Welcome to the quarterly Communities, Conservation & Livelihoods REVIEW, from the Community Conservation Research Network.
The CCL REVIEW focuses on local communities engaging in conservation and environmental stewardship, to sustain their local ecosystems and economies, around the world – as well as how governments, and others, can best support these community initiatives.
The “Spotlight” section features contributions from the Community Conservation Research Network, while the “Digest” section presents the latest news and resources from a wide range of sources, including international organizations, NGOs, civil society and reputable media outlets.
You are welcome to explore CCRN’s wide range of resources on community conservation and livelihoods, at the Communities, Conservation & Livelihoods website. We also invite you to connect on Twitter and Facebook to share some of these stories with friends and colleagues. Finally, for any questions or feedback, please contact us at CCRN@smu.ca.
Spotlight
The “Spotlight” section features new contributions from CCRN participants around the world.
Community-Based Land and Soil Conservation on Atauro Island, Timor-Leste
By Cintia Nascimento
In Timor-Leste, traditional rules, known as tara bandu, reflect customary law to manage the relationship between humans and between humans and natural resources (read more). Tara bandu has led to successful implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs). Now, on Atauro Island, community members, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the Timorese government have successfully started to implement water conservation and permaculture projects to improve land conservation and food security. As reported by the community leader of Vila Maumeta, Filipe Ximenes, these initiatives included community training with Permakultura Timor Leste (Permakultura Timor Lorosae – PERMATIL). The group trained community leaders from Vila Maumeta and Beloi villages by facilitating sustainable agriculture practices through permaculture systems aiming to conserve water resources, integrating pest prevention and agroforestry for farmers undertaking horticulture activities. As a country with a hot tropical climate with an extended dry season and without rivers, this training was an important initiative to help conserve crucial water sources available to local communities for drinking and watering crops, enabling communities to protect their environment and sustain their livelihoods.
Read the full story by Cintia Nascimento
Community Conservation Horizon Scan
A new ‘horizon scan’ has been produced, looking into the future of community-based conservation, to support development and strategy for effective community conservation over the next 15 years. The project, a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Wilder Institute, Calgary Zoo’s Conservation Team, identified key emerging themes related to six broad categories: global biodiversity policy; human and community rights; shifting human geography; diversity, equity, inclusion and inclusion access; conservation finance and income; and economic reform.
Many of the results fit with the goals and priorities of the Community Conservation Research Network, including increased recognition of Indigenous and community land tenure, resource management and cultural rights; power shifting from global, transnational, or neocolonial actors to local actors; co-creating knowledge across disciplines and cultures, elevating local and Indigenous perspectives; and increasing the diversity of conservation-compatible livelihoods.
To learn more about the project or to read the full briefing document, visit their website.
Members of the Community Conservation Research Network contributed to this project
A Message of Hope from One Indigenous Community to Another
When a group of Indigenous community members of the Carcross / Tagish First Nation from Yukon, Canada visited the Maasai of Ngorongoro and Elerai in Tanzania, everyone learned that their cultures are strikingly similar in the concepts, beliefs, and practices that underpin their traditions. The Yukon visitors met with Maasai people in Engaresero village at Lake Natron in northern Tanzania, then they travelled through Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which are landscapes that were once Maasai homeland, taken away in the name of formal conservation and now reaping huge benefits for government and the private sector while the Maasai struggle. A final destination was the Maasai community of Elerai, located at the southern edge of the Maasai Steppe in central Tanzania. Discussions among the Indigenous peoples found common ground in the struggles they went through in safeguarding their ways of life.Read the full story
Maasai elders (centre) in Elerai, Tanzania sharing their traditional knowledge with Sean McDougall (Carcross / Tagish First Nation, Canada – far right) through a young community interpreter (Robert Sakinoi – far left).
Spotlight on Ocean Governance
Acknowledging the potential and current work that local communities and green leaders are undertaking in environmental conservation is an important topic. This Spotlight focuses on recently published articles from CCRN members that look at local leaders in conservation and how to recognize their contributions. From small-scale fishers’ efforts in stewardship and conservation to ensuring equity and justice are included when managing ocean resources, this Spotlight covers a range of articles that ensure ocean governance is an inclusive process.
A fish market in the Solomon Islands. Many of the examples in the SSF Stewardship initiative highlight the role of traditional knowledge in the practices of SSF communities, and the importance of abundant and rich biodiversity and ecosystems for the survival of small-scale fisheries.
