Relevant stakeholders are engaged to identify challenges within their respective communities and solutions that are ecosystem friendly but contribute to the enhancement of local livelihoods. This process follows a prior participatory community-wide assessment and validation of results from the assessment or survey process. The assessment identifies livelihood and climatic trends and impacts on various sectors. Following this, a stakeholder meeting is initiated through which potential adaptation and sustainable livelihood stategies are proposed and adopted against each challenge and included in the overal community-based adaptation plan. A community-based action plan matrix is then generated through the stakeholder participatory process that includes the following sections: livelihood and adaptation options, duration of implementation, actors, required resources, key expected results and estimated amount to implement each adopted strategy or action.

Exchange visits were organized to places where the initiative has been active for some time and the implementation is on-going. For example, in order to acquire drought tolerant crops for local production, Ecofinder Kenya visited the Tangokona community in Busia County, Kenya where improved cassava and sweet potato varieties have been promoted and grown by local communities. The model was studied by Yala wetland communities, seeds purchased and farmers are now growing drought tolerant cassava and sweet potatoes.

This involves participation of all stakeholders at the local level in order to come up with locally viable solutions that all participants are comfortable with and that contribute to sustainable livelihoods and long term conservation of local biodiversity. We achieved this building block by involving stakeholders at different levels, i.e. at the meso or County level and micro or local community level. First, we engaged representatives of the Siaya County government departments  (such as Agriculture, Lands, Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources) and Civil society representatives working at the local and regional levels. A workshop was organised upon which the government and non-government actors discussed the challenges facing agriculture and biodiversity in relation to climate chage in the County and amicable and potential solutions sought from the participants. Secondly, local level meetings were held with community members and local leaders and resource persons including elders, retired government staff, health workers and conservation enthusiasts. The challenges facing agriculture and local biodiversity were sought and potential solutions reached. These were then analysed to come up with overal challenges and solutions from the stakeholders perspective.

To address a social need for transportation facilities equitably accessible, understandable and usable to people of all ages and abilities, the national government enacted a law to promote smooth transportation to the elderly, disabled and others in 2006. It set a target to adopt the concept of Universal Design by 2020 for all public transportation facilities, including airports that serve more than 3,000 daily passengers. Under this law, the government developed “Universal Design Guideline”, which is also applicable to improvement of Haneda International Airport. Not only did TIAT follow this guideline, it as a private company made extensive efforts to offer a comfortable space and enhanced accessibility to all types of airport visitors.

With the revenues from the endowment and the investment in the sinking fund, La Minga provides the financial resources to implement the prioritized actions from the management plans. To that end, the members of the Technical Committee decide together what strategies are the most vital to implement, the cost of the activities and the terms of refence for hiring a community-based organization to execute the components.

The donation of the Walton Family Foundation to la Minga will be in the fund for at least 30 years, and therefore this mechanism can guarantee that the protected areas will have financial resources for every year over a long time.

All of the protected areas that are covered by La Minga are managed by Community Councils and the regional environmental authorities. Net interests of La Minga will be transferred to community-based organizations (Community Councils) and other nonprofit organizations to support the implementation of management plans for the protected areas, under the
supervision of an Endowment Fund oversight structure.

A Technical Committee for La Minga directs  and oversees the use of La Minga Endowment revenues that are channeled annually to the account
opened and held by Fondo Acción. The Technical Committee is  composed of representatives from Conservation International Colombia, Fondo Acción, local environmental authorities, Community Councils with participation in the protected area management, and an academic advisor. The Technical Committee reviews and approves annual investment plans
presented by both Regional Environmental Authorities and Community Councils.

The Executive Committee  makes the funding decision in accordance with the recommendations that it receives from the Technical Committee.

The main objective of tourism and recreation economic analysis have been used for public relations objectives. Common objectives of tourism economic analyses have been to increase support for raising PA budgets, for building partnerships, and for influencing local policies and planning decisions.

These types of uses require lower levels of detail or accuracy compared with other studies focused on evaluating management alternatives for specific PA issues, like decisions about new investments, facilities or services. For instance, park managers may wish to use this tool for the purpose of adaptive management and/or integrate economic impact evaluation with a livelihoods or social analysis of the PA that reveals non-monetary benefits and costs. In such cases, the study should be designed to allow for estimation of local level impacts.

At the same time, government administrators may wish to compare the national level value of a park with other land uses or parks in similar regions. What is important is that major stakeholders are consulted prior to the design phase so that chosen measures and their relationship to the park reflect what is desired to be known by the intended audience.

As part of a larger effort to assess the socio-economic impacts of GEF-funded Protected Areas, the Tourism Economic Model for Protected Areas (TEMPA) was developed to help guide project managers and others in the collection, analysis and display of tourism spending data using an easy to use spreadsheet-based tool, which is also provided. Despite the fact that economic impact analysis has been applied in many countries, such as, USA, Canada, Australia, Finland,  Namibia, and South Africa, this preliminary version of the tool and accompanying spreadsheet represents an initial step in a longer process of testing and refining TEMPA in a wide range of protected area categories globally. At present, TEMPA has been tested only in one selected park in Southern Africa, and nationally for Brazil. Results show significant direct and indirect economic gains from parks at the local and national level. It is hoped that the widespread use of tools such as TEMPA can continue to build from this effort to highlight the important multi-faceted role that protected areas play in supporting nature and livelihoods.

The table banking aspect of the project was responding to the needs of the community to access affordable loans for businessess and farming activities.

We supported the group in training on financial management and accountability.

The table banking aspects has attracted the younger people who are interested in doing farming as a business. This has helped in improving livelihod food security

Communities in two counties formed a Community Forest Association (CFA), which was empowered through training and the sustainable use of non-timber forest products.

They were also trained in surveilance and reporting, while ensuring government officers work in close collaboration with these groups with timely action on any reporting.