This Building Block aimed to analyze potential future conditions of the Gulf of Guayaquil in order to build three scenarios by 2030: trend scenario; conservationist scenario; and integrated scenario. The developed scenarios DO NOT represent official proposals for the area; instead, they are a starting point for a multi-sectoral and cross-border dialogue about the desired future. A technical report was developed and made publicly available.

This Building Block aimed to analyze the current conditions of the Gulf of Guayaquil (historical bay shared by Ecuador and Peru) as an example that could be replicated in other cross-border areas. Policies, data and information on the marine environmental and main maritime uses were analyzed to identify use-use and use-nature conflicts and compatibilities, resulting in the development of a technical report publicly available.

Spatial data was compiled with the support of the National Focal Point of each country, who contacted and requested the data to the competent governmental authorities. A geodatabase with metadata was built and maps developed. Consultation activities (local and binational) were organized with stakeholders in order to review the maps and provide further information about conservation and sectoral issues. 

This Building Block aimed to develop activities to improve stakeholders’ capacities on MSP and sustainable blue economy. It helped the participants to understand the big picture of MSP, as well as the role they can play in such policy.

I) Training course for governmental representatives

included both theoretical and practical sessions. The first covered topics such as the concepts of MSP  and sustainable blue economy, as well as stakeholder participation and data and information. Moreover, the competent authorities had the opportunity to discuss national initiatives on MSP. Putting theory into practice, participants were divided into groups to play the MSP Challenge Game, representing planners and stakeholders. They were asked to define the vision, objectives, indicators, actions and stakeholders of fictitious countries to simulate an MSP process. After, they developed sectoral plans and used the tokens of the game to negotiate space and develop an integrated plan. They also had to link aspects of the plan with the achievement of the SDGs.

II) Seminars for sectoral stakeholders

They presented the concepts and importance of integrated policies such as MSP and blue economy, focusing on conflict resolution and opportunities. They also provided a chance for governmental representatives to disseminate national policies.

This BB aimed to structure the tasks related to stakeholder engagement and communication through the development of:

I) A Strategy for Public Participation based on:

• Three pillars: identification of stakeholders; engagement activities; and monitoring and evaluation of participation
• A two-way participatory approach: balance between top-down and bottom-up

II) A Communication and Dissemination Plan to set a unified tone and direction so that all activities, tools and materials work in harmony to create a shared vision to raise awareness of the initiative and its results. It also included monitoring of a number of metrics – through various channels and means – to evaluate the overall impact and success of communication and dissemination actions.

Standalone communication and dissemination plans, as well as engagement plans and reports were developed to guide and evaluate each activity implemented. The key messages from these reports were used as web news in order to communicate and report back to the stakeholders.

In the Southeast Pacific pilot, the following engagement activities were implemented:

• Stakeholder meetings, especially for the mapping exercise in the Gulf of Guayaquil
• Institutional workshops at national and regional levels
• Training courses for governmental authorities and sectoral stakeholders

Despite ecosystem health and the services they provide being crucial for the industry, they not always considered sufficiently in tourism development plans and policies. Therefore, ADAPTUR assigned one Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Tourism (SECTUR) and another one to the Ministry of Environment (SEMARNAT) to worked closely together and established cooperation structures which allowed to integrate aspects of biodiversity and climate change into national legislation.

One important result was the new Tourism Programme 2020-2024 PROSECTUR, which represents a major milestone in Mexico´s ambitions to fulfil its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and to integrate ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) into its sector plans. On the subnational level, one Regional Technical Adviser was also assigned to each of its three project destinations to provide permanent facilitation of local cooperation processes.

By doing this, several subnational policies and development plans which integrate EbA have been developed (e.g., Municipal Climate Plan Puerto Vallarta, Municipal Climate Plan Bahía de Banderas, Urban Development Plan San Miguel de Allende). Recently, policy proposals made by the Congress of Quintana Roo, and the initiative to mainstream the NDC and PROSECTUR goals in sub-national tourism policies have started.

The first step towards the development of a target group specific communication and capacity building strategy was a KAP analysis (knowledge, attitude, practices), which established a baseline, in terms of understanding the private sector´s knowledge about climate change, as well as its attitude towards the topic and the practices already in place. The analysis also included a capacity needs assessment, which served as input for ADAPTUR´s capacity building and training program. The findings were also used to train counterparts, consultants, and project members in better understanding the private sector and to improve their communication skills by using the right words, concepts and messages.

The training program comprised several topics about climate change vulnerability, climate-proof investment, cost-benefit analysis, national/subnational policies related to climate change, EbA solutions, public-private cooperation, financial mechanism, etc.

At the same time, a press campaign was launched in cooperation with local media and journalists. The ADAPTUR website was introduced with regular newsletters, best-practices, case studies and messages from industry leaders. It also contained a resources section with studies, tools and information material.

In developing countries such as Mexico, there are areas of opportunity for citizen science to play an important role in resource management. In small-scale fisheries, product landing sites are often widely distributed and with a high number of operators. In these situations, participatory methods of digitized data collection can be very useful. Thus, they play an important role in obtaining fishery-generated information and facilitate the information collection process.

To this end, in 2020 COBI created the digital platform PescaData. A mobile application where the productive sector can register their fishing data using digital logs, encouraging fisheries to have a systematic record of their catches and contribute to the knowledge of the species. Also, PescaData facilitates the connection with fishing communities from different geographic locations, through the sale of products and sharing solutions related to fishing. Finally, PescaData is a free application, where the information recorded is available only to the user, promoting digital sovereignty.

Citizen science has influenced resource management, contributing to the improvement of public policies and strengthening the capacity of communities to address environmental problems. Also, citizen science efforts have contributed to conservation, the recording of biodiversity, and help empower communities by breaking down barriers that separate science and society.

Citizen science is being driven by technology and digital platforms, helping to collect and organize information and make it available to all. The NaturaLista initiative, for example, is a digital space for recording and organizing observations of nature through photographs, meeting other enthusiasts, and learning about the nature of Mexico and the world. Through this platform, awareness of biodiversity has been created in the communities and the exploration of local environments is promoted. Thus, fishermen and fisherwomen can contribute by recording species and being part of the change, keeping in touch with researchers and collaborating in different projects.

Fishing communities are witnessing the effects of global changes every day. Aware that this impacts fishery resources and degrades marine ecosystems, fishing communities in Mexico have become interested in better understanding the effects of climate change and other local changes, giving them the opportunity to make better mitigation, prevention and adaptation decisions.

Through citizen science and collaboration with academics, a community monitoring program with oceanographic sensors has been implemented in 19 fishing communities in Mexico since 2011. Both women and men have been trained, involved and responsible for data collection and analysis. It has been proven that the training of mixed teams allows the integration of women in areas traditionally perceived as masculine (such as underwater activities), contributing to gender equality.

Today, fisherwomen and fishermen know how oceanographic sensors work, download the information collected, interpret the results and use them to make decisions related to the use of fishery resources, with a sustainable approach and seeking solutions to adapt to climate change.

An institutional support is required for the beneficiaries to promote the products they make through this solution, in local, regional and national markets. Since a single farmer cannot meet the quantity demand of the market and the distributors look for bulk quantity, a functioning co-operative has to be formed at the local level. This cooperation serves the purpose of collecting the products, negotiating the price with the distributor, supervising the manufacturing and distributing the profits.