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP BY SMALL-SCALE FISHERS
A major global initiative, the SSF-Stewardship project, highlights local environmental conservation and stewardship efforts being made by small-scale fishers around the globe. A recent issue of Samudra magazine provides a report on the project, a collaboration of Saint Mary’s University, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and global fisher organizations. The article, ‘Recognizing Green Leaders’ (Macnaughton, Hicks, & Charles, 2022) describes the many stewardship experiences of small-scale fishers, shown on the SSF-Stewardship website. Such examples range from Greece, where small-scale fishers are promoting sustainability of endangered crayfish, to South Africa, where small-scale fishers are protecting nearshore fisheries from the impacts of industrial activities. The project highlights these many efforts in protecting and caring for the natural environment, fishery resources and fishing livelihoods.
EQUITY AND JUSTICE IN THE OCEAN
- Recognitional equity: the acknowledgement and consideration of local rights, values, visions, knowledge, needs and livelihoods in policy and practice;
- Procedural equity: the level of inclusiveness and participation in decision-making, and the embodiment of good governance principles;
- Distributional equity: the degree of fairness in the allocation of benefits, and the minimization of harms to local populations and among groups;
- Management equity: the extent of local capacity for, leadership in, and authority over management activities;
- Environmental equity: the safeguarding and maintenance of local environmental quality, sustainability, and nature’s benefits to people; and,
- Contextual equity: the extent to which broader contextual factors enable or undermine local social equity and the advancement of equity in policy and practice
BETTER PARTICIPATION OF FISHERS IN FISHERY MANAGEMENT
They combine both dimensions to better understand and assess co-management in practice. The authors provide insights into fishery management components that tend to have greater or lesser fisher participation, differences in perceived levels of current and desired participation, the willingness and capacity of fisher associations to take on various management tasks and potential directions to improve fishery co-management practices.
Spotlight on Natural Hazard Research
This Spotlight focuses on recently published articles relating to natural hazard and disaster risk management from members of the Community Conservation Research Network. The articles look at disaster risk reduction and how communities respond to natural hazards and disasters. A natural hazard is a natural phenomenon, such as hurricanes or wildfires, that might have a negative effect on humans, animals, or the environment. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster.
When it comes to planning for disasters, Haque and his colleagues (2021) looked at the contributions of social learning to disaster risk reduction in ‘Social learning for enhancing social-ecological resilience to disaster-shocks: A policy Delphi approach’. Their findings indicated that “social learning is useful in preparing for and responding to specific disaster events through communication; sharing experience, ideas and resources; creating synergies for collective action and promoting resilience.”
Similarly, Lejano and his colleagues (2021) also look at disaster risk in ‘Co-production of risk knowledge and improvement of risk communication: A three-legged stool’. The authors look at the future of disaster risk reduction programs and the role of risk knowledge and risk communication, viewing the public as being a co-producer of risk knowledge. They argue that disaster risk reduction needs to be reconsidered based on research focusing on Indigenous and local knowledge, social learning, and narrative ways of knowing.
In ‘Factors influencing hazard management by municipalities: The case of coastal communities’, Lalancette and Charles (2022) focus on planning for hazards, looking at local-level experiences with hazard planning and the responses carried out by coastal municipalities. This research, based on a comprehensive survey of Canadian coastal municipalities, provides insights on how to reduce community vulnerability and support community resilience.
The articles by Paterson and Charles (2019) also focus on local-level responses to hazards, but on an international basis. ‘Community-based responses to climate hazards: typology and global analysis’ examines patterns in, and variations of, community-level adaptation and disaster mitigation strategies, supporting local-level climate change adaptation.
The article by Paterson and Charles on ‘A global comparison of community-based responses to natural hazards’ explores hazard responses used by communities around the world, and how communities in different parts of the world vary in their responses.
Octopus fishery monitoring in Uwedikan Village, Indonesia. Photo by Christopel Paino.
Environmental Leadership by Small-Scale Fishers
A new online resource, produced by FAO and Saint Mary’s University, highlights the leadership of small-scale fishers in environmental conservation and stewardship worldwide. You are invited to visit the SSF-Stewardship website (click here) to explore a wide range of stewardship experiences provided directly by fisher organizations and communities, from 30 countries globally. These experiences include actively conserving and restoring spaces or species, carrying out local planning for climate change, applying fishery management and conservation measures, and engaging in education and outreach efforts – all helping to safeguard livelihoods and food security.
In celebration of the upcoming International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, we are pleased to share a recording of our recent 90-minute global webinar highlighting efforts of small-scale fishing communities and organizations around the world to protect and restore their local environments and fishery resources. This webinar, held on November 24, 2021, includes leaders of global fisher organizations, local-level fishers sharing their stewardship experiences, FAO representatives and the SSF-Stewardship project team. This webinar is available in English, French and Spanish at ssf- stewardship.net, where you may also access the new resource centre.
To visit the SSF-Stewardship website, click here
Archives at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre
CCRN researcher Trudy Sable and Pam Glode-Desrocher of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre have just released a new archive collection with three decades of recordings of individual interviews and cultural events, with Mi’kmaw people of Nova Scotia, Canada.
