Local | PANORAMA

West and Central Africa

Enhancing National Commitment to FLR and Establishing a Conducive Policy Framework for Restoration and Sustainable Forest Management in Sao Tome and Principe

Adriana

Vidal

Creating an Operational National Platform for Forest Landscape Restoration to Support and Steer FLR

Empowering the Production of the National Forest and Landscape Restoration Plan to Inform and Guide Forest Management, Conservation, and Restoration Initiatives

Producing FLR Policy Improvement Recommendations Based on Gap Analysis of FLR Policies, Laws, and Regulations

Extension services for SLM practices through Community-based organisations

Implementing SLM practices leads to economic benefits for farmers compared to practicing business as usual. Without information and training however, the risk of reversal of the carbon storage through a change in land use during the crediting period is high. Through long-term extension services on various SLM practices, participating farmers are equipped with the knowledge they need to continue the practices throughout the whole project period and potentially beyond and are empowered to estimate consequences of different types of land-use. All participating farmers receive these bi-annual consultations throughout the whole project duration of 20 years. They are independent of their land-size which means that benefits are distributed more equitable and weaker households in terms of carbon sequestration and size even benefit disproportionally. The extension services are provided by community-based organisations, which assure the availability of the services long-term. In addition, organisations that are locally based can build stronger connections to the farmers and thus gain greater trust which is, not only but to a big part, needed to provide assistance when it comes to transferring the farmer’s rights on the stored carbon to the local coordination entity (in this case SCCS) so that it can be sold as a carbon credit.

Existing structures for extension services ease setting up the regular long-term extension services financed by the carbon revenues.

Participation in extension services on SLM contribute significantly to implementation rates of SLM practices on smallholder farms in Western Kenya. Supporting farmer groups in the procurement of inputs such as seeds for cover crops and placing an emphasis on farmer-to-farmer approaches can increase adoption rates of SLM practices.

Implementing SLM practices leads to an improvement of the economic performance of the smallholder farmers by increased and diversified income, compared to farmers practicing business as usual.

Extension services on SLM as part of the carbon project should focus not only on agroforestry practices for carbon sequestration in biomass, but also carbon sequestration in soils by implementing a more diverse range of SLM practices should be promoted. They provide crucial co-benefits for the farmers by increased yields. 

Implementation

Local

Southeast Asia

Provision of Livelihood Benefit To Local Communities Through Co-Manage of Forest Reserve

Rio Peter

Gatulik

Southeast Asia

Provision of Livelihood Benefit To Local Communities Through Co-Manage of Forest Reserve

Rio Peter

Gatulik

Identifying high-priority restoration opportunities and interventions through participatory ROAM processes

Through participatory Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) processes, TRI was able to outline restoration potential by identifying high-priority restoration opportunities, noting feasible restoration intervention types, and assessing finance and investment options. Activities identified included promoting the production of ecological charcoal, developing a plant production sector, and constructing water points in restoration sites. TRI conducted these ROAM assessments in three pilot sub-national landscapes, Waza, Mbalmayo, and Douala-Edea, where local and national stakeholders have been engaged. Pre-validation workshops occurred in each landscape with representatives of government ministries, local council representatives, local community representatives, and community chiefs, while a final report explaining the findings of the assessments was finalized in October, 2021 through a national validation workshop that included representatives from government ministries, international organizations, as well as local representatives and chiefs. Once finalized, a leaflet with the main findings was shared with stakeholders to quickly disseminate information and ensure those who do not have access to the internet can understand the ROAM assessments.

An inclusive and participatory assessment process allowed for findings and recommendations to appropriately consider and represent all of the present and relevant stakeholders. Comprehensive stakeholder consultation meetings included traditional chiefs, heads of community development institutions, local council representatives, women and youth associations, and individual innovators. They covered the needs of restoration, best uses of local knowledge, existing experience gaps, and ongoing restoration activities.

Overall, the participatory ROAM processes provided information on FLR opportunities and options. Through the assessments, TRI Cameroon learned what the priority restoration areas are, which restoration intervention types should be prioritized, what the costs and benefits of the different restoration types are, what the finance and investment options for restoration are, as well as what strategies exist for addressing major policy and institutional bottlenecks in the three pilot landscapes. These findings also presented lessons to be learned around how FLR actions could be modified in implementation on the field and provided real from-the-field data that could be considered in the elaboration of policy tools. Additionally, as one of the first activities undertaken by TRI Cameroon, the ROAM assessments were part of the learning by doing process and provided insight in how the participatory process could be better done in other landscapes.

