View the complete CCRN’s São Luiz Community Story as a PDF

Camila A. Islas, Alice R. de Moraes, Juliana S. African & Cristiana S. Seixas

Key Messages

• Severe land degradation and environmental disasters can act as triggers to new community conservation and development initiatives and as stimulus to existing ones.
• Bridging organizations can foster community initiatives through projects addressing environmental conservation and restoration in parallel to local capacity building and community development.
• Cultural identity plays a central role in engaging communities in projects of nature conservation.

Community Profile

São Luiz do Paraitinga (hereafter São Luiz) is a municipality with about 10,000 inhabitants, located in Eastern São Paulo State of Brazil, near the Atlantic coast (Figure 1). The municipality is situated within the Paraíba Valley, which links the two largest metropolitan areas in Brazil (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro). Out of the ~730 km² of the municipality’s area, 10% are encompassed by Serra do Mar State Park, a protected area, and 13% are in its buffer zone. The main land uses/cover are pasture (53%) and fragmented forests (37%), while cattle breeding for dairy, forestry and agriculture are the main economic activities⁽²⁾. The municipality is also embedded in the Atlantic Forest biome – a hotspot for biodiversity conservation, i.e. one of the highly threatened biomes in the world⁽⁵⁾.

Figure 1. A) The State of São Paulo highlighted in the Brazilian map. B) São Luíz do Paraitinga Municipality highlighted in the State of São Paulo map.

The landscape of São Luiz has been shaped by specific material and immaterial cultural features that were strongly influenced by coffee plantations from the early 20^th century and by the Caipira way of life, a local designation to a rural livelihood which involves typical food, music, tales, dances and festivities (see Figure 2).

The city’s architectural ensemble is the largest historical collection of the State’s architectural heritage, and its population proudly keeps alive several displays of immaterial culture⁽³⁾. The local economy currently depends on public services, and the Human Development Index (HDI = 0.690) is among the lowest of the State’s municipalities. In this context, cultural tourism and eco-tourism are promising alternatives for economic development.

Rural communities in Brazil are important SES, specifically in south-eastern states such as São Paulo, where landscapes are highly fragmented and urbanised. Landscapes there sometimes have patches of native vegetation that are especially important to wild animals, serving as habitat and ‘stepping-stones’, which generate various ecosystem services and are also home to human communities and their livelihoods⁽³⁾. The vast majority of rural properties (96%) in the municipality of São Liuz are owned by smallholders⁽²⁾.

In this context lies Catuçaba, a rural district in São Luiz comprising a village with around 1,000 inhabitants and its surrounding rural neighbourhoods. Most inhabitants make their living from small-scale animal husbandry and other smallholding activities⁽³⁾.

Figure 2: Traditional dance presentation at the central square, in front of the main church, during the festivity of the Holy Spirit in São Luiz do Paraitinga, 2016.

Until a few decades ago, the village was partially isolated from the urban center due to poor road access. However, the road connecting the village to downtown was paved by the year 2000, facilitating outsiders’ access and products transportation, and improving the access of villagers and rural inhabitants to infrastructure, education and health. Tourism-related activities have been modestly flourishing in the territory, supported by its beautiful landscape, pleasant climate and historical farms.

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

Land degradation is longstanding in the region. Agriculture has been practiced since the settlement of the first colonisers in the late 17^th century, in spite of the hilly landscape and low nutrient availability and permeability of the soil⁽²⁾. Economic cycles (cotton, coffee, agriculture and cattle), along with poor soil management techniques, contributed to land degradation, impoverishing the soil, and most recently covering the land with Brachiaria, an invasive exotic grass that feeds the cattle and worsens soil permeability. As a result, cattle productivity has declined and many landowners fell back on other activities to complete their income.

Meanwhile, due to the promises of better job and education opportunities in urban centres, rural out-migration hampered the availability of rural workers and lowered social cohesion. Currently, land degradation in such social context threaten most of the traditional livelihoods.

On January 1st, 2010, São Luiz suffered from a flood of great magnitude, when the river crossing the downtown area raised over 11 meters above its regular level in a matter of hours, largely damaging the historical buildings and affecting the whole population, both urban and rural. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. Other than the high precipitation registered in end-2009, this flood was caused by factors linked to land degradation in rural areas, such as soil compaction in degraded and poorly managed pastures, fires commonly used to clear land, scarcity of forests near watercourses, and human occupation of floodplains.

Community Initiatives^*

In the face of the disaster’s intensity and tremendous material losses, the population of São Luiz showed a remarkable capacity to self-organize in order to cope with the emergency situation and, later, to rebuild and restore the functioning of the city⁽⁵⁾. Since the floods, the territory as a whole has been targeted by diverse projects focusing on forest restoration, agro-ecological production and capacity building.

The 2010 disaster stimulated new and ongoing community initiatives, mostly with the help of local and regional NGOs and government organizations. During the post-disaster reorganization phase, the community actively participated in decisions regarding the reconstruction of historical buildings and other issues. In addition to engineering work conducted at the government initiative, most post-disaster initiatives focused on keeping the vibrancy of local cultural manifestations⁽⁵⁾.

Figure 3: The scenic landscape around Catuçaba district: degraded pastures and patches of biodiversity-rich Atlantic forest covering its hills and valleys.

The community also showed a remarkable sense of place and attachment to both São Luiz, similarly to Catuçaba and its surrounding area (Figure 3). The tragedy seems to have reinforced this sense of place and local people’s capacities of coping and recovering their community life with their own hands, and at the same time acknowledging and being grateful for all the solidarity and help they received from external people and institutions⁽⁵⁾.

One of these community initiatives working to improve conservation and livelihoods was the Comunidade da Vila (Village Community). In 2012, the Learning Community initiative began in Catuçaba. The main goal of the project was to promote an environment for reflection about nature conservation and local development, and to facilitate the planning of collective actions^(1,3). Together with local people, the initiative planned and organised several cultural events and community actions over three years⁽¹⁾. Although the project ended in 2015, the community continued to meet until 2017, focusing on a street market with local products, tourism-related activities and festivities ^(3).

