Subnational | PANORAMA

Re-discovering Land Productivity

Famers are assisted in prevention, and restoration of degraded lands and ecosystems leading to more land production, increased family income and improved standards of living.

Land avalilability
Community cohesion
Institutional capacity
Technical expertise

Improving farmer capacity through knowledge and financing for better land management has huge potential in improving family income, food security and livelihood.
Targeting primary school students for environmental education leads to behavioral change not only among the students but also entire society. Students are voices of change.

Implementation

Subnational

The revival of local and traditional seeds

The Seed Sovereignty Project has been able to work with women farmers to restore beneficial and traditional seed varieties that had been lost like sorghum, millet, legumes and other grain crops.

The community faced food insecurity mainly due to climate change related challenges and overdependence on maize. Tharaka Nithi County is generally an arid and dry area where maize does not do well. the farmers were encouraged to focus on climate resilient crops like millet, sorghum and green grams.

The willingness of the community to engage in participatory planning and embrace the proposed strategies to revive local and indigenous crop varieties.

Diversification of grain and legume varieties increased food security and enhanced their nutrition status.

The seed and traditional food fairs revived and enhanced cultural values and practices with the young people being thus contributing to intergenerational learning.

Collaboration with others like the National Museums of Kenya was important in ensuring the continuity of the annual Meru Cultural and Food Festival to date.

Implementation

Local

Subnational

How sand dams work

Community members walk along a seasonal river to identify potential sand dam site.

Utooni Development Organization

Sand dams (some times called more general groundwater dams) store water under the ground. A sand dam is a small dam build above ground and into the riverbed of a seasonal sand river. Sand accumulates upstream of the dam, resulting in additional groundwater storage capacity. Similar to sand dam a subsurface dam obstructs the groundwater flow of an aquifer and stores water below ground level. Sand and subsurface dams are suitable for rural areas with semi-arid climate in order to store only seasonal available water to be used in dry periods for livestock, minor irrigation as well as for domestic use.

Benefits include:

Storage of rain water in seasonal rivers
Minimum evaporation since water is stored in sand
Reduction of contamination by livestock and other animals since water is under sand
Filtration of water flowing through the riverbed sand improves water quality

Sand dams can be built with locally available material and labour but building a dam still requires relatively high investments, is labour intensive and specific expertise is needed.

The technology is labour and physical capital intensive. Depending on site location, some communities may not be able to implement it without some external aid.

Promotion of a mechanism for the retribution of ecosystem services

Steering committee meeting

care Perú

The mechanism for the retribution of ecosystem services (MRSE) seeks to ensure the sustainability of the adaptation measures designed. To identify the contributors (who provide the ecosystem service) and retributors (users of the service who contribute resources), a rapid hydrological diagnosis was prepared, which also characterized the sub-basin and identified the priority ecosystem service and water demand. In order to reach agreements, both parties had to be made aware of the benefits and their responsibilities. The contributors are: the authorities, users of the Huancayo water and sanitation service provider (SEDAM Huancayo), individual farmers and organizations in the sub-basin, and the contributor is the Acopalca Community.

The MRSE steering committee was then formed with the participation of the institutions involved. Within this framework, an agreement was signed whereby the urban population (Huancayo) reimburses the Acopalca community for ecosystem conservation by creating a fund to develop sustainable ecosystem management projects. In addition, SEDAM Huancayo, in updating its Optimized Master Plan, incorporates the MRSE, including investment projects for recovery, conservation, and sustainable use.

The current legal framework of the law on mechanisms for the retribution of ecosystem services and its regulations.
Political decision for the implementation of ESRM in water and sanitation based on successful experiences in this system.
Approved technical tools that make it possible to execute the steps to implement the mechanism, such as the rapid hydrological diagnosis.
State institutions with functions that promote the SRM initiative.

It is important to have national standards in relation to the ESMR, as they facilitate the feasibility of the necessary inputs such as the rapid water diagnosis and the project profile, as well as identifying who would be the contributor within the ESMR.
All sub-basin stakeholders (civil society, state agencies, private enterprise, etc.) must participate in the design and implementation of the mechanism.
It is necessary to build and maintain a common vision among the various stakeholders, contributing to the sense of joint work and benefit for the different interests (agricultural irrigation, livestock, drinking water, etc.).
It is important to insert a monitoring component in the MRSE projects to determine how much water is gained and also to readjust the implementation.
A good governance platform is required to be responsible for the monitoring system in the medium and long term.
Effective communication strategies and communication tools are needed to leverage resources and effectively convey the objectives of the mechanism.

