In order for the NCA CR to be able to pay financial contributions to landowners, it was necessary to clarify compliance with budgetary rules. In order to ensure compliance with the budgetary rules, NCA CR built the entire system from scratch. The first step was to distinguish between commonly assigned management activities in nature conservation and to determine the usual costs for their implementation. Today, the results are unified in a code list of activities in nature conservation linked to costs of common management measures.

In order to be able to pay fees for agreed management with landowners, the legislation had to be approved allowing such expenditures from the state budget.

A lot of is still unknown about elephants’ dietary preferences and deterrence crops. To expand our knowledge and create replicable methodologies, we studied elephants’ preferences towards 18 different types of crops, the majority of which are of high combined economic value (food, essential oil, medicinal and bee fodder value) and suitable for growing in Southern African climates. The cafeteria-style experiments allowed us to evaluate several plants that have never been tested in terms of their palatability to elephants. Our results showed that herbs such as borage and rosemary with medicinal and aromatic properties, respectively, were strongly avoided together with bird’s eye chilli (a well-known elephant deterrent crop). We found that lemon grass and sunflowers, presented as whole fresh plants to the elephants, were edible to the elephants. This is surprising, as both plant types have been described as unpalatable to both Asian and African elephants alike.

According to our overall scoring system, four food types proved best suited for the proposed corridor region (Bird’s Eye Chilli, Cape Gold, Cape Snowbush and Rosemary). Of these, only Bird’s Eye Chilli had been tested before. The other three plant types have been used in producing essential oil and hold great promise for income-generation.

Starting from the knowledge that over 50% of elephant movements are outside of Protected Areas (PAs) and over 75% of elephant populations are transboundary, we used a satellite tracking approach to identify which wildlife corridors are most used by elephants.

While our initial plan was to establish a corridor between Gonarezhou (high elephant density) in Zimbabwe with Banhine and/or Zinave National Parks (low elephant density) in Mozambique, insufficient tracking data and reports linking the PAs in these countries (Zimbabwe to Mozambique) to define a conclusive corridor has made us shift our geographical location to Namaacha Valley in southern Mozambique. Here several elephants that we had collared outside of PAs in the hope to find more corridor moving individuals between PAs across southern Mozambique, have defined a vital corridor covering the southern extreme of the KNP, south towards Tembe National Park in South Africa and east towards the Futi corridor and MSR on the coast of Mozambique.

The collaring of elephants and analysis of the tracking data have shown us that existing PAs are too small for elephants. Using elephants as the landscape planners for connectivity across national boundaries, enabled us to identify human-elephant conflict hotspots where efforts are most likely to have the largest impact.

La cogestión de la RCY en colaboración con la Asociación Nacional de ECA del Perú (ANECAP) apoyaron a las comunidades a lograr las condiciones que les habilitaron para acceder al Mecanismo TDC. Por ejemplo, se elaboraron siete planes de vida y se actualizaron documentos legales y administrativos.

Based on the results of the various protocols implemented in the Chriopt'îles project, management recommendations were formulated by the GCOI and presented to the TAAF, managers of the Eparses Islands.

Based on acoustic analyses and the hostile environment on Tromelin, the island does not appear to be home to any chiropteran species. No recommendations for management or further study are envisaged.

Despite the absence of chiropteran sounds in Europa's acoustic analyses, its history and local context suggest that chiropterans could still be present. It is planned to re-deploy the passive listening protocol over periods based on the dates of historical observations. Management recommendations will be made following this research.

2 species of chiropteran have been recorded on Grande Glorieuse, including the Taphien de Maurice and an undetermined species. The renewal of the passive acoustic protocol is envisaged in order to improve knowledge of the occupation of the territory by these species. Monthly visual monitoring of the coconut grove at the life base is also envisaged. The management of invasive exotic species on Filaos or Coconut trees must take into account the presence of these two species.

During a 14-day field mission on the island of Grande Glorieuse, the GCOI's scientific coordinator deployed three different scientific protocols aimed at improving knowledge of the island's potential chiropteran species, and in particular of the Mauritian Taphien, whose presence has been confirmed.

The first phase involved active acoustic transects across the entire island, to identify areas frequented by the Mauritius Taphenid and any other bat species. Based on the results of this listening, visual surveys were carried out in frequented areas (notably coconut groves) to identify roosting areas and assess the numbers of the Mauritius Taphenid population. Capture sessions were then carried out in these roosting areas to collect genetic samples from the Mauritius taphid individuals captured. Subsequent genetic studies will be carried out on these samples, in partnership with PIMIT, to improve our knowledge of the species' biogeographical distribution and assess the potential role of Grande Glorieuse in this.

On each island concerned by the project, 2 SongMeter mini bat ultrasonic recorders were deployed during 2 listening sessions by 7 agents from the Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, previously trained by the GCOI in their use. The two listening sessions took place in winter (December-January) and austral summer (July-August), based on knowledge of the Taphien of Mauritius. Positioned for 5 nights, in 4 pre-selected habitat types, 20 listening nights per recorder and per session were recorded. In all, 240 listening nights were recorded on all the islands.

Sampling plans were based on data on the different types of environment present on the three islands, supplied by the Conservatoire Botanique National de Mascarin.

Once the recordings had been retrieved, the data were processed using a fixed-point protocol derived from the VigieChiro system managed by the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, enabling the chiropteran species recorded in the sound files to be determined. Once the sounds had been processed automatically, a manual acoustic analysis was carried out by GCOI employees to identify any species not detected by the software.

Since 2005, the TAAF has managed the Éparses islands, comprising the Glorieuses archipelago, Juan de Nova, Tromelin, Europa and Bassas de India. Most of these islands are located in the Mozambique Channel, with the exception of Tromelin, north of Reunion Island.

Despite a small total land area (43 km²), the total waters under French jurisdiction linked to these islands represent 6% of French maritime territory.

These islands are part of the Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot, a regionally recognized natural heritage; they are included in 4 of the 320 Ecologically and Biologically Significant Marine Areas identified by the Convention on Biological Diversity; they are recognized as Key Biodiversity Areas by the IUCN; and some are recognized as Important Bird Areas by BirdLife International.

Despite the permanent presence of TAAF environmental officers on these islands, no studies had been carried out on chiropterans prior to the Chiropt'îles project. Only a few mentions of bats (genus Mops sp, Taphien de Maurice) have been recorded on the islands of Grande Glorieuse, Europa and Juan de Nova.

Effective communication is an important aspect of the IMET assessment. Of course, effective communication between the project implementers and other stakeholders, including the funding institution(s), is needed during project development and implementation. However, in the IMET assessment, it is critical that the results of the assessment are effectively communicated to stakeholders. The stakeholders include those involved in the assessment and others who may not have participated. In our case, we organised an information sharing event at the national level to which different national stakeholders were invited. In addition to the presentations made at this event, information packs providing an analysis of the IMET results were shared with all participants. We also developed a summary results banner that was later deposited (and still is) at our project office. It is the first thing anyone sees when they walk into our office. We also developed simplified brochures in three local languages for community stakeholders.