Implementation

Local

Capacity building and informed decision-making for the monitoring of species

Domain of the male Bonelli’s eagle according to GPS locations

IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation / Francesc Parés & Rafael Bosch

Domain of the female Bonelli’s eagle according to GPS locations

IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation / Francesc Parés & Rafael Bosch

The implementation of the technical architecture and monitoring programme has ensured the availability of a big database of information both of the species and its environment. Data availability is key to ensure that park staff (managers, rangers, technicians, etc.) makes informed decisions when it comes to territory and species management strategies. Besides, the local design of the monitoring programme and the parameters within it, has increased the capacity of the park staff not only to manage it, but also to improve it and eventually apply it to the monitoring of different species and even other phenomena.

It is fundamental to ensure a co-design process, so that park technicians are not only the beneficiaries and end-users of the solution, but are also able to own and self-adapt the monitoring programme. To that end, an initial diagnosis of the capacities of the staff needs to be done, followed by specific training targeting the weaknesses that have been identified.

Currently, camera data is stored within the cameras themselves and technicians have to access and download the data manually. In order to fully implement this architecture, it is desirable to integrate a dual data storage device using both the device’s storage and a cloud service. The goal is to complete this integration to allow for an automatic process that reduces the time allocated to the monitoring process.

Monitoring

Local

Acoustic monitoring and analyses

Jaguar Spectrogram

Tech4Nature Mexico

The acoustic component of the project holds special significance, as it played a pivotal role in the automatic detection of over 138 species, with 95 of them being integrated into our pattern matching algorithms. This forms a robust foundation for the continuous monitoring of the region over the upcoming years, allowing us to observe how various environmental factors influence species presence

Our success in species detection was made possible through the data collected from the devices and the strategic partnerships we established, particularly with Rainforest Connection. Additionally, local experts played a crucial role in validating species presence.

The integrated passive acoustic monitoring combined with AI techniques allowed for the identification of 95 species. There is a positive correlation between species richness and low-canopy forest cover. Furthermore, the soundscape analyses revealed variations tied to different seasons and habitat types. However, the pilot encountered the challenge of limited training data for rare species. To mitigate this, we conducted multiple rounds of sensor deployment across various seasons.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Arbimon dashboard

North America

The Sustainable Yucatán Plan 2030

Ana

Quinzaños

North America

Provision Electric Vehicles in Yellowstone

Jose

Madero

International Symposium

The symposium was guided by Foreign Affairs Office of Hainan Province, Department of Natural Resources and Planning of Hainan Province, Department of Ecology and Environment of Hainan Province, Forestry Department of Hainan Province; and supported by the big data lab of Research Institute for Eco-civilization, CASS, the research think tank of Research Institute for Eco-civilization, CASS, Institute of Zoology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University, Advanced Interdisciplinary Institute of Environment and Ecology, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Hainan University, Hainan Normal University, Federation of Hainan Academicians, the Sanya Research Base of the Internation Centre for Bamboo and Rattan.

The two-day symposium focused on the theme of “conservation of the flagship species of tropical rainforests-gibbons” “conservation of tropical rainforests’biodiversity, and was held in a combination of online and offline activities.

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the establishment of the Hainan Institute of National Park and the 8th international gibbon day (24th October, 2022), the Forestry Department of Hainan Province, Wuzhishan municipai government, Hainan green island tropical rainforest public welfare foundation, and Hainan Institute of National Park co-sponsored the “2022 tropical rainforest international conservation symposium” themed “protecting tropical rainforest·realizing ecological values”, which was supported by Eco Foundation Global (EFG).

The Conference reached the following concrete results:

Signing of the GGN Charter (Global Gibbon Conservation Network Charter).
l Announcement of the establishment of the first GGN Secretariat at the Hainan Institute of National Park, and the global launch of the GGN Logo.
This is the first of China’s first five national parks, the first domestic conservation research organisations initiated the establishment of international organisations for the protection of cherished species protection, which is of historical significance.
Publish the Global Gibbon Network the declaration of conservation in the form of GGN joining hands with IUCN SSA, with the gibbon as the representative.
Introducing the List of Priority Species for Conservation in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park with the case of KBAs, and officially releasing the List of Priority Species for Conservation in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park.

Implementation

Local