A local NGO, Akarui, has been developing projects for nature conservation integrated with socio-economic development in the region since 2003. After the 2010 flood, their prominence increased as Akarui members’ attachment to and knowledge about the territory, in addition to their technical expertise, led efforts to sustainable development of rural areas of the municipality. Akarui has carried out projects regarding socio-environmental characterisation, forest restoration, agro-ecological transition, pasture management and improvement of farmers’ income. The NGO is still working in the territory, currently expanding their initiatives to encompass environmental education and food security and sovereignty.

After the extreme events of 2010 (flood) and 2013/2014 (severe drought), more community members got interested in taking part in restoration projects, and a growing number are willing to adopt agro-ecological principles to their production chain. An Agenda 21 plan, built through participatory methods for the watershed, including guidelines for its sustainable development, is a featured product of Akuri. The NGO acknowledges rural communities as their main partners⁽²⁾.

Finally, another initiative named Rede para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Alto Paraíba (Upper Paraíba River Sustainable Development Network), or REDESUAPA, began their work after the 2010 floods. The network encompasses diverse stakeholders including local leaders, local and state government, local and regional NGOs and researchers, who met voluntarily in the municipality. In addition to project development, REDESUAPA created synergies among ongoing efforts and aimed at influencing public policy based on a systemic view of the territory, promoting ecological restoration, sustainable farming and community-based tourism. For instance, in 2016, REDESUAPA wrote an open letter addressed to the candidates running for Mayor asking for their commitment to priority guidelines for urban and rural sustainable development in the municipality. The network played a key role in the efforts to bring investments of a big project to the region, which is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The Recovery and protection of climate and biodiversity services in the Paraíba do Sul Basin of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil project is based on Payments for Environmental Services (PES) and other incentives for sustainable land management and conservation in private lands. The members of REDESUAPA are still in touch with each other, but the network itself is on ‘standby mode’. However, the synergies created by REDESUAPA are reflected in a number of other initiatives concerning local development, conservation and ecological restoration.

^*The data and analysis on the social-ecological system of São Luiz and Catuçaba refer to the period 2012-2017. The authors acknowledge that changes have occurred in the system since then. Although they are not analysed here, we have added some information about the current situation, based on non-systematic observation.

Practical Outcomes

The development of initiatives is neither easy nor fast, but they have certainly been flourishing and creating arenas for community learning, empowerment, and development in São Luiz do Paraitinga (including Catuçaba). Although the 2010 flood was an important trigger to various initiatives, it is still unclear how successful they will be in terms of self-maintenance and mitigating the risk of floods in the future.

These bottom-up initiatives have valorized rural livelihoods and fostered opportunities for people to remain in rural areas. Inhabitants have been self-organizing to strengthen the Caipira identity, preserve local traditions (e.g., festivities and foods), and promote local development, with an overall understanding that their good quality of life depends on nature conservation⁽³⁾. Small, low-cost initiatives triggered improvements in the community capacity to organize and act collectively for a common goal⁽⁴⁾, although leadership and broader participation of community members in such initiatives remains a challenge.

Bridging organizations, such as NGOs and university teams, play a crucial role in linking local stakeholders with one another and with outside institutions (i.e. State Environmental authorities and funding agencies), facilitating learning opportunities, fundraising and providing access to technical advisory⁽¹⁾. In the course of creating environments where diverse local and outside stakeholders can interact and collaborate (Figure 4), the initiatives have generated a feedback loop, which is attracting more and more initiatives.

Figure 4: Caipira meeting in January 2017, where members of Catuçaba community and their external supporters discussed local development, nature and culture.

Until 2017, several stakeholders were joining efforts to work synergistically, for instance through REDESUAPA, to positively transform the region’s landscape at the watershed level. The efforts were benefitting from both bottom-up and top-down initiatives, taking into account both local knowledge and technical/scientific expertise, and involving stakeholders with different levels of political power. Above all, these efforts involve a diverse array of individuals who believe in a more sustainable and just society, and struggle year after year to accomplish their vision.

In face of socio-ecological change over the last decade, various community initiatives towards conservation and social development have emerged in São Luiz do Paraitinga^{(3, 4)}. Many tourism-related activities have been developing, especially those regarding ecotourism (e.g., farm hotels and rafting) and cultural tourism (e.g., religious, art and local food festivities). More recently, other community initiatives were established as local markets of agro-ecological products and craft fairs. After the 2010 floods, the municipality drew the attention of many governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) favouring the emergence of new environmental and social initiatives. The success of these initiatives has depended on population engagement and participation, as well as aligning to local demands and inherent dynamics of the local SES. The question ahead may be if and how these initiatives will thrive or perish in the long term, and which factors will determine their course.

References

Acknowledgements

We thank the population of São Luiz do Paraitinga and, in particular, of Catuçaba community, the NGO Akarui, and REDESUAPA for their commitment and availability for our projects. We also thank SSHRC/CCRN, CAPES, CNPq, PREAC/UNICAMP and FAPESP for funding. The project also received a strong support from our entire CGCommons Team (The Commons Conservation and Management group at University of Campinas, Brazil).

View the complete CCRN’s Haruku Village Community Story as a PDF

Ahmad Mony and Arif Satria

Key Messages

• Haruku village is a coastal community that uses sasi laut a local knowledge and culture-based practice of coastal resource conservation.
• Sasi laut was weakened in the 1980s and the early part of the 2000s, due to a lack of government concern about destructive fishing activities as well as the Maluku conflict in 1999-2002. Subsequently, starting in early 2004, through the cooperation of multiple stakeholders, the sasi laut system has strengthened, helping local fishing communities to consider global issues related to conservation practices.
• Cooperation of multiple parties at multiple levels is the best approach for sustainable sasi laut practices.

Community Profile

Haruku Village is located in the island of the same name, in Malaku Province, Indonesia (Figure 1). Most of the island is hilly terrain and nearly all of the population is along the coast. The island consists of four Muslim villages and seven Christian villages ⁽¹⁾. The people of Haruku Island depend on the plantation sector as their main livelihood. Marine resources are not yet used as the main support system for livelihoods due to limitations on local utilisation of fishery commodities.

In the island, an indigenous practice of coastal resource protection, called sasi laut, has been used for hundreds of years. Sasi laut is a form of traditional institution regulating the management of coastal resources based on the knowledge, norms and value systems of the Indigenous people of Maluku.

