Ecosystem-based approaches should inherently incorporate alternative sustainable livelihood packages that highlight the value of conserving ecosystems. Benefits should respond to immediate livelihood needs to encourage active community engagement. To be effective, community capacity building should be continuous and regularly updated to provide access, knowledge and skills of relevant innovations and new technologies. The nomination of a champion, or champions, helps promote the initiative and encourages more community members and organisations to engage.

It is important that the community has buy-in and ownership of the project. Understanding the project’s concept and agreement with its mechanisms is a key to success. To ensure smooth project planning and implementation, a clear leveling off of expectations between communities, local government and service providers, such as Conservation International, with regards to details and mechanisms should be established from the beginning. Women function as key agents of change in community natural resource management, innovation, fishing and care giving. Thus, women’s key role for climate change and ecosystem based adaptation should be carefully considered. In case of Solonay, most of the active participants are women.

People who benefit from the habitats, species and sites (and the services they provide) should be involved in managing them and making decisions about the project. Vulnerability assessments should be done at both, the municipal and village level. Results of vulnerability assessments should be disseminated to key local and national policy makers and local chief executives and community leaders so they can take action to address key vulnerabilities.

It is very often difficult to guarantee that the officers trained actually stay in their jobs for a sufficient timeframe to actually be able to implement the skills gained during the trainings. Therefore it is advisable to include a more systemic approach that includes e.g. institutional capacity building in the respective agency.

It is often difficult to sufficiently link the FADs deployment and evaluation with ongoing monitoring programs e.g. from conservation NGOs on impacts to existing MPAs. But this is crucial to actually assess the impacts and expected changes in the use and management of coastal resources.

Local knowledge has often been underestimated however; most communities have an acute awareness of, and concern for their marine environment. These views should be considered when developing management undertakings. The success of community consultations depend on the facilitators. Facilitators should be equipped with the appropriate skills such as cultural, traditional, confident, encouraging individuals to give their opinion and good listeners than teachers. Facilitators should never dominate discussions or express their opinions – neutrality is of key importance. Awareness materials and programmes should consider its target audience, how it is delivered and who the message is aimed. Sometimes messages are defensive when interpreting the local situation. Community has ownership or assumed control over the managed area or fishery.

Best to have a team of at least three, so that the work does not become overwhelming, and so diverse talents and interests are available to the team.   The ideal mix has someone who is well-embedded in government, who can secure approvals and budgets, someone who is creative and able to use basic tools for design, and someone who is well-accepted by the community who knows how to engage and facilitate.  They should all know how to mobilize volunteers, and have some basic skills in project management.

The goal is to provide campaign teams with enough resources and inspiration so that they can run campaigns themselves.  The tools themselves do not need to be perfect, as they will always be used in different ways.  As long as the basic concepts and outcomes of an activity are clear, teams can take the guidance and make it their own.