DECR is one of the main protected area managers in TCI. As a government department, DECR depends on funding allocated through a regular budget cycle. Although the government collects a number of fees and taxes that are linked to nature-dependent sectors such as tourism, none of these payments is earmarked to protected area management. Instead, these funds flow to the consolidated fund, from which they are redistributed across public entities.

Building a strong case for protected area management was fundamental for DECR to promote: 1. increasing funding through the regular budget cycle, and 2. earmarking of a portion of nature-related revenues.

To support DECR in this task, GCFI funded technical assistance for the estimation of budget needs and gaps for basic and optimal protected area management. In addition, an assessment of the tourism value of nature was conducted based on existing studies. By comparing these figures, DECR could show authorities that increasing funding was financially reasonable, given that its operating budget in the year under analysis (2015/2016) was 25 times smaller than the added value of nature for tourism and 30 times smaller than the nature-related tourism revenue for the government.

Having information for sustainable fisheries management is fundamental. Unlike many fisheries in Mexico, the giant squid fishery in small and large scale has implemented fishery monitoring since 2010. The National Giant Squid Product System Committee, together with the authorities (CONAPESCA, INAPESCA and SADER), designed and implemented the Integrated Fisheries and Environmental Information System for the analysis of the giant squid fishery (SIIPACAL) in Northwest Mexico. The platform collects detailed real-time information on catches (e.g., fishing zones, catch volumes, fishing effort, etc.), and environmental information (e.g., temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, etc.), to learn more about the behavior of the resource according to the fishing season and environmental conditions.

The data collected in fishery monitoring are fundamental to provide information on the state of the resource and to improve management, taking into account scientific information and traditional knowledge. These good practices can be adapted to any fishery and scale, as has been done by the Comité Nacional Sistema Producto de Calamar Giant Squid.

The actors involved in fisheries need to work under a management system that seeks to comply with national laws and regulations to consolidate the responsible and sustainable use of resources. It has been documented that organized groups achieve greater benefits if they are formed in a participatory manner with a common vision, work plans, agreed-upon rules, and commitment from government agencies.

The giant squid fishery integrates small and large-scale fishermen and fisherwomen, as well as all links in the value chain through the Comité Nacional Sistema Producto (National Product System Committee). The Committee identified the need to actively participate in fishery management and decision-making. This helped to form and formalize a technical-biological research sub-committee, made up of various sectors: government, academia, civil society organizations, and representatives of the national committee. This sub-committee established a common objective and internal regulations that set out the guidelines for assigning responsibilities and roles to each actor involved. This, in turn, strengthened governance and the collective effort to generate and document traditional and scientific information for squid co-management.

The process of upcycling plastic waste to make products of value such as jewellery and sculptures is truly valuable. It requires one to assess the whole plastic value chain to identify the gaps, opportunities and pain points in order to plan accordingly.

Creating plastic waste value chains by paying waste pickers per kg of plastic collected has created enterprising youth and women groups that have been able to eke a living as well as enhanced savings through micro finance facilities resulting in improved living standards.

The established plastic treatment facility is very critical in developing pellets that were used to developed plastic upcycled products that were later sold as artifacts.

Investment in a waste collection vehicle to increase collection of plastic waste and expand operations of ramping up waste collection.​

Creating dynamic plastic waste value chains through collaboration between local community groups (youth, women) and the hotel industry. Where community groups collect and sort the waste. The value of partnership is very critical in ensuring streamlining circularity as well as ensuring synergies are pulled concertedly.

In the past, sea-turtle used to use many different beaches in Con Dao islands for breeding. However, due to the pressure from economic development, they had to retreat to few beaches inside the national park. When Con Dao Resort Co., Ltd. (Six Senses) started it business, Dat Doc was one of the left-over beaches. With new business model, the beach is well protected and regularly cleaned by the company's employees. After few years, in early 2018, sea-turtle started comeback Dat Doc for laying eggs. Fully aware the importance of sea-turtle conservation, the directors approached park managers, and with an agreement from Ba Ria-Vung Tau PPC, a collaborative project was initiated which aims to restore and conserve sea-turtle breeding grounds in Dat Doc beach.

After 3 years of implementation, the company has have invested c. USD 38,000 in following activities: an awareness programme, improve breeding sea turtle breeding habitats, setup a hatching pond 50m² with fence and CCTV system, and regular joined patrols by park rangers and company staff (1,044 working days, relocating 10 nests, 678 eggs, and releasing 464 baby turtles). The company continues to commit c. USD 70,000 for this programme in next 5 years.

Since 2014, IUCN has initiated the sea turtle conservation volunteer programme in partnership with Con Dao National Park, Hon Cau Marine Protected Area and Nui Chua National Park. 

The programme has been gathering lots of interest from people who come from all fields of work. For 7 years, IUCN has received almost 10,000 applicants and only be able to select less than 5% of these due to the special requirements of the selected sites and specific field activities. The programme received positive results and feedback from volunteers.

To date, 24 courses were organized in Con Dao that participated by 314 volunteers. The volunteers had contributed more than 3,000 person-days to support translocating almost 2,300 nests of 300,000 turtle eggs, released more than 110,000 baby turtles to the sea. They also work with park rangers to prepare breeding grounds, repaired hatcheries, patrolling and clean the beaches.

Not only supplementing the human resource for conservation action, the volunteers programme has help raising public awareness on sea turtle as well as marine life conservation as a whole. There were hundred media stories prepared by the volunteers in last 6 years that help changing public attitude on sea-turtle conservation.

The sea-turtle conservation programme was started in Con Dao since mid-1980s. In more than 30 years of implementation, Con Dao national park now has a comprehensive programme of different activities that includes:

• Breeding ground surveys and monitoring
• Law enforcement: protection/patrolling
• Support breeding activities: remove eggs to the hatcheries (support incubation), releasing baby turtles to the sea
• Communication and education programme for different target groups, including local schools and fishermen, and visitors

By 2020, outcomes of this programme include:

• Identify and protect 17 breading grounds (beaches) in the islands
• In 2020, c. 750 mother turtles were recorded breeding from January to November (mostly from May to October).
• 2,395 hatches (227,858 eggs) were removed to the hatcheries, 2,195 hatches were hatched, 171,949 baby turtles were released to the sea. (197 hatches with 17,139 eggs are still incubation at the time of documentation).
• Communication campaigns were organized with army, police, district offices, schools, fisher communities, and visitors.
• Collaborate with private sector (Six Senses) to establish a new breeding ground and hatchery in Dat Doc beach.
• Collaborate with IUCN to conduct 4 courses for volunteers to support sea-turtle conservation in Con Dao.