Figure 1: Location of Haruku Island

This system regulates the rights and obligations of the indigenous peoples in utilizing and protecting coastal resources. As defined by Harkes and Novaczek (2000, pp.1-3), sasi laut “…prohibits the use of destructive and intensive gear (poisonous plants and chemicals, explosives, small mesh lift-nets), but also defines seasonal rules of entry, harvest and activities allowed in specific parts of the sea. The regulations are guarded and enforced by an institution known as the kewang, which functions as a local police force. Their legitimacy, as well as that of the sasi institution itself, is based on adat or customary law”.

Sasi laut has been implemented by the Harukunese for over 400 years. This practice is related to the establishment of Haruku Village and their motivation to save lompa fish (Thrissima balema), a sacred fish species relating to the history of the founding of the village (Figure 2) ⁽⁴⁾.

Figure 2: Harvesting Lompa Fish

Climate change in these coastal areas, which is characterised by ecological and seasonal changes, has provided an understanding for indigenous peoples about the importance of maintaining sasi laut as a local institution to protect coastal areas. Maintaining sasi laut, amidst the impacts of climate change and social transformation, will have an important impact on the preservation of coastal and inland resources, the preservation of culture, and ensuring the availability of fish in the waters.

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

Recently, the practices of sasi laut has weakened due to the external and internal pressures of the actors involved. The external factors that threatened the existence of the legal practice of sasi laut were modernisation and commercialisation, which resulted in the erosion of traditional values⁽²⁾. Within the Haruku society, sasi laut practices were faced with challenges, such as internal political conflicts, competition in the local economy, regeneration of kewang, and the power of outsiders who did not consider the social and cultural conditions of the indigenous community. In addition, locals spoke of such factors as access to fishery commodity markets, capital limitation, and lack of human resources as the main constraints to switch the orientation of their livelihood income from the plantation to fishery systems (i.e., fishing/aquaculture).

The actors involved in the development of sasi laut had three main interests, economic, ecological and cultural. The economic interests were normally represented by communities, businesses, and local governments. The ecological interests were represented by the traditional leaders, NGOs, universities, donor agencies, environmentalists and researchers. Meanwhile, cultural interests were represented by the indigenous communities, universities, and government. This mixture of interests in the region created uncertainty about the implementation of sasi laut, as kewang were unsure of which motivations to follow, thus weakening sasi laut practices.

Community Initiative

The indigenous community of Haruku, which had been more moderate and adaptive to the issues of coastal resource management, drew on cooperation among actors to further develop sasi laut. Advocacy of relationships with outside parties aroused a new awareness to expand the scope of sasi laut, and the adaptation of new values in sasi laut gained the support of the community. Furthermore, the people were actively involved in such programmes as a mangrove nursery and rehabilitation of mangrove areas in the estuary of the Learisa Kayeli River, one of the lompa fish habitats. The importance of mangrove rehabilitation had been increasingly recognized after the occurrence of coastal erosion in the last few years, which directly threatens human settlements and other public infrastructure.

Practical Outcomes

Due to both external and internal pressures, changes in the political, governance, natural resources and societal livelihood systems have affected the orientation of the sasi laut management system in Maluku, resulting in some positive and negative changes:

First, there has been an increasing awareness of efforts to protect coastal areas and the natural resources therein. This awareness encouraged the emergence of the kewang, assisted by outside parties, such as NGOs and donor agencies, to widen the area protection of the sasi laut system on other resources.

Figure 3: Village Leaders of Haruku

Second, the emergence of gender awareness has encouraged women’s involvement in the sasi laut institution. The involvement of women in the institution was based on the consideration that one of the dimensions of indigenous sasi is female, providing a certain space for the presence of women in the sasi institution pertaining to the processes of law enforcement against woman offenders on sasi.

Third, as a social institution, sasi is vulnerable to family economic problems during its implementation. To overcome this problem, kewang have been provided a business unit in the form of economic management of marine tourism. Kewang have some guest houses with some units rented to researchers and tourists (local and foreign) visiting the Haruku Island, thereby providing additional income locally.

Figure 4: Gosong Bird Conservation

Fourth, there has been a decline in involvement in kewang that is needed to perform surveillance on resources. Some NGOs and donors have noticed problems of kewang regeneration through education and training.

Fifth, the rise of awareness of kewang, and their experience in dealing with outside parties (NGOs, universities and donors) has encouraged kewang empowerment. Kewang of Negeri Haruku have established the Foundation of Haru-Ukui Kalesang to empower kewang in Maluku and coordinate implementation of inter-kewang of sasi laut in Haruku Island. Through this foundation, the kewang in Haruku Island have facilitated some kewang leaders from other villages to attend national seminars on coastal conservation and empowerment of indigenous people (Figure 3).

Recently sasi laut has been developed by expanding the objects of conservation, including mangrove ecosystems, the Gosong bird (Eulipoa wallacei, or Moloccan scrubfowl), turtles, and other coastal resources (Figure 4). In addition, sasi luat is supporting marine tourism through a sasi laut festival in Haruku Village (Figure 5). Gender discourse has also been adopted through the representation of women in the local police corps, kewang. This was facilitated through the efforts made by such external parties as NGOs, donor agencies, and universities.

Figure 5: Sasi Laut Festival of Haruku Village

In terms of legislation, the practice of local wisdom in Indonesia, such as sasi laut, has been recognized by the state through various laws and regulations. Political and natural resource governance changes, coupled with the strengthening of marine conservation discourse in Indonesia, make sasi laut more effective for coastal area protection and resources therein.

In Maluku, the strengthening of sasi laut practices is able to answer the challenges of sustainability in the local system, particularly in implementing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), amid global efforts to develop marine conservation networks. Therefore, the authority of sasi laut management must be responsive to the dynamics of the political system, economy, law, governance, science and technology. In conclusion, the transformation of sasi laut should be aimed at strengthening the capacity of human and institutional resources that are adaptive and responsive to external changes.

References

Acknowledgements

Our gratitude is expressed to the community of Haruku Village who has assisted us a lot in collecting data for this research.

