainties, oyster farmers quickly adopted an innovative technology: new platforms for oysters’ growth. The characteristics of these platforms are that: a) they are more durable than the traditional ones, increasing the lifetime from 3 years to up to 25; b) they replace the use of local mangrove trees by synthetic materials; c) since they move up and down with the tide and water levels, they are more resistant to hydrological events.

CONANP set up a forum for exchange of innovative ideas between oyster producers;
evidence that the new platforms work in the field;
the capacity for local producers to associate and gather the required resources to pay for the new type of platforms;
awareness of climate change impacts.

The major lesson learnt was that working with the existing cooperatives can produce a powerful ally for conservation; in this case, it made possible the adoption of new techniques and regulations in the existing productive activities. It also made clear that it is possible to produce enough economic revenues for all members of the cooperative and, at the same time, preserve the surrounding natural resources. The oyster cooperative has been spreading a collective vision for sustainable management and use of natural resources in the Camichin area, a task that CONANP would not be able to perform by itself due to lack of staff and budget.

Implementation

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Using a flexible approach for defining conservation and production areas based on local knowledge

A distinctive characteristic of this reserve is that almost the whole of its territory is under either community, “ejidal”, or private ownership rather than federal control. CONANP had to take a different approach when working with communities on climate change adaptation issues; CONANP decided to work with an ecosystem-based perspective. This approach has required the flexible interpretation of federal regulations and institutions governing conservation and climate change mitigation policies. At the core of this flexibility has been the rejection of a strictly administrative polygon approach to define large conservation areas in which no productive activities can take place in the mangrove ecosystems. Open discussions and negotiations with the local communities have resulted in CONANP taking a flexible approach, which has used local knowledge to identify an ecosystem, and livelihood, relevant division of the mangroves into areas designated for pure conservation and for sustainable productive activities. Maintaining sustainable productive activities in the mangrove systems supports the long-term goal of changing community attitudes towards maintaining the mangrove systems as an integral component of community livelihoods.

1. Intensive dialogue & negotiation (before and after the establishment of the reserve) with local communities.

2. Listening and accepting the validity of local communities’ and field workers’ views when designing policies.

3. Willingness to change institutional regulations & approaches to accommodate diverse points of view and local knowledge.

4. A capacity to monitor the effectiveness of planned measures, and to be able to recognize when plans need to be changed with local community support.

1) It soon became clear that designating a conservation area solely based on an administratively pre-defined polygon was not going to come out as a successful conservation and management strategy, because the polygon: a) was not encompassing correctly the ecosystems and their connectivity; b) excluded the possibility of communities for generating a sense of belonging to the reserve, without which joint responsibility for its conservation cannot be possible.

2) Conservation and livelihoods are two sides of the same coin. In ecosystems in which communities live, you cannot have one without the other.

3) A balance between conservation and livelihoods was achieved through negotiation and open-mindedness on both sides: a smaller conservation area was accepted in return for stricter controls, and greater fisherman-led effort for maintaining a sustainable approach to productive activities in the rest of the reserve.

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Integrating payment programmes into a larger strategy to promote sustainable livelihoods and long-term ecosystem conservation

Fishing in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit

Ana Elisa Peña Del Valle Isla

Mangrove rehabilitation activities require significant investments of time and effort by local communities. Affording these investments might not be feasible for local communities who are usually involved in traditional activities to guarantee their livelihoods. By trying to understand the local dynamics, CONANP could coordinate its intervention: it was able to time its federally funded programme of payments for the fishermen in a manner that was compatible with local productive activities. CONANP designed a payment schedule that would pay local workers for their labour in mangrove rehabilitation and was also complementary to current traditional activities. This analysis prevented time overlaps, and any conflict or negative side-effect that could be derived from the payments scheme. In this case, the rehabilitation work and payments were set for the end of the shrimp fishing season, with the result that the local communities did not have to unnecessarily divide their time between various activities. This enabled local community members to maintain their income during the shrimp fishing season and earn an additional income from mangrove rehabilitation off-season.

a) Economic and human resources to be able to employ local people to carry out rehabilitation works;

b) use of local knowledge and fieldworkers’ expertise to understand working rhythms;

c) flexibility to adapt payment schemes according to local productive activities.

Payment schemes for environmental rehabilitation activities can be more successful when they take into account:

a) the fact that the ability to maintain a regular income source throughout the year is an important adaptive capacity for local communities;

b) that time is limited for local communities, and there will be more community engagement if rehabilitation activities do not collide with principle productive activities;

c) that such payment systems may not be sustainable in the long term (government budgets can fall; policies can change), so they should be subordinated to activities that generate a drive within the community for maintaining the ecosystems as a normal part of preserving their livelihoods.