We are pleased to provide links to these resources, and to media reports on the launch, in this Communities Conservation & Livelihoods REVIEW, produced from our base at Saint Mary’s University, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the L’nu.
Click here to view the archives of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre
Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre launches new archive featuring historical interviews
New archive featuring interviews with Mi’kmaw elders launches online, aims to expand
Informing a conservation policy-praxis disjuncture: A ‘commons’ perspective to tackling coastal-marine community-conserved area implementation in South Africa
Read the full open-access article here
Maasai Traditional Knowledge Mapping
Elders in the village working with community researchers to map traditional knowledge. Nov. 2018. Photo: E. Val
The Kesho Trust, a CCRN partner, has released a new publication: Mapping Loita Maasai Land Use and Occupancy, Enguserosambu, Tanzania – Mapping Maasai Life, for Maasai, by Maasai. The Kesho Trust worked on this with the Enguserosambu Forest Trust (EFT), which is the managing authority for the Enguserosambu community forest lands that are central to the protection of culture and livelihoods for the local communities in the area. A key activity has been a traditional knowledge mapping of cultural characteristics and use, a need underscored by Canadian First Nations communities to the EFT representatives who visited Canada in 2019. The traditional knowledge mapping project was carried out through interviews with over 50 elders and knowledge holders in the four Maasai communities of Enguserosambu Ward. The project was coordinated by Erik Val (Yukon, Canada), working with Julius Daniel, Koisikir Nangiria, Terere Tutayo, Anna Shololoi and Stephen Sitoi.
The final report is now available online on the Kesho Trust website:
http://www.thekeshotrust.org/cms/wp-content/images/EFT_LUO_mapping.pdf
Citation: Val, Erik. 2021. Mapping Loita Maasai Land Use and Occupancy, Enguserosambu, Tanzania – Mapping Maasai Life, for Maasai, by Maasai. Kesho Trust, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada pp. 96
Assessing environmental initiatives through an ecosystem stewardship lens
An environmental education workshop from the project “Our Paraitinga”. Photo: Akarui, São Luiz do Paraitinga, Brazil
New open-access research on environmental stewardship is available in a publication by Alice de Moraes, Terry Chapin and Cristiana Seixas: “Assessing environmental initiatives through an ecosystem stewardship lens”. The article analyzes and discusses 3 community-based environmental initiatives taking place in a rural watershed of southeast Brazil under the ecosystem stewardship framework. Knowledge, relational values and care are salient ingredients that shape the initiatives, combining in different ways. The initiatives promote complementary ecosystem stewardship practices at various levels in the territory, as they overlap in space and time and address a ‘mix’ of pressing and non-urgent issues. Besides developing an approach to assess ecosystem stewardship in practice, the paper brings the initiatives and local arrangements for managing and conserving natural resources and ecosystem services into the spotlight.
Read the full open-access article here:
https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol26/iss2/art29/
Digest
The “Digest” section presents the latest developments, and resources, assembled from a wide range of sources, including international organizations, NGOs, civil society and reputable media outlets.
Taloyoak land guardians take their experience to the sea
“Taloyoak’s land guardians are taking to the water. A group of six, including two youth, have expanded their duties to include oversight of the oceans and freshwater of the Boothia Peninsula region, where the community is located. Guardians are trained local experts who act as the eyes and ears of traditional lands and waters. They play a crucial role in Indigenous-led conservation and preservation efforts. The guardians are also tasked with monitoring and measuring the ocean and freshwater environments to track climate change impacts, species population health and diversity, as well as boat traffic. Combining traditional Inuit knowledge and western science methods is central to the guardian program. It allows members to build their own collections of data and observations, and strengthens the position of local Inuit as co-managers of their own lands and waters.”
Keep Reading (Nunatsiaq News)
Themes:
● Indigenous Issues ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment ● Governance, Rights & Conflict
Desert elephants are finding friends in the drylands of Namibia
“Elephant-human conflict is an issue across Africa and can result in fatalities on both sides, as well as elephants being driven out of areas. In Namibia, elephants regularly venture into villages in search of food and water, where they can damage community water tanks and devastate subsistence farmers’ crops. That can cause significant tensions between them and economically vulnerable communities. Kasaona has lived his whole life in the northwest of Namibia, where his father taught him to respect and track wildlife. In turn, he is teaching the next generation of “elephant guardians,” including Taiwin Garoeb, who admits that he used to be scared of the animals. Both Kasaona and Garoeb have been appointed elephant guardians by the community, an example of Namibia’s wider community-led conservation model, where conservation is managed by the ancestral custodians of the land. This model is being increasingly implemented in elephant ranges elsewhere in Africa, according to Ian Craig, conservation director for NRT Kenya, which develops community conservancies.”