View the CCRN’s Maya Zone Community Story as a PDF

Karla Diana Infante-Ramírez, Malloni Puc-Alcocer and *A. Minerva Arce-Ibarra El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Mexico (ECOSUR), *aarce@ecosur.mx and aibarra@dal.ca

Key Messages

• The Maya Zone’s tropical rainforests in Quintana Roo state of Mexico provide many provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services.
• Both the government and the Maya people themselves have their own meanings of conservation and their own motivations for conservation.
• Community conservation initiatives must be part of national and international conservation programs.

Community Introduction

Quintana Roo’s “Maya Zone”, located in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, is a biocultural region with inhabitants who speak the Maya-Yucatec language in their daily lives. The Maya people rely on rainforest resources and agriculture as their main livelihoods. Maya communities also practice slash-and burn-cultivation (“milpa”) which is regarded as a cultural tradition. The communities are organized into common holdings called “ejidos”. Here we focus on the ejidos of Noh Cah and X-Maben (Figure 1), particularly their main towns (“Noh Cah” and “Señor”), with 86 and 3,095 inhabitants, respectively. In socio-economic terms, these communities are highly marginalized.

The Maya Zone is located in well-preserved tracts of tropical rainforest which provides a portfolio of ecosystem services1,2 to the users and communities dependent on it, including: a) provisioning services such as food (e.g., small-scale game, gathering of medicinal plants, and fish from water-filled sinkholes called “cenotes”); b) regulating services such as protection from hurricanes; c) cultural services such as using the sacred “cenotes” for baptism, and recreational inland fisheries; and d) supporting services including CO2 sink source.

The Maya people from these communities utilize these various services, and engage in conservation activities that help to maintain the services. The complex meanings they have for such conservation, as well as their motivations for conservation, are important factors in the social subsystem of the Maya Zone.

Figure 1. Study area in Quintana Roo´s Maya Zone.

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

The Maya Zone area has been impacted by the effects of climatic variability (climate change). Over the last three decades, people in the communities have reported that rains have not arrived at expected times or in usual quantities. This has affected the productivity of traditional agriculture (“milpa”), a rain-fed system, resulting in insufficient harvests of staple foods to support local needs3. In addition to this challenge, several species are endangered in the region, for instance, the jaguar and the peccary, affecting biodiversity and the local residents.

In the 1990s, the federal government launched an international initiative on biodiversity conservation called the “Mesoamerican Biological Corridor”. However, that conservation program was based on a top-down approach, and hence did not (and still does not) take into account the kind of local conservation activities practiced by the local people. Being descendants of the ancient Maya civilization, and depending heavily on rainforest resources, people in communities of this area still actively look after those resources.

Community Initiative

Local authorities in the Maya Zone actively explore opportunities to receive support for environmental activities. A recent example was the possibility of applying for funding to a federal ‘payment for environmental services’ program. The local authorities recognized that many locals did not understand (from a Western-science perspective) what “an environmental service” was, and thus engaged with the CCRN-ECOSUR team to organize a seminar on ‘what is an environmental service’ and the ‘payment for environmental services’ program. Other seminars have been held, on topics suggested by the local residents and others suggested by the CCRN-ECOSUR team. Another was about “Climatic variability in the Yucatan Peninsula” (Figure 2) and addressed the influence of major weather events, for example the “El Niño Southern Oscillation” (ENSO), which affects mainly primary activities in the region.

These seminars aimed to improve the capacity of the communities in dealing with climate variability. This capacity building is being accompanied by monitoring of the Maya social-ecological system using indicators focused on climate variability and its impact on livelihoods, such as slash and burn-shifting cultivation.

Figure 2. Seminar presentation on “Climatic variability in the Yucatan Peninsula” delivered to inhabitants of Noh cah and “Señor” Maya communities by Karla Infante Ramírez (Photo credit: Karina Chale Silveira).

The capacity building activities that locals and community groups participated in also looked at the local meanings of conservation and motivations toward conservation. The results, presented back to the communities, provide feedback based on their experience and local knowledge (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Presenting results on the meanings of ‘Conservation’ back to Noh Cah inhabitants by Malloni Puc Alcocer. As local people from Noh cah prefer to discuss in the Maya language, Mr. Xool (red cap) worked in the research team as a translator (Photo credit: A. Minerva Arce-Ibarra).

Practical Outcomes

Understanding the meanings and motivations of the Maya people towards conservation is a complex subject. Research results indicate that there are two types of motivations for conservation in these Maya communities, namely extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. The former derives from government-based conservation programs, whereas the latter are people’s own motivations. According to Puc-Alcocer4, two types of conservation of the rainforest are in place in this region: one referring to the conservation programs implemented by the government and the other (the Kanan K’áax) which is a type of Maya community-based conservation. “Kanan K’áax” is a Maya phrase and literally means “to look after the rainforest” (Kanan means ‘look after’ and K’áax means ‘rainforest’).

Local Maya conservation initiatives that are in place need to be included in national and international conservation programs. Therefore, it is suggested that the improved understanding of Maya meanings and motivations for conservation reflected here be taken into consideration by conservation initiatives such as the “Mesoamerican Biological Corridor” and also by state institutions dealing with development programs in the Maya area and elsewhere in Mexico.

References

1. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Millennium ecosystem assessment synthesis report. Island Press. Washington, D.C.

2. Infante-Ramírez, K. D. and Arce-Ibarra, A.M. (2015). Percepción local de los servicios ecológicos y de bienestar de la selva de la zona maya en Quintana Roo, México [Local perception of the ecological services and well-being of the Maya Zone’s rainforest from Quintana Roo, México]. Investigaciones Geográficas, Boletín del Instituto de Geografía, 2015(86), 67-81.

3. Bello-Baltazar, E. (2001). Milpa y madera, la organización de producción entre Mayas de Quintana Roo. Doctor of Science Thesis in Social Anthropology. Universidad Iberoamericana, México, DF.

4. Puc Alcocer, M. 2015. Conservación comunitaria de la selva maya en los ejidos Noh-Cah y X-maben, Quintana Roo. [Community-based conservation of the rainforest at the common holdings of Noh Cah and X-Maben, Quintana Roo]. Masters Thesis. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur. Chetumal.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Maya people and their local authorities for granting us consent to undertake research on their lands. Our main source of funding came from the SSHRC-CCRN project. We thank all the support received from Saint Mary´s University and CCRN staff. Partial support for our research came from ECOSUR and CONACyT fiscal funds. CONACyT also granted scholarships to pursue the graduate studies of K.D. Infante-Ramírez and M. Puc-Alcocer.

