The participation of civil society in co-management

Civil society acts as the driving force and articulator of the biodiversity conservation and nature tourism development proposal.

On the other hand, participation and co-management ensure a broad base of society to implement the proposal.

Local NGOs know the reality and problems of the area and are in horizontal contact with the inhabitants. In addition to identifying the problems, they can and should contribute to their solution.

In general, civil society maintains continuity of proposals over time, while political actors alternate due to electoral changes.

On the other hand, civil society maintains its focus and centers its interest on the project, while the authorities must attend to a number of issues that dilute their attention.

Notwithstanding the above, CSOs can make contributions in cultural, artistic and sports issues.

At the beginning, the loss of power implicit in co-management generated some discomfort among political actors. It is difficult to accept the interference of third parties who are not elected by popular vote.

It was also difficult for the representatives of civil society to determine exactly the limits of their powers and not to exceed them.

Pluralism and non-partisan group action, even if each individual maintains his or her own preferences and political activities, has served to reduce the fears of political actors and to gain their respect and that of the community.

Biodiversity in land use planning instruments

in order to be feasible, planning of protected areas and socio-ecosystems must have an impact on land use planning instruments.

The inclusion of land use planning in nature conservation management, risk management and public health has already been mentioned.

They are not synonyms: 1) ecosystem planning with land use planning, 2) ecosystem is not equal to territory.

All land use planning should be environmental.

In order to integrate protected areas into land use planning, it is necessary to have an integral vision and analysis of the territory, therefore they must be identified and contribute to the management of ecosystem articulation, CBD programs, UNESCO and of course the aspirations, visions and own forms of conception and regulation of the territories of the ethnic and local communities.

Synergy and complementarity between approaches for effective territorial management of biodiversity

In order to address the challenges faced by society in social, economic, environmental and cultural terms, commitments have been adopted at the global level and subscribed to by States in different agendas, each with particular intervention approaches (rights, ecosystemic, urban-regional, disaster prevention and risk management and/or climate change). which of these approaches is appropriate for effective territorial management of biodiversity and social inclusion? All. The reality of the territories is diverse, complex and has very specific problems and potentials, which require cooperative, concurrent, complementary and multi-scale work of social and institutional actors to harmonize and implement the actions proposed in the planning instruments, in such a way that they respond to the identified needs, in order to prevent and manage socio-environmental conflicts, advance in the conservation of nature and human wellbeing.Combining rights, ecosystemic, urban-rural, risk management and climate change approaches is necessary to manage territories in an integral and pertinent manner.

Ratification, compliance with commitments Sendai Framework, Convention on Biological Diversity, Climate Change Convention, New Urban Agenda, ILO Convention 169. Sound Institutionality and Systems of: Disaster Prevention and Attention and Risk Management, National Environmental, Protected Areas, Climate Change, Cities. Knowledgeable and experienced personnel. Existence of Special Inter-Institutional Committee of Colombia's Land Management Commission since 2012. There are agreements between National Parks, environmental authorities, ethnic communities and sectors.

Colombia is a multi-territory, where different concepts of territory coexist: national state (unitary republic, decentralized in territorial entities, where it exercises sovereignty); indigenous ethnic (there are 115 ethnic groups, each one amalgamates ancestry, origin, cosmovision, relationship with mother earth); ethnic black, Afro-Colombian, Palenquero and Raizal communities where ancestors, nature, the river, the sea determine solidarity behavior; border territory where ecosystems and culture transcend the political administrative boundaries of nations. Territorial governance requires dialogue between governance (protected areas, water, natural resources and food), towards legitimacy, synergy between processes, governance, public policy relevance, participation, dialogue of knowledge and good living. Environmental, ethnic, peasant, urban and rural planning should dialogue to achieve viable territories. Co-leadership, alliances, cooperative work between environmental authorities, researchers, academia, territorial entities, community leaders, institutional sectors.

