Joint communication and appearance

Joint dissemination of information and joint appearance at national and international level to inform on migratory birds and their habitats in order to raise awareness on the importance of their protection. Examples are an exhibition on migratory birds at the ITB Berlin 2017 and a joint flyer.

Defining common issues and joint goals.

Joint communication creates broader awareness internationally.

Developing alliances and integration of local to national levels

At the community level in Guatemala, WANI facilitated the development of collaborations with the Community Development Committees and coordinated with Municipal and National Development Councils to enable integration of microwatershed planning and management with community-led action on development. Implementation has demonstrated that projects formulated by the communities rather than external institutions respond to the real demands of communities.

At the department level in San Marcos, in Guatemala, an alliance was created with 16 government and NGOs, to form the Inter-Institutional Coordination for Natural Resources and the Environment of San Marcos. CORNASAM has adopted the microwatershed as the unit of planning and, together, these groups have coordinated outreach and training in the micro-watershed approach.

As a result of the success of the Microwatershed model at the local level, the National Microwatershed Commission of Guatemala was established, comprising several government ministries and NGOs/ IGOs (Action Against Hunger, FAO and IUCN) to lead application of governance reform through microwatershed management country-wide. This National Commission will facilitate the preparation of national public water policies.

In Mexico the new water law of 2003 outlined and supported the implementation of water councils.

At the transboundary level the signing of the “Tapachula Declaration of Intent” by Mexican and Guatemalan mayors supported cooperation on joint actions on watershed management and to provide a platform for information sharing by governmental agencies at the very local level.  

Strengthening community-based alliances and integrating them with municipal and national development institutions increases coordination between administrative levels. This promotes integrated and coordinated water resource planning across the watershed and shared experiences with other community groups and networks. 

Political engagement and promotion

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.

Expert elicitation workshop

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).

A minimum of 3 full workshop days.

Internet access

The workshop allows

SOME website

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.

The web-tool

Upscaling of the model
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

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.
Open Data Kit for data driven marine management in Fiji

The MACBIO project assists its partners in developing effective approaches to marine management. In 2015 the project was requested to support the design and development of open-source mobile solutions for data collection in locally managed marine areas in Fiji, among others. Thorough research and testing of existing platforms and proven examples identified Open Data Kit (ODK), as a suitable open source solution, especially in combination with KoBoToolkit.

In general, app development was carried out in an iterative, responsive way. This approach proved to be very efficient and effective, and led to an increasingly improved app. It is important to note that training, tests and iterative improvement with all relevant stakeholders should not be underestimated, before successfully using an app in the field. Keeping the approach in house had clear advantages for responsiveness.

Strategic approach: Objective and the added value of an app

  • Don’t reinvent the wheel: Initial market research, discussions with stakeholders and the study of lessons learned
  • Proof of concept phase is important: Low cost building block systems
  • Devil is in the detail: User contexts, internet and electricity availability , costs and modalities of data plans etc
  • In house, iterative approach with quick feedback loops
  • Development step by step with users
  • Open source, compatible and scalable approaches, to avoid duplication of development effort, dependencies & lock in effects
  • Data sensitivity issues are important, also for building trust
A guide for App Development

App development and use is a strategic process. This guide aims to assist in this process, follwing the Digital Principles.

First objectives and types of apps are analysed, before looking at strenghts and weaknesses, as well as alternatives to smartphones and apps as technology. A guide on researching the existing app market concludes this chapter.

Secondly the enabling environment of app development is considered, from user centred development, over budget considerations and development options.

Lastly, technical aspects of app development are explored, dwelling on user needs, functionality, platforms, back and frontend, distribution and hardware considerations.

Successful development depends on enabling factors, following a strategic process that helps to ensure that the app solution

  • is tailored to user's needs
  • uses the right type of technology to address the identified objective
  • doesn't reinvent the wheel, if other suitable solutions already exist
  • is within the budget
  • is developed, using resources effectively
  • has the required functionality
  • uses the most suitable platform
  • combines backend end frontend
  • is distributed well
  • considers hardware and connectivity

The below decision tree can help to understand whether and how an app may be a useful solution to a given problem statement, following these guiding questions:

 

  • "Do I need an App for that?",
  • "Who makes an App for that?" and
  • "How to make an App for this?"

This structure is based on our experience and aims to avoid app solutions that do not properly consider objective, user need, available resources and technical requirements.

The spectrum of Smartphone Apps in (marine) resource management

There is a wide spectrum of Smartphone Apps in (marine) resource management. This Block gives orientation in the app jungle, starting with definitions and background on smartphone and app usage, and the opportunities this provides e.g. for natural resource management.

 

Also, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, if the answer to “Isn’t there an app for this” is yes. A list provides an overview of different app types and examples from marine management and other sectors, with a special focus on the Pacific region.

Mobile technology is on the rise and more and more people have access to these technologies, as the computing power of smartphones increases, their price drops, mobile phone coverage and access to the internet becomes more widespread and digital literacy is increasing - in industrialized world, as well as in developing and emerging economies.

Apps are bedoming more and more popular and can be powerful tools, if the addressed problem and objective of the proposed (app-) solution is well defined.

While there are many enabeling factores that can turn apps into powerful tools, often however, novelty and technical feasibility can be deceiving. Digitizing a solution often merely digitizes the problem. Instead of just going with the fashion, the problem and objective of the proposed (app-) solution should be well defined, followed by a careful SWOT analysis and consideration of possible alternatives.

Specific benefits of apps could be, e.g. wide geographical reach, while a threat could be the lack of acceptance by certain audiences, depending e.g. on their cultural background and digital literacy.

Thus app development and use must be seen as strategic process. For such a strategic approach of app development, use and monitoring, it is crucial to identify the right type of app addressing the identified audience and objective, be it “citizen science”, “crowdsourcing”, engagement, education or individual data collection.