View the complete CCRN’s Qeshm Island Community Story as a PDF

Razieh Ghayoumi and Anthony Charles

Key Messages   

• The people and communities of Qeshm Island, a UNESCO Global Geopark, have a strong connection to the land and sea. This connection, and a strong sense of environmental belonging, has encouraged them to actively participate in community conservation, and to develop sustainable livelihoods.

• Qeshm Island is home to sacred sites and species, which can provide a foundation for community-based conservation areas.

• Ecotourism offers economic, ecological and conservation benefits to the residents of Qeshm Island, while being respectful to the local culture and new forms of livelihood.

Community Profile

Figure 1: Map of Iran and Qeshm Island

Qeshm Island is well known due to the region’s historical background, customs, traditional clothes, fishing, festivals, sacred sites and ecotourism attractions – such as mangrove forests, turtle hatcheries, coral reefs, coastal diversity, marine mammals, and attractive geographical phenomena^(9,3). The main sources of income for the people on Qeshm Island are fishing and maritime trade⁽³⁾.

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

Local communities in Qeshm Island face numerous threats and obstacles to sustainable development, including lack of recognition, inappropriate tourism, climate change, acculturation (influx of non-native people for trade and visiting), inappropriate development, illegitimate jobs (smuggling clothes and foods), overfishing, pollution, capacity for oil/gas/mineral exploration, habitat reduction, hot weather, limited fresh water resources and lack of appropriate infrastructure.

Community Initiatives

Two decades after development increased on Qeshm Island, the local people show resilience to detrimental change and they have increased their efforts to keep their traditions alive, conserve the environment, and build the economy in a way that fits with local values. The local communities reflect a sense of belonging, livelihood needs and spiritual and social values in their involvement with conservation, and in learning how to develop tourism based on their natural attractions and their culture⁽⁹⁾.

Culture

Figure 3: A water reservoir in Laft Historical Port, Qeshm Island

Conservation

Practical outcomes

Figure 4: Setting up a safe place for turtle egg hatching and monitoring in Shibderaz village, Qeshm Island

References

13 For further information, please see: http://qeshmgeopark.ir/en/pages/geopark/unesco-global-geopark

Acknowledgement

See below for the Persian language abstract for this community story, ” جزیره قشم، جنوب ایران , راهبری حفاظت با مشارکت جامعه و اکوتوریسم”

View the CCRN’s Tanzania Community Story as  PDF

Key Messages

Activities are underwayin the Saadani National Park area intended to result in:

• Involving communities in alternative, environmentally compatible livelihood activities that improve well-being for local residents.
• Improving the relationship between the management of Saadani National Park and the surrounding communities.
• Improving land management to arrest deforestation and ensure conservation of critical resource features both within and outside the national park.

Community Introduction

Tanzania’s Saadani National Park, established in 2005 with an area of 1,100 km2, is a coastal strip along the Indian Ocean north of Dar es Salaam. Within the national park system, Saadani is the only coastal park and is especially important for protecting rapidly diminishing coastal forests, the Wami River estuary and mangrove environments, along with a marine component of offshore coral reefs and turtle rearing beach(1).

Figure 1: Map of the Saadani Natinal Park in Tanzania

Four ecozones make up Saadani National Park: the marine environment of the Indian Ocean; the fresh water ecosystem of the major river courses; the coastal forests; and the humid savanna. The marine environment includes the breeding areas and habitat for over 40 fish species and significant populations of gastropods, echinoderms and corals. Mangrove forests and salt pans are located in the central and southern Saadani. Additionally, nesting beaches of the threatened green turtle are protected within the park. The Wami River and its corridor along the southern border of the area remains an important natural freshwater system especially in the river’s lower reaches. The coastal forest zone is critical for regulating the water cycle and provides habitat for a wide variety of mammals including elephants, leopards, kudu, suni, duiker, bush babies and Colobus monkeys. The humid savanna, including long grass, short grass and black cotton plains, supports grazers and browsers such as hartebeest, waterbuck, buffalo, and reedbuck.

Figure 2: Hippos in the Wami River, Saadani National Park (Photo Credit B.K. Downie)

The park was created from three major components of crown land which together comprised approximately 500 km2 of the total land area. Negotiations with villages of the area resulted in the remainder of the park being composed of former village lands(2,3). However, community residents do not believe that the benefit commitments made by the Tanzania National Parks Agency (TANAPA) in exchange for the land, such as employment and community services, have been realized(4). Furthermore disputes over the actual boundary of the park continue and remain extremely contentious(5). TANAPA wants to retain existing lands and believes that more land needs to be added to the park to ensure integrity of key resources(6).

The Saadani Community

The villages bordering Saadani National Park are small and subsistence livelihood based, with fishing dominating along the coast and agriculture taking over in inland communities. Services remain limited and public infrastructure is poor. The economies of the villages are very small and dominated by micro enterprises linked to and supplementing the production from subsistence agriculture and fishing.

Salt production is the only industrial activity in the immediate area although sisal plantations exist to the north and a sugar cane plantation is proposed in the southwest corner of the area. Tourist lodge facilities pre-dated the park and have expanded since park establishment, although by comparison to other national parks in Tanzania, both numbers of sites and park visitation remain relatively small(4).

Figure 3: Small business enterprise in Saadani village (Photo Credit B.K. Downie)

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

Although relatively close to major population centres, the infrastructure of the Saadani, including water and power systems, transportation and communications, are not well developed due to the small and dispersed population. Local village economies remain very small with limited wage, employment, and public services such as education and health care.

The interaction between resource extraction and environmental change is the biggest challenge facing the Saadani. Species that have supported both human need and ecosystem function are being diminished or lost due to overharvesting, resulting in the associated impact on other species. For example, as fresh water fish stocks decline in the Wami River, the dependent bird and reptile species diminish as well. Population pressure leads to increased conversion of land to agriculture, which diminishes the coastal forest cover and impacts the water regime, which in turn impacts agricultural productivity.