Governance at all levels needs to buy in

In this project we worked closely with government at all levels.

National level: it was important to obtain political support on priorities and to agree on where restoration would be useful and where protected areas could established

Regional level: Regional buy in is very important - to convince regional government of the need for and positive consequences of establishing a protected area; key arguments were linked to social issues and income from the landscape – establishing a linkage between biodiversity protection and the development of income alternatives with the villages

Local level: Buy-in here focused on practical level decisions linked to resources for the villagers.

If not all levels agree then there is a danger for a “paper park”

That’s why it was important to bring all on board.

There is need for building trust and relationships, particularly when working at regional and local government level. We did not have relationships with the villages before. The time invested and relationship building allowed us to engage people and develop activities. Positive signals from government were key here.

Strengthening local governance structures enables more stakeholders to take decisions which are necessary for the long-term success of FLR. It leads to real engagement of landscape stakeholders.
For building relationships linked to governance we need to have people in strategic places to be able to engage with communities.
National parks have limited resources – therefore it is important to create a win-win situation from this. Advantages for communities can lead to conservation benefits that also are supported by governance structures at all levels.
Funding of such projects requires long term thinking
Restoration outside a national park can work well and can happen at low cost with the help of the community

Entirety

Subnational

People are part of the solution- over the long term

The region in Madagascar we worked in was very complex with different needs of people in the landscape. As communities were key drivers of degradation and deforestation via slash and burn agriculture, we had to take a long term approach to build relationships and trust and to get community buy-in towards adopting alternative income opportunities and sustainable agriculture approaches. This included offering training, building capacity and awareness. In return we got them involved in restoration activities.

Communities have to take real ownership of the solution. The project gave the communities a joint vision and positive alternative to their previous way of living and working in the landscape. Achieving that buy in village by village takes time. The project area was large, with a Protected Area at the core, surrounded by many villages. Without a social component and cooperation, the chance for deforestation and degradation to continue is high.

For any project that deals with restoration and community engagement, giving it time is of big importance to ensure sustainability and long term effects.

It is important to understand the diversity of the people – the social dimension in the landscape
Needs involvement of people with affinity to social issues – studies showing real alternatives raise credibility
Social monitoring is important
Build relationships – need to be present in the landscape to raise trust and build partnerships
It requires time, both social aspects and forest restoration
Build an exit strategy into your project design (or indicators to properly decide when exit is possible)

Forest landscape restoration has both an ecological and a social dimension, and the social one is fundamental to long term success.
Take time to build relationship and be present in the landscape
Ensure community takes real ownership
Build capacity to support Forest Landscape Restoration
Solid knowledge of the socio-cultural, political and ecological features of a landscape is important to better design and implement FLR interventions that are suited to local conditions.
Integrate your activities within a landscape-scale plan.
Restoring forested landscapes is a long-term process and much flexibility over the course of such an endeavour is needed. Periodic reappraisal is paramount.

Entirety

Subnational

Creating a shared vision of land management through water

In order to promote an operational connectivity between the diverse upriver and downriver sub-basins (zones) of a river basin, including both ecosystems and productive activities, water was chosen as the conductive element; the element to bring the zones and stakeholders together. Modelling of the surface water supply and sediment retention in different zones permitted the identification of provider-recipient-accumulation relationships. Through this, the dynamics between demand for hydrological services (e.g. populations, tourist zones) and those that produce them (mountainous zones with forest cover) could be identified and connected. Based hereon, the different stakeholders were brought together to learn about and exchange on key information on zonal levels of production and services available. This in turn led to the identification of what should be done where and by whom.

A network of NGOs with sufficient experience to mentor producers and other stakeholders;
Availability of quality teaching materials and methods usable by and with communities;
Commitment and interest from different stakeholders and government insitutions towards the whole project

The intrinsic connectivity of the PAMIC methodology has proven to be the aspect that attracts interest from the government entities and from land use stakeholders. The tool helps to identify who they can work with regarding productive activities (i.e. coffee, sugar production). This aspect has enabled local actors as a group to understand the dynamics between micro watershed units.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Subnational

Inter-institutional governance at different levels

To create and develop PAMIC, diverse government entities belonging to the environment sector joined forces to design a cutting edge and innovative project: the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) coordinated the construction of the PAMIC plans; The National Comission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) consolidated the management and operation of the project within the Protected Natural Areas (ANP); and the National Forestry Comission (CONAFOR) implemented Payments for Environmental Services schemes from the biodiversity fund. The Mexican Nature Conservation Fund (FMSN) contributed its experience in the management of financing schemes. All in all, this created two further funds to stimulate activities and impacts. Moreover, the inter-institutional coordination included i) a Technical Project Committee that supervised and directed the operation of C6; ii) a Unit Project Coordinator and iii) two Regional Project Units, which were responsible for the daily coordination of technical and logistical issues. Such a design has been an essential aspect that generated major advances in land use planning for collective benefits.

