In most cases, SeaSketch is used to support large-scale planning efforts where governments have mandated the establishment of a marine spatial plan and where broad stakeholder involvement is essential. In these cases, SeaSketch must be licensed by a lead agency or partner. SeaSketch may be used to visualize geospatial data as map services, collect to information via surveys, sketch and discuss plans. If plans are to be evaluated using analytics, geoprocessing services and reports must be developed in our lab. Note that a free license is available for educational institutions to use SeaSketch for strictly educational purposes.

In January 2022, we will release the next version of SeaSketch which will be entirely free and open source. Just as with the current version, many of the features within SeaSketch may be configured with minimal knowledge of or experience with GIS. The analytics and reports will be run on lambda and encoded using programming languages such as Javascript. Owners of projects may, therefore, set up their own SeaSketch project – from beginning to end – without intervention from our lab. It should be noted, however, that the geoprocessing and reporting framework, though free and open source, will require significant programming experience.

Local capacity development and awareness raising is at the heart of the Soqotra Heritage Project which includes both training of heritage professionals and of members of local communities. Building on existing local capacity is fundamental for the long term implementation of effective conservation and management efforts with particular focus on ensuring the inclusion of heritage in sustainable local development as well as in ensuring the sustainability of the local communities.

Between 2018-2020 the project team members met at the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage in Manama, Bahrain, four times for training workshops on recognizing, documenting and recording cultural heritage on Soqotra. Training in documenting cultural heritage included detailed survey methods for a range of sites, including specialist training in recording rock art and in the use of Kite Aerial Photography. Recording intangible heritage included detailed training in cinematography to enable the full detail of traditional practices to be brought to life. Further training in education and awareness techniques, presentation, and story-telling also featured strongly. Additionally, interested members of the Soqotri community have been directly involved in documentation of cultural heritage assets.

The Soqotra Heritage Project is a coordinated by the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants (part of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) in cooperation with the Freie Universität Berlin, the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH), the Senckenburg Research Institute, the Soqotra Culture and Heritage Association, the Yemeni Environmental Protection Authority, the General Organisation for Antiquities and Museums (GOAM), Carey Tourism (sustainable tourism partner) and Stories as Change (production of visual storytelling and project' films). Additionally, the project benefits from the initial support of the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport through the British Council Cultural Protection Fund. Further funds are being acquired for follow on programmes.

The key element of the partnership established for the Soqotra Heritage Project is its interdisciplinary character that brings together different experiences in the field of cultural and natural heritage conservation, including the intangible cultural heritage of Soqotri communities.

The partnership is a fundamental element of the project, which through its interdisciplinary character seeks to enhance the biodiversity focus through increasing knowledge about the not yet fully explored cultural heritage of the Soqotra Archipelago.

SITMo has developed partnership with local scientific institutions like the Ifugao State University, which is working with the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) designation and has established the Ifugao Rice Terraces GIAHS Research and Development Center. Furthermore, connected to this initiative, SITMo is working in cooperation with the Ifugao State University and the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Chengchi University of Taiwan in the project “Center for Taiwan-Philippines Indigenous Knowledge, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Development”, where partner institutions are exploring together the sustainable safeguarding and transmission of their Indigenous knowledge through exchange and collaborative research, which would enable local communities to develop sustainably. A long-term partnership with the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has been established in 2012 to undertake archaeological investigations in the terraces, leading to the establishment of community heritage galleries and publication of scientific articles.

A transcendental element is education as a practice of freedom for the conservation of nature. Through horizontal workshops, we encourage students in megadiverse rural sites to strengthen their vision of the world in order to transform it, and thus reincorporate nature as an intrinsic element of societies, based on ethics and respect for all beings with which they coexist.

Educators become part of the learners' society and together we seek the process of decolonization of the reductionist thinking that considers nature as a thing, an object of the market, something that can be destroyed.

We transform this erroneous vision of nature with an educational model that seeks to reincorporate an ontological and ethical value to nature.

From the periphery, education incorporates the knowledge of the other.

According to Costa et al, “Brazil was the first country in the world to implement a National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production”. It is therefore worthy of notice that the Policy has been widely implemented in the country, succeeding as a good example of a multi-sectoral public policy, despite the challenges it still faces. Furthermore, PNAPO has served as inspiration for Brazilian States (such as Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás, São Paulo and Amazonas), the Federal District and Municipalities to elaborate their own state and municipal policies, following the guidelines of the National Policy and adapting them to their own realities and necessities. Hence PNAPO is likely suitable to be transferred to other situations.

TEEB, known for its pioneering research on the economic values of nature in 2010, brought together more than 150 experts from 33 countries to deliver a strong and urgent message to the global community on the need for a transformation of our agriculture and food systems that is sustainable, equitable, and healthy. The TEEBAgriFood initiative brings together scientists, economists, policymakers, business leaders, and farmers’ organizations to agree on how to frame, undertake and use holistic evaluations of agricultural systems, practices, products, and policy scenarios against a comprehensive range of impacts and dependencies across food value chains.