Virtual Reality / Recorded Reality

Thousands of volunteer coral reef observers in Colombia report daily with photos and videos. We need to verify reports when they are early warnings to avoid negative impacts. We require specialized equipment for the realization of Virtual Reality and Recorded Reality (underwater videographers, 360 degree cameras and accessories, viewers, editing and projection equipment with internet connection in remote and urban locations where the demonstration project is implemented with healthy reef memories. We plan to share images in the local community, to the whole country and to foreigners in the world so they can compare what is happening in these coral reefs and the rest of the Caribbean region. The Virtual Reality / Recorded Reality experience to people who do not know the reefs / or cannot visit them engages them in environmentally friendly behavioral changes in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 14 and the Aichi Targets 13 (Maintain Genetic Biodiversity) and 16 (Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Diversity).(Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to be in force and operational, in accordance with national legislation).

We currently rely on the volunteer work of dive operators (3 dive stores at each Epseranza Point and almost 2000 international volunteers who report daily, worldwide, their observations on coral reefs who have dive cameras for amateurs.

Our successful environmental campaigns to educate by leading by example:

#CoralReefsOptimism.

#GlobalBehaviorChange

#GlobalBehaveOURchange

#LeadingByExample

#LeadingByExample

#OceanAction14819

With our pledge to the United Nations: Ocean Action No. 14819 we have engaged key decision makers such as the former president of Colombia to stop a megaproject that was about to dredge Varadero Colombia. Today that coral reef still exists and is resilient with 80% coral health. We also stopped an oil exploration and gas extraction that would have affected the Capurgana-Cabo Tiburon reefs whose coral health is at 70%.

With the current government it has been more difficult because their priority is development and they justify it with restoration projects microfragmenting coral colonies cloning colonies asexually. So we need to convince decision makers with Remembered Reality and Virtual Reality to value the life that exists even underwater and its biodiversity by sexual reproduction.

Share to the world the success of the Bottom Up Protection scheme

Point Esperanza was declared with the community of artisanal fishermen and inhabitants of villages near the reefs who are the guardians. Dive operators are reporting their daily observations to the Observatory. We need to demonstrate at a global, national and local level how to monitor with 360 degree videos so that they can interact in Virtual Reality.

Our methodology is based on a combination of Waterfall and Agile is to clearly identify the concrete objectives as well as general ideas given by the stakeholders that guide the implementation of the project to obtain the expected results to improve the effectiveness of the conservation of the Colombian Caribbean Coastal Reefs. The second thing is to evaluate with measurement indicators what is already working. And what we achieve is to involve the community and increase governance by improving the behavior of ecological, social and economic indicators. We will also apply the Agile methodology because it is considered one of the most interactive, since we already have experience in the evaluation of results, we can intervene to improve any phase of the project that requires flexibility in the adjustment, which reduces the complexity, and therefore, the risk.

Engagement of the local community and environmentally friendly sustainable dive operators. Local coordination to remove trammel nets left behind by illegal fishermen from other areas. Working with the support of the National Navy. National Natural Parks from the Central Government are in the process of declaring the inclusion of a neighboring sanctuary: Playona. The ICRI Colombia Foundation nominated this marine area to be a Marine Heritage site before UNESCO. The Government is evaluating this possibility.

Resilience protection works and coral reefs, from which local threats such as illegal fishing are eliminated and oil exploration is prevented, recover without difficulty.

Village Saving and Loan Scheme and External Partnerships

The Village Savings and Loan Scheme is an IPaCoPA's sustainability strategy where members in their self-manage Groups meet regularly to save their money in a safe space and access small loans from the money collected among themselves to invest in livelihood projects at household level such as Agriculture and Solar energy. Because most individual members lack prerequisites to access loans from financial institutions, the VSLA scheme helps members to easily access finances and secure soft loans under group guarantorship. This supplements TUA's efforts to implement various aspects of the IPaCoPA initiative and to sustain the TUA's already supported projects such as looking after the trees planted and setting up kitchen gardens by households. With our external partners,  key of them who include the District Local Government, UNDP, SAI Group UK, and Jade Products Ltd, we have been able to get endorsements, Capacity trainings, Digital Platforms such as Project Management systems and access to e-commerce, Funding (forexample from UNDP-Y4BF to support 500 youth in commercial farming of Chilli), and other resources which makes IPaCoPA operate in complete ecosystem. 