Implementation

Local

Using natural processes in mangrove rehabilitation

Mangrove channels in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit

Ana Elisa Peña Del Valle Isla

When the goals of mangrove rehabilitation are subordinated to those of climate change mitigation and the creation of carbon sinks, a project can easily fall into the trap of equating effective rehabilitation with simple reforestation. It is important to consider that clear and well-maintained channels allow hydrological flows between salt and freshwater sources in a mangrove. This enables the ecosystem to find a natural balance that favours biodiversity. It also allows the movement of fish to and from the ecosystem in tune with the water flows, and facilitate the natural expansion of the mangroves via greater seed dispersal. Improving hydrological flows may include the removal of mangrove trees in key places, or the absence of them in others. In Marismas Nacionales, the rehabilitation project went through a steep learning curve that included waste of time and resources, resulting from a traditional approach of reforestation, involving raising, planting and caring for seedlings. After 2-3 years, the policy was changed to one of creating and maintaining channels and flows between the lagoons in the reserve, and thus encouraging a natural system's rehabilitation.

a) A committed local community workforce who is convinced of the benefits of rehabilitating the mangroves, and does not do it just for the payment;

b) highly trained fieldworkers, with scientific knowledge, who can guide the effective rehabilitation of mangroves, and quickly modify their approach if needed;

c) a sustainable, intelligently targeted public programme of payments for local communities;

d) understanding the pressures and root causes of the mangrove system’s problems.

a) Without good technical, scientific guidance it is not possible to rehabilitate mangrove ecosystems in a manner that is sustainable, or sustainable for local livelihoods.

b) When goals of mangrove rehabilitation are subordinated to those of climate change mitigation (carbon sink creation), it can be easy to confuse good rehabilitation with simply increasing the number of trees.

c) Creating and maintaining channels within the mangrove system in order to facilitate natural flows between salt and freshwater sources is a key component for reducing salinization problems, as well as for maintaining mangrove's health.

d) Problems for mangrove systems can be exacerbated by climate events such as tropical storms that destroy parts of the mangroves. However, chronic problems can be caused by upstream activities, such as a reduction in river flows due to water over-extraction for agricultural purposes. This increases the salinity problems of the mangrove systems.

Implementation

Monitoring

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Transforming perceptions on ecosystem-livelihood connection

Members of the local fishing community in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit

Ana Elisa Peña Del Valle Isla

Local communities have not always welcomed, in every case, the creation of new protected areas. It is important to raise awareness among local communities about the connection between ecosystems conservation and local livelihoods. To do so, the authorities need to be able to create a sense of identity and belonging towards the protected ecosystems, rather than a sense of exclusion. The solution in Marismas Nacionales, Nayarit Biosphere Reserve is a long-term effort with intensive community support and mentoring by CONANP fieldworkers. The strategy has been focused on changing perceptions of the community. This approach has had the additional effect of influencing the institutions that govern the protected area, generating a better shared understanding of effective and sustainable support for both mangrove rehabilitation and local livelihoods. In this way, the community and CONANP´s staff have joined forces to ensure that local needs are met by rehabilitating the mangroves from a more territorially, and livelihood, coherent perspective, rather than an administrative one. Changed perceptions have become a more important driver of positive community action than just payments for ecosystem services or subsidies.

a) Existing cooperatives to lead change processes on behalf of communities;

b) capacity to monitor benefits from diverse initiatives;

c) good management of the NGO network and permanent presence of field workers for capacity development;

d) financial resources to nurture fishermen’s organizational capabilities up to the point where they are self-organized;

e) open-minded government authorities.

a) An important factor in changing minds of local communities is the involvement of women and children in awareness raising, planning and negotiation activities;

b) creating alternatives for migrating from the reserve helps to underscore the importance of maintaining local ecosystems;

c) being able to demonstrate quick and tangible benefits as a result of ecosystem maintenance or through the introduction of sustainable practices helps enormously to convince communities. Strengthening sustainable fishing practices can provide this type of quick results.

Monitoring

Documentation and dissemination of results

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Non-consumptive income opportunities from a Marine Protected Area

In Siquijor, communities who accept responsibility for monitoring an MPA receive income from tourism dollars, charging a fee to snorkel, scuba dive, and take photos or videos within the MPA. Another income stream is from development projects by the local natural resources agency. For example, the community receives fingerlings and bamboo to make fish cages for small aquaculture projects and can then sell the fish when they have reached market size. Providing income opportunities outside of overfishing and unsustainable marine resource use ensures that communities that are dependent on marine resources will be able to continue maintaining their livelihoods while conserving the ecosystem.

There must be tourists coming to the area and/or sustainable development projects that do not decrease water quality or remove resources from the MPA.

Some communities that were interviewed are receiving more tourists to their MPAs because they have put colorful signs along the roads to direct visitors to their beach or advertised in hotels and on boats visited by tourists. The communities were interested in developing a tourist map to highlight a specific fish or coral species in each MPA to encourage visitors to drive around the entire island and visit each beach to better distribute tourism dollars around the island.

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Gender integration guidelines/toolkit

CI has developed general guidelines to help conservation practitioners ask questions about gender within conservation initiatives, and develop practical and socially-appropriate responses to gender gaps/inequalities.

The lead author has worked with the management board of the Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape since inception and therefore has good knowledge of the actors and local context. She also serves as a gender focal point within the organization so has some expertise in the gender-conservation field. Another enabling condition is the general openness to gender equality principles within the Philippines.

The guidelines are very general, and it is important for the local user to identify the best/most relevant areas in which to gather information. It is imperative that the user is familiar with the local culture and context.

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gender_integration_checklist.pdf

Integration of gender recommendations into management plan

This analysis and recommendations took place as a new management plan was being developed, so the recommendations had the ability to be directly inserted into the new plan.

The new 5-year management plan was being developed by the management board, and the CI staff who conducted the analysis has been an integral part of the MMPL management board since inception. This allowed her to directly present her recommendations to the rest of the board for consideration.

To be most impactful, it is important to have an opening/opportunity to directly integrate recommendations, and good connections with those making decisions.

Planning phase

Review phase

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