Figure 4: Fisher in dhow off the coast (Photo Credit B.K. Downie)

Sensitive and vulnerable landscapes present significant challenges for conservation and management in the context of the Saadani and have been the focus of some of the conflict between the park and the communities. Coral reefs, as an example, have experienced considerable degradation. With the establishment of the park, a key reef and island complex was closed to community harvest. Mangroves, also highly impacted by human activity, are a priority for protection within the park and additional areas currently outside the park are a priority for acquisition.

Incompatible land uses also illustrate the conflict between conservation and community needs. A private sector salt producer currently operates in an enclave within the park and park management wants the operation closed and the area added to the park. However, the salt company is one of the few employers in the area and closing the operation would seriously impact potential wage employment for local people. Similarly, the most severe environmental impact in the area is the diminishing forest land which is being converted to agriculture or simply removed for the production of charcoal. This land use pattern will have an inevitable negative impact on the viability of the park unless the trend is reversed, yet land for agriculture and the energy and income resulting from charcoal production will be extremely challenging to replace.

Community Initiative

Given the above situation, there are great needs for:

• Community led activities that foster long-term sustainability of community based conservation and development initiatives.
• Support for local communities, both rural and urban, to understand the conservation values of the environment in which they live.
• Support for communities to implement development interventions that are compatible with and build on those natural resource values.
• Support for protected areas management agencies to work with local communities in the cooperative achievement of both protected areas and community objectives.

Figure 5: Fishers in Saadani village going to fish (Photo Credit B.K. Downie)

These activities have been undertaken by the Kesho Trust, a Canadian charitable organization (registered 2005) and also registered as a Tanzanian NGO (2006). The Kesho Trust has a long term commitment to the Saadani area and is involved in a variety of initiatives in the area. As part of their ongoing work, the Kesho trust initiated a project called Promoting Environmental Conservation and Cooperation (PECC) in the Saadani in 2013. The purpose of this project was to help improve the relationships between villagers and the Saadani Park management through understanding and discussion. The project established, and works with, 10 person committees in each of the six communities in the area (Buyuni, Gongo, Matipwili, Mkange, Mkwaja, Saadani).

In September, 2015 a series of meetings was held in three out of the six PECC communities and then a workshop was convened with two representatives from each of the community committees to review the progress of PECC. Participants were asked to explain what was working effectively and why and how they felt the project was affecting their relationships with the park. The outcomes were positive and people were keen to continue the work of the committees in each village(7).

Practical Outcomes

A recent review of PECC identified four key project activities as being the most beneficial to the Saadani area communities.

Communication

The opportunity to have important issues heard and discussed with park staff was critical for village participants, even if solutions were not immediately possible.

Community Collaboration

Meeting with other village communities was important in understanding that others experienced similar issues and that there were potential collective solutions.

Observing other Conservation Organisations

Visits to conservation organisations and agencies in Dar es Salaam provided new information and ideas about ways to work with designated conservation areas. Visiting the Wildlife Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources was considered to be especially valuable.

Education

Developing, and using songs, drama and poems helped people in their villages learn about the process and benefits of conservation.

Figure 6: PECC workshop with representatives from all six participating villages (Photo Credit B.K. Downie)

References

1. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). (2009). Saadani National Park: general management plan 2010-2020 (p. 168). Arusha, Tanzania: TANAPA.
2. Baldus, R. D., Roettcher, K., & Broska, D. (2001). An introduction to Tanzania’s future 13th national park (Tanzania Wildlife Discussion Paper No. 30). Dar es Salaam: GTZ Wildlife Programme in Tanzania.
3. Bloesch, U., & Klötzli, F. (2004). Coastal forests of the Saadani National Park (Tanzania Wildlife Discussion Paper No. 37) (p. 30). Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Tanzania Wildlife Discussion Paper.
4. Downie, B. K. (2015). Conservation influences on livelihood decision-making: A case study from Saadani National Park, Tanzania. PhD Thesis. Victoria: University of Victoria.
5. Orozco-Quintero, A. (2014). Uvinje Village and Saadani National Park, Tanzania. Retrieved from http://www.justconservation.org/uvinje-village-and-saadani-national-park,-tanzania
6. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). (2014). Research priorities for national parks (p. 46). Arusha, Tanzania: TANAPA.
7. Downie, B.K. (2016). Towards the resolution of a conservation and community conflict: A Tanzania case study. Policy Matters. 20. (p. 66-80).

Acknowledgements

The commitment and support of the people of the Saadani area villages has made the work possible. Funding support beyond the ongoing donations to the Kesho Trust by private individuals has come from two donor organizations: 1) initial stages of the PECC project were funded by the Tanzania Foundation for Civil Society; and, 2) a recent project review and subsequent workshops, focused on community based tourism as an alternative livelihood activity, was supported by IUCN.

See below for the Swahili language abstract for this community story, “Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Saadani, Tanzania: Kukuza Uendelevu wa Muda Mrefu wa Uhifadhi wa Kijamii na Maendeleo.”

A video concerning the Kesho Trust  project Promoting Environmental Conservation and Cooperation (PECC)

View the CCRN’s The Gambia Community Story as a PDF

Cathy Conrad*, Amy Berry and Meagan Symington Saint Mary’s University; *cconrad@smu.ca

Key Messages

• Tujereng is a coastal community being negatively impacted by the adverse effects of climate change and has been developing innovative conservation, mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce their vulnerability.
• CCRN researchers worked with the community to tell their story and provide policy recommendations to enhance the resilience of coastal communities and their ecosystems.
• Community members in Tujereng have pursued the government’s Community Forestry Programme (CFP), seeking new ways to sustain and expand local conservation efforts.

Community Introduction

The Gambia, located in sub-Saharan West Africa (Figure 1), is extremely vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. These include erratic rainfall patterns, extended drought, flooding, coastal erosion and sea level rise(1). These impacts will exacerbate current challenges of desertification, deforestation and decreasing water quality.

Figure 1: Map – The Gambia (Cartography: Will Flanagan)

The coastline consists of 80 km along the Atlantic Ocean and 200 km along the Gambia River, covered in mangroves and mudflats(2). Mangroves help protect coastal areas from flooding, provide crucial habitats for fish spawning, and are imperative for rice farming(3). Agricultural practices, along with tilapia, shrimp, and oyster farming, provide significant economic and livelihoods benefits in the country(4).