  1. Existence of clear objectives aligned to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that interest other organisations/Firms with similar or related objectives, and or philanthropic about what we intend to achieve through our objectives. 
  2.  The zeal and enthusiasm by the team leader and the board to search for relevant partners and express interest for partnership. 
  3. Access to and ability to use internet enhanced with an organisational website “www.treeugandaacademy.com
  4. Upholding the organisational principles and values.
  1. Building trust with partners and also determining the trustworthiness of those whom you partner with is paramount to sustain relevant and lasting partnerships. Concisely it’s important to develop clear agreements, be flexible and understand your partner’s language.   
  2. Partnership is a learning process therefore you need to be open order to learn from other partners, particularly local partners in areas where project activities are being implemented. Local partners have a lot to teach about the community needs and local context and how to develop and create more sustainable results.
  3. Failures on some partnerships is inevitable, in case partnership fails, it is important to assess why the partnership failed, share and learn from those failures, reiterate and incorporate the lessons learned into the next partnership.  
  4. The success of our organisation and the IPaCoPA solution ain particular relies on strong partnerships. Developing a partnership mindset based on relationships is far important because even when the funded activities end, the relationship continues and there is an opportunity for sustainable support.
RFCx Hardware

RFCx has created project-specific solutions for monitoring biodiversity and detecting illegal activities. Our hardware offerings include the RFCx Guardian and the RFCx Edge, both with specific strengths and goals in mind. 

Guardian: A device which streams acoustic data to the cloud and provides real-time monitoring. Guardians consist of a custom board, weatherproof box, antenna, microphone, and solar panels adapted to collect the light that makes its way through the canopy.

 

Edge: An acoustic logging device that listens for sound from audible into ultrasonic frequencies, and records uncompressed audio to SD cards. They are easy to install and can be configured by an app. They are used for in-depth short-term biodiversity assessments.

Every new project site has challenges, and we have been deploying an entirely new version of the Guardian since October 2020. We have been learning much about some of the nuances of the device. For example, we learned that in European environments we need additional solar panels in order to capture the low winter light. 

Huawei Cloud AI and Tools

Our AI model for chainsaw detections are modified and strengthened with support through our partnership with Huawei, and all data collected in our Huawei-sponsored projects is stored on the Huawei Cloud. Huawei has cooperated with RFCx to develop more accurate intelligent algorithm models based on Huawei's advanced artificial intelligence service (Huawei Cloud AI) and tools (ModelArts) to achieve more accurate identification of illegal forest activity (the sounds of chainsaws, vehicles etc.). In addition, Huawei is helping RFCx build intelligent models that detect and analyze the sounds of fauna, providing information about their habitat, threats, and even life habits, helping local partners protect endangered species.

RFCx's partnership with Huawei, including being granted usage of the Huawei Cloud for data storage and analysis, has enabled us to expand and refine our offerings like never before. Huawei and RFCx have worked together to develop innovative platforms that include equipment collection, storage services, and intelligent analytics.

 

Pursuing strong corporate partnerships, like Huawei, allows us to more efficiently tackle challenges through their support and tools. Huawei has enabled high precision models,which will significantly reduces the rate of alert false positives.

 

Raising awareness about wildlife conservation

Conservation behaviors  are considered essential actions that tremendously influence ecosystems. Environmental behaviors are essential to ecological conservation and to environmental protection.It is important to involve the citizens in the domain of the conservation of the environment and biodiversity conservation. Our scientific studies revealed that the respondents reported a lower level of practices in the conservation of species. Solutions have been initiated, the most important of which is to educate the inhabitants to encourage them to conserve the species. Education sessions were carried out by the author and his collaborators during the two las decades with local inhabitants, students, associations and authorities. As part of their scientific research, they visited most of the villages. They discuss with people the ecological and economic roles of biodiversity and the importance of conserving it.

In recent years, the roles of wild animals in their ecosystems have been more widely appreciated and today, the management of biodiversity is a priority for the Moroccan Government, authorities, NGO and civil society.

The local people opinion plays a vital role in the conservation of biodiversity and environment. In general, when inhabitants understand the ecological and economic roles of wild fauna, they spontaneously participate in its conservation.

Terra Peninsular
Habitat Protection and Management
Habitat Adaptive Management
Awareness and Social Participation