In 2008, the Government of Ecuador created the Socio Bosque Program (SBP) as a financial incentive mechanism aimed at private landowners, farmers, and indigenous communities, who are voluntarily committed to the conservation and protection of forests and other native ecosystems.

In the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, thanks to the progress in the Natural Resources Use and Management Agreements signed with the indigenous communities living in the area, the delimitation of their territories and to the subscription of land deeds in the buffer area. Land ownership allowed the people to comply with the requirements needed to participate in the PSB.

Currently around 86,000 hectares of the Reserve are part of the SBP, allowing the preservation of an important tract of land including the natural forest in the higher and lower region of the Reserve. At the same time, the program created an economic incentive for the communities and individual landowners interested on implementing productive projects. This was crucial to reduce the risk of the agricultural border advancement towards the Reserve.

The creation of a permanent fund to cover management expenses in protected areas, has helped government managed administrations to have an annual budget to cover their main operational activities, such is the case of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve.

This fund is officially known as the Protected Areas Fund (PAF) and was established as part of a 1999 initiative carried on by Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment and the National Environmental Fund, the initiative was also supported by international organizations. The main goal was to diversify financial sources for public-sponsored protected areas and ensure financial resources in the long term.

The National Environmental Fund established in 1996 served as the main precedent to the PAF. It was considered as “an independent financial mechanism available to support plans, programs, projects, and any activity pursuing the protection, preservation, and improvement of the environment and natural resources”. This fund, created as a private organization, administered and channeled financial resources, provided technical counseling, but didn’t participate in the direct implementation of any initiative.

The Amazonian border integration initiative known as the Tri-National Program, was promoted by the Administrators of three protected areas (The La Paya National Park-Colombia, the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve-Ecuador, and the Güeppí National Park-Peru), enabling a management optimization under a regionally coordinated model.

It all started in 2005 as a result of the dialogue efforts carried on by the representatives of the three Protected Areas. In 2006 the initiative was consolidated as the Tri-National Program, since then it has continuously been strengthened over time.

The first important decision towards financial support for the initiative, was sought trough an agreement among the environmental funds available in each of the three participating countries. Afterwards, additional financial support was pursued through several projects that could cover the expenses of priority lines such as protected and buffer area’s management, social participation, organizational capacity improvement and the conservation corridor´s enhancement.

In this context, the Goverments united to seek operational, technical and financial mechanisms to ensure the conservation and sustainable development of the Corridor, with the ambition of becoming a successful pilot experience of transboundary management.

One of the great challenges for the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve was the consolidation of its boundaries and securing management agreements with the local populations and indigenous organizations. Under the previous logic of integrating cultural variables in the national preservation process, the project “Delimitation of the lower region, conflict resolution, and awareness of the communities about the resource management and use in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve” was successfully created.

The project main goal was to preserve the biological and cultural integrity of the Reserve under a strong alliance between the MAE and the indigenous communities that inhabit and coexisted in the territory: Siona, Secoya, Cofán, Kicwa, and Shuar.

As a result, in 1995 began the process of establishing Natural Resources Use and Management Agreements with most of the communities in these five indigenous nations. Such efforts promoted local participation and the recognition of the Protected Area for shared management.

The agreements became formal documents that legitimized the communities’ right to live in the Reserve and use the natural resources within under special conditions.

The Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (PAC-NKM) was designed in 1996, with the participation of the National Government of Bolivia, the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN), the Nature Conservancy (TNC,) and three foreign corporations from the energy sector. Its goal was to avoid or mitigate the emission of up to 5.8 million tons of CO2 over 30 years (1997-2026) on a surface of 600,000 hectares. This project was positioned as the first forest-based carbon sequestration project in the world and is sought to be replicated in other countries, as it allowed to certify nearly a million tons of CO2 during its first nine years of implementation (1997-2005). As this is an action implemented in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a trust fund of 2.5 million dollars was established to contribute to the Park’s sustainability in the Protection, Community Development, Monitoring and Verification of Carbon Sequestration, and long-term Financing Programs. Despite being designed to work until the year 2026, the execution of the PAC-NKM was halted in 2013 with the intention of adapting it to the new political framework of Bolivia, in connection to the Mother Earth Joint Mechanism.

The Bolivian legal framework establishes the legitimate right of groups of local actors to decide on protected areas management and their natural resources. Since 1996, the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park developed a governance model through the creation of a Management Committee that was built gradually and that nowadays helps in planning, decision-making and the achievement of management goals for the area. The actors of the Committee are members of national, departmental, and local government as well as members of the non-government sector, with the participation of the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) during the co-management period of the Park (1995-2005). It also includes representatives of the seven indigenous communities and the Bolivian Indigenous Union of Bajo Paraguá. Besides this, since 2013 two additional governmental institutions participate with only the right to vote. Both of them are important in border protection and in supporting the protected area and its neighboring communities development. Since the creation of Management Committee, it has worked as a strong governing body for the protected area, without interruption in its meetings.

The co-administration model of the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park (PNNKM) between the National Government of Bolivia and the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN), from 1995 to 2005, set a foundation for institutional strengthening for the Park’s management. This model enabled the consolidation of the area and structured a planning process through the application of institutionalized management tools such as the Protection Plan (2013-2017) and the Annual Operational Plan, which had rarely been used in the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP). Likewise, the FAN contributed in procuring funding to ensure management sustainability, mainly through the Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (PAC-NKM). Adding to this, the promotion of participatory mechanisms, such as the Park Management Committee and the involvement of members of local communities in operational instances and decision-making, have been fundamental in improving the Park’s management.

Sadly, this co-administration model was phased out in 2006 due to changes in the national socio-political context witch centralized management of protected areas within the National Government. The main impact of this change is seen in the Park’s financial sustainability.

Palau has a long history of managing its fisheries. For generation upon generation, the Traditional Chiefs placed vulnerable reef areas off limits to fishing, known as a “bul,” to protect both biodiversity and the livelihoods and food security of their people. In these modern times, it is broadly accepted that “marine capture fisheries have direct impacts not only on the target market species, most significantly tuna, but also can have large impacts on a number of incidentally caught species, some of which are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation and can directly degrade habitat and can have broad indirect or collateral effects on community structure and processes. 

Using this traditional method of conservation, Palau has created a "whole-domain" management approach from ridge to reef and beyond, the most ambitous component being the Palau National Marine Sanctuary. As Palau moves forward with the implementation of the PNMS, the Bul concept is kept in the forefront of all processes. 

Aware of the vulnerability of the French Southern Lands’ (TAF) ecosystems, the scientific community advocated for their enhanced protection, leading to the creation of the nature reserve in 2006. The first management plan (2011-2015) defined 90 conservation and research actions to be conducted on the territory (mostly terrestrial), of which 35% of applied research actions. The second management plan (2018-2027) applies to the entire EEZ of TAF (mostly marine), in accordance with the extension decree and protection perimeter regulation around the nature reserve. In this context and given the knowledge gap on marine ecosystems, in particular for deep and offshore ecosystems, a whole new set of marine research and conservation actions were identified in close collaboration with scientists. While more than 40% of the actions defined by the management plan address knowledge improvement, 60% of them address specifically marine ecosystems. The extension of the nature reserve and the elaboration of this new management plan create new research dynamics and synergy opportunities for science and conservation actions. New international scientific collaborations are also sought in order to strengthen the socio-ecological network of the TAF.