Conservation and Livelihood Challenges

The Gambia lacks necessary policies to adequately protect the coastal zone(2) (Figure 2). Citizens have reported feelings of anxiousness, uncertainty, and helplessness in response to a rapidly changing climate(5).

Figure 2: Coastal Zone in The Gambia – The Commuity of Tujereng. (Photo Credit: Oliver Woods)

Subsistence farmers and small-scale fishermen who rely heavily on their local environmental knowledge are the most likely to be impacted. In some cases, traditional knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation, such as which crops to plant, where to hunt, and what weather to expect in a given season, is no longer reliable(6). Inhabitants who are highly vulnerable to perturbations in their environment have limited adaptive capacity to mitigate or adjust to the climatic impacts, yet, insufficient adaptation planning has occurred.

Community Initiative

Environmental Policy in The Gambia:
The Government of The Gambia created the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) in 2007, to identify the priority needs and activities in response to climate change. One of its priority projects was the expansion of community participation in the management of forests and protected areas. Globally, the management of forests is significant as deforestation is the second leading cause of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions(7) – a leading contributor to climate change. In response, community-based forest conservation initiatives are increasing across The Gambia. To implement the NAPA, the government focused on Village Development Committees (VDC). Each community has a VDC with 10-12 members responsible for increasing the participation of rural communities in development processes(8). In theory, using VDCs would be more effective for designing and implementing adaptation strategies. However, VDCs sometimes exclude traditionally marginalized groups, and thus fail to fully represent all stakeholders in the process.

The CCRN and Tujereng
As part of a multi-scale alliance, CCRN researchers conducted community interviews (Figure 3) and workshops involving 33 youth and 43 adults in collaboration with the Department of Water Resources, National Environment Agency, Department of Forestry, Tujereng VDC, Mori Kunda Community Forest Committee, and Nova Scotia Gambia Association (NSGA). The goal of this alliance is to look at “how participatory adaptation (or mitigation) strategies are taking place” using a multi-sectorial approach. Additionally, incorporating local perceptions and indigenous knowledge will help mainstream climate change with other development issues in the community.

Figure 3: Interview with Tujereng Community Member. (Photo Credit: Oliver Woods)

Practical Outcomes

These partners were able to achieve the following outcomes: (1) document climate change and environmental perceptions which were previously unknown or underrepresented, (2) deliver effective educational interventions through successful collaboration with governmental and non-governmental agencies, (3) offer policy recommendations to improve environmental conservation and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for the benefit of local communities and future NAPA strategies. In addition, key trends emerged:

Voices Being Heard
Too often, climate discussions have been dominated by the voices of scientific experts, media broadcasters, and politicians, using modeling data and statistics, policy statements and executive summaries. The alliance of communities, government and researchers attempted to fill this gap, creating spaces for Tujereng to voice their concerns and evaluate the policies and management plans (the NAPA and the Community Forestry Programme) which affect their daily lives (Figure 4). Thus, giving a voice to Gambians who are living through climate change; to share what they have to say about their experiences and challenges and to encourage consideration. Their relationship with their environment is being transformed, and this collaboration worked to provide meaningful and context-specific community-based educational opportunities, as well as working towards integrating the voices and perceptions of the community into government policies.

Figure 4: Consulting with the Tujereng Council of Elders. (Photo Credit: Oliver Woods)

Unpredictable Weather is Invalidating Certain Traditional Knowledge
Knowledge passed down from parent to child has long dictated which crops to plant, when, where, and what yields to expect, although this is increasingly being affected by climate change. Farmers have suffered unpredictable, irregular rainy seasons in recent years largely invalidating their traditional knowledge. For fishers, changing wind patterns are preventing them from fishing in certain areas. The adaptive capacity of Gambians to respond to climate change is already very low, leading to concern for well-being, especially of vulnerable members of society.

Lessons learned from the Community Forestry Programme (CFP)
Tujereng is threatened by water and food insecurity, as well as forest loss and degradation, thus increasing their vulnerability to climate change. In an attempt to protect local forest reserves, community members in Tujereng have pursued the government’s Community Forestry Programme (CFP), seeking new ways to sustain and expand local conservation efforts. Community engagement with internal and external agencies provides further support to this process by creating spaces for enhanced collaboration, education, and linkages between actors.

Communal Leadership
Tujereng is well-organized, with a well-respected Alkalo (village head) and strong sense of communal leadership. Men and women from various ages and associations are routinely consulted on different community matters. Every Sunday a ‘Council of Elders’ holds a ‘community court’ where local disputes can be brought to the attention of, and mediated by, community members. The community court is at times used to discuss environmental issues and advocate for conservation initiatives within the community.

The Role of Community Groups
Within the community, several groups are influential in forest conservation. The Mori Kunda clan, known as religious scholars and traditional healers, are responsible for the protection of the nearby forest, which provides forest products and traditional medicine. The Mori Kunda contribute to the wider community of Tujereng by providing communal resources such as firewood for gatherings or fencing materials for local soccer fields and school grounds. The Tujereng NSGA Peer Health Educators (PHE) also contribute to forest conservation by educating their peers and the larger community about environmental stewardship as a means of empowerment and knowledge mobilization through the use of drama (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Tujereng Peer Health Educators. (Photo Credit: Oliver Woods)

Major obstacles to the CFP include enforcement, economic sustainability and the regeneration of indigenous vegetation. Moreover, the CFP in Tujereng does not currently include mangroves, which could considerably improve the overall climate adaptation strategy and decrease local vulnerability to food insecurity. The integration of local knowledge has a strong capacity to enhance the community’s motivation for environmental stewardship through public environmental education and awareness-building programs as well as enforcement initiatives.

References

1. Government of The Gambia. (2013). Mainstreaming climate change resilience into development planning in the Gambia. International Institute for Environment and Development. Banjul: The Gambian Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.

2. Drammeh, F. (2013). Assessing and adapting to Climate-Change Induced Sea-level rise on the Southern Coastline of The Gambia. New York: United Nations-Nippon Foundation Fellowship.

3. Jallow, B. (1999). Coastal zone of The Gambia and the Abidjan region in Côte d’Ivoire: sea level rise vulnerability, response strategies, and adaptation options. Climate Research, 12, 129–136.

