As protected areas must have conservation outcomes as their primary objective, many 'unconventional' mechanisms that are creating conservation outcomes have historically been overlooked. In 2019, when Canada embraced the concept of OECMs, efforts that are creating positive biodiversity outcomes, regardless of their primary goal, began to be actively discussed. Canadian Forces Base Shilo was one such site.

Even thought the Department of National Defence has specific, secondary objectives for its sites focused on the conservation of biodiversity, it has rarely received public recognition for its conservation successes.

Creating this recognition required collaboration between the provincial (sub-national) government of Manitoba and the federal Department of National Defence to foster a broader understanding of OECMs and their value as well as to highlight the outcomes of the sound management of Canadian Forces Base Shilo. This is the first Canadian military base to receive this recognition; opening the door for additional, future collaboration.

In the Shilo landscape, military training exercises have proven to mimic some of the natural history of the area - recreating now-rare habitat. This controlled activity is creating positive in-situ biodiversity outcomes.

The high-intensity, short-duration disturbances created by military training activities create habitat conditions no longer found in the larger landscape. These disturbances include prescribed burns and artillery practice, which enhance biodiversity by preventing tree encroachment on areas of mixed-grass prairie and mimicking historical disturbance regimes such as wildfire or bison activity.

In addition, for security and safety reasons, the Department of National Defence prohibits unauthorized access. Closure to the public restricts activity on the site, eliminating many activities that could have a negative impact on biodiversity.

The primary mandate of Canadian Forces Base Shilo is to provide a space for military training. This mandate takes priority in a case of conflict with conservation objectives, although measures are taken to mitigate possible impacts on biodiversity.

Despite the strong dependence of the local economy on natural resources, the concept of ecosystem services is new to most of the actors intervening in the periphery of the Faro National Park.

  In addition, due to the lack of knowledge about natural processes, the loss of these resources has been noted, but their decline has often not been attributed to current practices.  Existing communal development plans focus on sectors such as water, agriculture and infrastructure, without taking into account the importance of ecosystem services.  A meeting and training enabled stakeholders from different sectors to discuss the challenges of conservation of ecosystem services and increase their knowledge in the field.

  In order to improve the process of drawing up plans and building the capacities of decision-makers at the local level, several workshops were organized with the aim of familiarizing actors with the “ecosystem services” approach and its application during the process.  planning.

Essential elements for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services for sustainable development are the equitable participation of stakeholders and the organizational development of local management associations.  The project has set up a stakeholder forum bringing together all the sectors involved in the park to identify areas of ecological, economic and social interest for which there is a will of the populations to protect and manage them.  Its mission is to manage conflicts related to the exploitation and conservation of natural resources, to promote the capacity building of actors, to encourage the emergence of research in the sustainable management of natural resources.  This forum has the technical support of the project for their organizational development as well as for technical and financial management, including the monitoring of the rules for the use of their resources.  These rules of use were drawn up in a participatory manner for each buffer zone.  To do this, a series of consultation sessions was organized for each village.

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.