The beach patrols occur at night to collect data and make sure the female turtles are not disturbed and slaughtered. The patrols are undertaken by 2 to 4 community persons groups which are led by a more experienced person of the Caretta Association. We collect data such as animal length, width, presence of external parasites, injuries, and localization of the nest. The data is collected and entered in a form to produce a further report and publication. Our constant presence on the beach is also a message to move away the poachers.

We regularly organize beach cleaning-up campaigns at weekends, especially during vacation periods with students, to collect plastic bags and garbage. We communicate with the community through the local community radio and public events.

Fisherman are addressed in their work place in informal conversations aiming to raise awareness on the impacts of their behavior. They are also regularly invited to participate in training sessions in which scientific data is shared. This expresses the need of changes in their behavior. We share scientific data such as conservation status of loggerhead turtles as an endangered species due to plastic ingestion, ocean pollution and other human actions (UICN). We also share information such as the prediction by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum that “there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050” if we do not change our behavior.

The community is divided into 2 groups, children and adults. The children regularly participate in beach cleaning campaigns on weekends and help taking sea turtles hatchlings to the sea. Adults participate in harder work such as beach night patrols and collecting plastic from the sea.

The results of the project have been shared with Belize’s Ministry of Forest, Fisheries and Sustainable Development (including Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute and National Climate Change Office) and the Ministry of Tourism to facilitate replication, and uptake of the process and recommendations. The results have also been shared with local communities, local NGOs, land developers and the private tourism sector to build capacity, awareness and implementation of greener landscape practices within the coastal zone.

During the planning phase extensive formative research informs the Social Marketing, as well as the Technical Assistance components of a campaign. Research sets the baselines that allow the assessment of social and conservation impacts following a campaign. Qualitative research (e.g. focus groups, observation, in-depth interviews) is geared towards understanding target audience opinions, feelings, concerns and perceived benefits of current as well as desired management practices. Qualitative research is about creating a casual conversation with and between participants to establish a comfortable relationship, and to reveal underlying information unobtainable through quantitative research. Quantitative research surveys capture specific answers to specific questions to describe demography, identify media preferences, and assess the current state of knowledge, attitude, communication and readiness of target audiences regarding a certain behavior change. Both components ultimately inform campaign decisions like objectives, respective activities, materials, and messages for both Social Marketing and Technical Assistance.

To identify the intervention priority areas for the recovery of rice fields and mangrove restoration, it was necessary to rely on the populations’ intimate knowledge of their environment and the history of its evolution in relation to climate change. The main working tool was kite-photographing, which provided an overview of the land components, as the basis for defining land development priorities. It is a cost-effective technique which can be easily implemented locally, allowing a high level of stakeholder participation.

Restoration measures – including the reforestation of degraded mangrove areas with native species, the restoration of hydrological conditions and the removal of invasive exotic species – are implemented and the effects of these efforts continuously monitored.

Unlike Social Marketing, the Technical Assistance (TA) is based on more personal interactions with the fishers at the fishing group level (cooperatives or associations) or at the individual fisher level. This allows the issues to be addressed with more detail and depth, although larger groups of people are not reached. The overarching goal is to promote fishers´ support for conservation actions (e.g., creation of FRZ, adoption of sustainable fishing practices). Technical assistance tools are targeted towards building capacity in coastal communities and removing technical barriers, emphasizing leadership among fishers to improve the management of fisheries resources. Examples of technical assistance activities include one-on-one conversations, fishing trips, fisher exchanges among sites, formal training in specific fishing methods through workshops and courses, informal training, meetings with the authorities, follow-up with administrative and legal processes (e.g., fishing concession/permit renewal) and providing organizational materials (e.g., file cabinets, blackboards, etc.).

The pressures of hunting and logging are gradually mounting in most of the forest areas resulting in forest degradation and decline in wildlife. In this backdrop, community conserved areas become attractive targets for certain segments of the village community and people from neighboring villages involved in illegal hunting of wildlife and exploitation of natural resources. There are also poaching reports of musk deer for glands (or musk pods) and the Himalayan black bear for gall bladder, paws and skins. Though management committees of the respective community conserved area frame the rules and regulations preventing hunting, illegal logging and over extraction of medicinal plants or associate non-timber forest products, continuous monitoring is needed to ensure that these are implemented. Keeping this issue in mind, the management committee identifies at least ten youths who are responsible to patrol their conserved area following human/ animal trails, monitor illegal movement of any suspect, dismantle traps and collect periodic data on biodiversity. This component helps monitoring forest and wildlife as well as record biodiversity information on the conserved area supporting future management planning.