4. Crow, B & Carney, j. (2013). Commercializing Nature: Mangrove Conservation and Female Oyster Collectors in The Gambia. Antipode, 45(2): 275–293.

5. Turner, N.J., Clifton, H. (2009). “It’s so different today”: Climate change and indigenous lifeways in British Columbia, Canada. Global Environmental Change 19, 180-190.

6. Vedwan, N., Rhoades R.E. (2001). Climate change in the Western Himalayas of India: a study of local perception and response. Climate Research 19, 109-117.

7. UNEP, FAO, UNFF. (2009). Vital Forest Graphics. [Lambrechts, C., Wilkie, M., Rucevska, I. & Sen, M. (Eds.)]. Nairobi, KE: UNEP/GRID-Arendal.

8. National Environment Agency. (2010). State of the Environment Report (SER-TG). 2nd ed. Jimpex Road, Kanifing, The Gambia-West Africa.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the community of Tujereng, the Mori Kunda Community Forest Committee, the Nova Scotia Gambia Association, the National Environment Agency, the Department of Water Resources, and the Department of Forestry in The Gambia as well as the Robin Rigby Trust Fund.

This research is being carried out with the aid of a Doctoral Research Award from the Canadian International Development Research Centre, a doctoral award from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, a SSHRC grant held by Dr. Derek Armitage as part of a Coastal-Marine Transformation Project, and support from the SSHRC-funded Community Conservation Research Network (CCRN).

View the complete CCRN’s Punta Allen Community Story as a PDF

Juan Carlos Seijo and Maren Headley

Key Messages

• Through a combination of a community-based co-management and territorial user rights, the Vigía Chico Cooperative in Punta Allen has had great success in supporting resource conservation and management, and providing a stable livelihood for fishers and their community, in part through fishery harvest strategies used by small-scale fishers to help maintain stable profits.
• Fishers are building their understanding of the environmental and biological factors which affect the abundance, spatial availability of the spiny lobster resource and fishery profitability, and are exchanging knowledge about the possible effects of climate change and measures that can be taken by the community for adaptation and resilience.

Community profile

The Punta Allen community is located at the tip of a narrow peninsula, and is estimated to be less than one meter above sea level, with a population of around 600 persons. The major economic activities are the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) fishery and eco-tourism. The Vigía Chico Cooperative runs this fishery, which operates in Ascensión Bay, located in the Sian Ka’an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve^(3,4,5,6).

The Bay covers an area of 850 km² and includes a variety of habitats such as mangroves, corals, sponges, seagrass and macro-algae. For fishing and management purposes, the Bay has been divided up by the fishers into individual fishing grounds, locally known as ‘campos’, numbering 115⁽⁴⁾ (Figure 1).

Figure 1: A-Boundaries of Sian Ka’an Reserve (Source: From R. Borges, O. Guzman and K.L. Cooper in Orensanz and Seijo, 2013); B-Ascensión Bay and the individual fishing areas known as “campos” (Source: Orensanz and Seijo, 2013).

In each ‘campo’, fishers deploy artificial shelters, from which spiny lobsters are harvested, by free diving using a small hand held net, which allows females with eggs and undersized individuals to be replaced (Figure 2 & 3). There are 41 ‘campo’ owners, and each owner has exclusive fishing rights within their fishing ground. These rights are supported by internal working rules of the cooperative and respected amongst the fishers. The individual fishing grounds where artificial shelters have been introduced are located in 25 major fishing areas, which are characterised by different habitat and bottom types, and environmental parameters such as salinity and temperature.

Figure 2: Handheld net used to capture spiny lobsters (Photo Credit: Maren Headley).

The fishers have many incentives for this co-management approach, including high lobster catches, high prices, and the cohesive group structure of the cooperative. Co-management has helped the fishery to develop in a sustainable manner such that in 2012, it received Marine Stewardship Council Certification. Most of the rules and regulations are set by the fishers themselves. Although the government has set regulations, they support the co-management approach and there is good cooperation between the government and the fishers.

Figure 3: recently constructed artificial shelters on the beach (Photo Credit: Maren Headley)

Conservation and livelihood challenges

Lobster stocks are a valuable resource to many fishing communities worldwide, and daily changes in catch rates and profits make it difficult for fishers to make the best decisions throughout the fishing season. Factors which can affect the abundance of the spiny lobster include habitat quality, reproduction, and environmental conditions such as marine currents, hurricanes and climate change. In addition to the complexity of the fishery, the spiny lobster has a five-stage life cycle consisting of (i) adults; (ii) eggs; (iii) larvae; (iv) post-larvae and (v) juveniles, with each stage occupying different habitats⁽²⁾. Larvae develop over an estimated period of six to eight months in the ocean, drifting with the currents and forming connections among wider Caribbean spiny lobster populations. Regions with populations which produce their own larvae (sources), and others which receive more larvae than they produce (sinks) have been identified⁽¹⁾.

In many cases, these uncertainties lead to resource over-harvesting. These types of populations are known as meta-populations and require resource management at the local, national and international levels. It is therefore important that fishers and coastal communities have a good understanding of these factors.

Community initiatives

Being situated in a Biosphere Reserve, the Vigía Chico Cooperative has a long history of learning about their local ecosystem and engaging in conservation initiatives, through partnerships with research institutions and universities such as the University of Marista-Mérida. This has helped the community to build knowledge about:

• factors affecting the productivity and profitability of the fishery and its management implications;
• environmental and biological factors which affect the abundance of the spiny lobster resource;
• possible effects of climate change on the community and fishery, and measures that can be undertaken for adaptation and resilience; and
• relationships among catches of spiny lobster, density of artificial shelters, profitability and fishing area.

Figure 4: Twenty five (25) spiny lobster fishing areas in Ascension Bay.

Further studies will help the fishers understand the relationship among catches of spiny lobster, density of artificial shelters and profitability in the various fishing areas, and how they can adapt to varying resource abundance and profitability throughout the fishing seasons.

Practical Outcomes

References

Acknowledgements 

We appreciate the kind involvement and generosity of the Punta Allen community, and its spiny lobster fishing cooperative. Community fishers have been a source of learning and encouragement by sharing fishery knowledge and community wisdom. We thank Dr. Anthony Charles for editing of this manuscript.