Radical Listening initiates a paradigm shift by asking Traditional and Indigenous rainforest communities this simple question. “You are the guardians of a rainforest that is valuable to the health of the whole planet. How might the world community assist you to live in balance with this rainforest as a thank you for your guardianship of it?” Our belief is that communities hold the key to humanity’s longevity. Traditional conservation approaches are often based on punitive measures and seldom linked to human well-being. Our approach is based on reciprocity, and valuing local people and traditional science.
No intervention from third parties, all local communities (man and woman) have the right to express their opinions during Radical Listening sessions.
Core to ASRI’s mission is democratising protecting rainforests. Local ownership is key to our approach where all programs, products, and resources are owned by the local communities. ASRI plays a key role in organizing, convening, and supporting rapid development and uptake of interventions that support a just transition to regenerative livelihoods. The iterative and ongoing process of Radical Listening continuously improves programs over time and ensures local ownership and efficacy. Involvement is paramount and integrated throughout the planning, implementation, and ongoing sustainable practices. The in-country staff are 100% nationals, and we prioritize hiring local community members whenever possible.
The project had a number of innovative elements. It brought together the elements of a smartphone (camera, gps, dropdown menu's) and designed a recreational site management system to utilise them - this is a world first.
It is an open system so additional devices can be added - people counters, flood monitors all via Internet of things (IOT)
- trusted local company to work on the project was essential
- worldwide approach to sourcing and ideas (IOT devices sourced from New Zealand)
- having a project manager of 13 years outdoor recreation expierence and an innovatie thinker to develop and drive the project
Partner implementing company
We worked previously with a company that didn't work out as they were only commited to the research phase rather than the project inisiative and management phase
Keep up to date
The area is changing quickly so it is important to keep watch for new developments and have a platform that can integrate them
Through this project I have brought together a number or local and national partners:
Organisation
Burren Geopark
Clare Local Development Company
Dept of Rural & Community Affairs
National Parks and Wildlife Service
Purpose
Each partner has either a local or national remit for an area in the project. By bringing them together we pool the resources and knowledge to deliver the system
Coordinging
The bringing together of all the bodies with each focusing on a specific area. As each partner joined they added an element to the system and then the other partners gained this feature.
These are public government funded bodies and the features they pay for are given provided to local comunities in a fremium model offering
Resources
Each organisation has resources and contacts that are utilised in the project.
The main lessons were:
- make sure you are meeting with a person who can make a decision
- show the benefits of the system
- show the advantages of the colaborative approach (tide rises all boats etc)
- give all partners credit as the program progresses
- analysis what a partner can give (they may be able to contribute time / work instead of financial)
Algorithms for likelihood of carcass and need for alert
System links to Telegram app for sending alerts to relevant rangers
Rangers remove the carcass and deal with poisoning
Coral Reef Replenishment manual
Coral Reef Replenishment Manual
Fragments of Hope
Fragments of Hope authored this manual (version 2 updated in 2019) to share and standardize our methods used in Belize. There are lectures and videos to accompany the manual and the four day traning course.
it is written for the layman, with many images and no fancy terms/jargon. It is shareable virtually, but the hard copies were printed with notes section at the end, and a list of other references.
We lowered eth number of training participants from 19 to 12, even pre-COVID, as smaller group sizes allow more hands on learning experiences. It is field based, and in 2020 we adapted as much as we could for virtual learning prior to the field days.