Very good coordination between the institutions, all of which share a clear vision of the use of different financial and management instruments;
Sufficient financial and institutional resources;
Experience and interest of the institutions involved;
Experience in the implementation of existing programs, e.g. social assistance programs, subsidies, Payments for Environmental Services, etc.

Coordination efforts benefit from forms of polycentric governance between levels and stakeholders. This scheme of governance is backed by formal agreements between institutions that establish the rules of the game for all the other organizations and stakeholders involved in the project in a transparent manner.
Formal institutional agreements can produce a planning instrument which is dynamic and can strengthen decision-making, helping each stakeholder to make the most of different planning elements for land use management.
There has been a visible increase in confidence on the part of key institutions in local scale land use planning processes. This can be seen in improved decision making and use of programme funds.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Subnational

Constructing strategic multi-level and multi-actor alliances

INECC established a multi-actor alliance with public as well as private institutions at different governance levels, from federal to local. It was this alliance that could facilitate the effective functioning of the four other building blocks of this solution, especially through institutional support for capacity development and follow-up from experienced organizations.

Examples of this capacity development from alliance members include:

Literacy support for the communities – the National Institute for Adult Education (INEA), Tabasco
Donation of cement and bottles – Arji College, Tabasco
Construction of raised kitchen gardens for schools and palafitos – Centro de Información y Comunicación Ambiental de América del Norte (CICEANA)
Preparation of didactic materials – Centro de Educación y Capacitación para el Desarrollo Sustentable (CECADESU)
Design of risk maps and zonal plans focused on climate change - Universities and authorities of Tabasco

Open-minded government authorities;
Sufficient resources to enable a continuation of capacity development activities up to the point at which the community is self-organizing

It is necessary to prepare a strategy of alliance coordination and clear communication so that both alliance members and community members can understand the role of different members of the alliance that visit their zone, and know what to expect from them, as well as how to collaborate with them.

Implementation

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

Subnational

Recovery of Dye Plants in Handmade Fabrics

Training in dyeing techniques with dye plants

CIPDER

Dyeing process

CIPDER

Weaving with backstrap loom with dyed wool

CIPDER

Backstrap loom weaving with dyed wool

CIPDER

Backstrap loom weaving with dyed ram's wool with natural inputs was a traditional activity in the community since ancestral times. However, its products were not adequately valued and their quality could not compete with other similar products made with synthetic wool. Through this measure, knowledge was recovered about the plants used for this purpose and the processing methods, and how to make these inputs available through the production of these plants. This activity made it possible to increase the production of dye plants in bio-gardens and to value them as an input for handicraft fabrics. In addition, the community members were trained in weaving and dyeing techniques for their handicraft production, which improved the finishes and quality of the final products. The dyeing of ram's wool with plants allows for a diversity of color tones in a natural way and with local inputs. By improving the quality of the finishes and the manufacture of their weavings, they increased their income, since the sale of their weavings constitutes the family's petty cash, allowing them to cover their daily expenses, in a context in which income from their agricultural activities is increasingly fluctuating.

Prioritization by leaders, community members and the population in general, after a joint analysis.
An important factor has been that previously there was a traditional knowledge of weaving and dyeing, on which various techniques were applied to improve the finishes and quality of the final products.
This measure brings together and integrates women in particular. All the families are dedicated to weaving, but the training made it possible to offer a better quality product and increase family income.

The training awakened the women's interest in organized work, which was recognized by their families and potential customers.
It was possible to make innovations to improve the handicraft products offered, while maintaining the basic traditional elements and inputs. The dyeing course made it possible to obtain 14 colors of yarn (intense yellow, Nile green, dark green, dark green, light red, cane green, orange, cream, dark brown, lemon green, light green, light lilac, rosewood, brick color, duckling yellow) from the use of plants, artificial mordants and vegetables.) Shawls, cloths, saddlebags with designs, blankets with different figures or designs, and checkered and patterned rugs for benches were made.
The activities developed strengthened the self-esteem and security of the participants, thanks to the learning and development of skills and abilities.

Implementation

Local

Subnational