Demonstrating the value of the protected area, community involvement, and conservation is important to align the project with political and bureaucratic imperatives. Provincial authorities have recognised this project as an example of best practice, particularly in terms of community zoning. The method has been replicated in other communities in the protected area, and the Provincial Director of the Ministry of the Environment also advised to apply the method in other wildlife sanctuaries.
A partnership with the Sam Veasna Center for Conservation (SVC), a Cambodian NGO, has provided expertise in promoting responsible tourism. SVC have ensured promotion of the ecotourism project to national and international tourists, as well as supporting tourist visit logistics. SVC also work with the local community to build their capacity for providing tourism services.
The Ministry of Environment recognises the community as a flagship community committee, allowing the committee to attend and present at several workshops throughout the country to share their experiences.
Existence of a local NGO in Cambodia’s most popular tourism destination (Siem Reap) with a goal to promote alternative sustainable livelihoods from ecotourism for local communities at priority sites for conservation provided a natural partner for the project.
Respond to the political and bureaucratic imperatives such as demonstrating value of parks beyond biodiversity. Ensure further political support – or less interference – by raising the profile and status of the park and conservation enterprises among communities and civil society such that political and bureaucratic forces respond to that support.
The actual expert elicitation assessment is carried out during a workshop or series of workshops, attended by appointed marine experts in the field of marine environmental or socio-economic sciences. The experts collaborate and discuss the status and trends on the different parameters for the marine assessment and come to a consensus score. The scores are recorded during the workshop and entered into the SOME website. Notes are taken by a rapporteur on the discussion and the details of relevant reports, papers or other documents are recorded . The interaction and discussions during the workshop should allow the editorial board to identify potential authors to participate in the subsequent report-writing phase of the process.
A minimum of 20 experts, with at least 5 for each key discipline areas (fisheries and biology, physical sciences and socioeconomics).
Example of summary table on the state of marine habitats in the SOME website
GRID-Arendal
GRID-Arendal has created a pilot, web-based system to capture, analyse and display state of the marine environment assessment results: http://some.grida.no. The website allows for the real-time capture and display of data (scores for parameters, confidence, risks) during the workshop and provides an online template for the production of a State of Marine Environment Report. The content and graphics can be exported and used as the basis for a national or regional SOME report or the contents can be adapted for use within other formats as required. The database allows direct correlation to the outline of the World Ocean Assessment, thereby permitting cross-referencing and combining outcomes of the assessment to optimize it as a contribution to the international effort. Another key aspect is that the diagrams and outputs that are produced by the web site are designed for easy communication of the workshop results to policy- and decision-makers. The diagrams are simple, jargon-free and clearly communicate the main findings of the judgments made by the experts.
The system is used at the expert elicitation workshop.
AFC scaled up a model for communities to participate in protected area management developed with GIZ between 2013-2016 in the Hin Nam No NPA. AFC supported three civil society organizations to implement the model elsewhere, including through co-management training modules, national-level awareness raising, exchange visits to Hin Nam No, local capacity building and policy advocacy. There are now 21 officially approved village co-management agreements, covering 204,747 ha of village forests.
Previous experience of AFC in governance of protected areas enabled the development of the Hin Nam No model and the upscaling elsewhere. AFC is local based and works widespread in Laos which enabled the upscaling beyond the often short life span of a project.
Shared governance models take a long time to be developed and need continous support that often goes beyond the lifespan of a project. Therefore it is important for short-term projects to work from the start with local-based organisations to jointly develop models, implement them, and document the lessons learned. In this way the upscaling of so-called pilot projects of international organisations can be secured which is otherwise not possible within the lifespan of the project.
Integrating climate information into local planning
Ecological Drawing exercise - Impacts of climate change on livelihoods
GIZ
Villager presents results of ecological drawing exercise
GIZ
Seasonal (based on seasons defined by the communities according to predominant livelihood strategies with the help of an ecological calendar) and annual temperature and precipitation projections for the near future were developed for specific sites, namely Bash Kaiyndy/ Naryn District in Kyrgyzstan and two villages in the Bartang Valley of the Tajikistan Pamir region. Two time slices were developed to represent 30-year averages - 2020s (2011-2040) and 2050s (2041-2070) - and change factors were calculated relative to 1980-2005 modeled base periods. Presenting the projections as a range most accurately represents possible future climate conditions for decision-makers and planners applying a risk-based approach to climate change adaptation and resiliency. To consider inherent uncertainties in climate models, scenarios for future vulnerabilities are discussed and selected together with the community. Derived from the scenarios, climate change related threats complete the picture of the situation analysis, and future vulnerabilities can be prioritized through rating of conventional and climate change related threats.
Kyrgyz villages have weather station data to support baseline information. Future absolute values could be estimated.
Ecological calendar exercise conducted with local communities to define distribution of seasons according to predominant livelihood strategies
Strong exchange between climate scientist and local implementing partners and community
Strong facilitation skills when communicating future scenarios to the community
Building the bridge between science and local development by integrating local perception into the projection modelling and through participatory scenario planning with the community has been very successful.
When introducing the idea of climate change during workshops, there might be a danger to present climate change as the cause of all environmental problems. Careful explanation and definition of climate change is essential.
Adapting climate projections for the specific audience (e.g. government officials, local villagers) is crucial.
Pre-workshops / discussions with various informants familiar with the project area and local villagers yielded useful information and a more complete picture of the ecological and economic context of the assessment.
Workshops are generally not a productive forum for technical debates about the validity of climate projections and statistics. It is helpful to focus on communicating climate impacts and hazards, rather than technicalities.