Keep Reading (CNN)
Themes:
● Governance, Rights & Conflict ● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Livelihoods
Latino leaders on the power of community-led conservation
“A groundswell of support in El Paso has risen in recent years to restore and protect Castner Range as a national monument. In this binational town, where more than eight out of 10 residents identify as Latino or Hispanic, that groundswell could be a reflection of continued high levels of support for access to, and conservation of, public land in the broader Latino community. But also at work is the local leadership of those like Pastor Moses Borjas, who is part of a community-led campaign centered around improving access to nature for El Paso residents.”
Keep Reading (Hewlett Foundation)
Themes:
● Conserved Areas ● Governance, Rights & Conflict ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment
Indigenous Knowledge guides the conservation of culturally important plants
“Since time immemorial, the Karuk tribe of northern California have managed their ancestral lands, over 400,000 hectares of open oak woodlands, meadows, and forested mountains along the middle section of the Klamath River. They used low-level fires to maintain a healthy landscape for the plants central to their culture. But after settlers arrived in California, stole their land, and outlawed the controlled burns, the landscape changed . . . Now, the costs of fire suppression and worsening climate change are clear: Wildfires and drought have damaged the landscape and plants used by the Karuk Tribe for food, fiber, and medicine. To chart a path toward restoring a healthier balance, Tribal members are working with academic researchers to inform western science with Indigenous Knowledge.”
Keep Reading (Mongabay)
Themes:
● Cultures and Traditions ●Indigenous Issues ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment ● Climate & Environmental Changes
A wall that restores land and empowers communities in Niger
“Within a few years, the devastating effects of climate change and unchecked human activity consumed the ecosystems like a bushfire, and Dandakoye and his community members found themselves on degraded land with no vegetation or wildlife. In 2018, the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism of FAO came to his community and chose Dandakoye to head the management committee in recognition of his commitment to finding solutions. He then mobilised more than 1 500 members of his community to participate in the FAO Cash for Work seeding and planting activities. The community grew grass fodder on this area and planted trees, such as jujubes, baobabs, palms and gum trees, that yield products for human use and consumption. Under his leadership, a total of 213 hectares were recovered in 77 days, providing farmers with income totalling approximately USD 66 000.”
Keep Reading (FAO)
Themes:
● Climate & Environmental Changes ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment ● Livelihoods
‘Intrinsic to our identity’: kiwi brought back to Wellington’s wilds
“The birds’ release was an especially moving moment for the man who spearheaded the project. “You know how people say they get goose-bumps? I describe it as kiwi-bumps,” says Paul Ward, a self-described bird nerd who, in 2018, put his film career to one side to establish the Capital Kiwi Project – a community conservation project dedicated to reintroducing a wild kiwi population back to the capital. Four years later, and the $4.5m project, which receives much of its funding through Predator Free 2050 (a nationwide pest eradication plan), has ticked off its first major goal. On 19 November, a ceremony took place at Mākara primary school involving 300 people from the Capital Kiwi Project, iwi (tribes), the local community, conservation enthusiasts and landowners.”
Keep Reading (The Guardian)
Themes:
● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Climate & Environmental Changes ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment
The Restoration Initiative: A Kenya Tana Delta story
“Hundreds of mangrove seedlings stand tall on a patchy stretch of land in Kipini, a settlement along the Tana River delta in Kenya. The newly planted seedlings reach skyward despite the scorching sun above while Riziki Bwanake, a village headwoman who was born and raised here, delicately tends to the plants . . . Bwanake’s Kipini CFA strives to address the threats to mangroves, such as the unsustainable and illegal harvesting of mangrove trees, the clearing of forests for agriculture, sedimentation of mangrove areas and sea-level rise. The 89 members of the Kipini CFA have already planted close to 100 000 mangrove seedlings and have established two mangrove tree nurseries with over 50 000 seedlings. These efforts are helping preserve the nine-mangrove species found in the Tana River delta for improved prosperity within the region.”
Keep Reading (IUCN)
Themes:
● Governance, Rights & Conflict ● Climate & Environmental Changes ● Livelihoods
Fishers in Flores Sea opt to limit harvest of overexploited sea cucumbers
“At the end of September, fishermen on Sapuka Island in eastern Indonesia’s Flores Sea made a surprising announcement. They would regulate their sea cucumber harvests, they declared, taking only those specimens above a certain size, and from clearly designated areas during clearly designated times of the year.”
Keep Reading (Mongabay)
Themes
● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Livelihoods ● Governance, Rights & Conflict
Forests for the future: making a lasting impact for people and forests in Asia and the Pacific
“Forests across Asia and the Pacific are particularly special, teeming with an abundance of birds and other wildlife. Sadly, this has not been enough to spare them from deforestation and illegal logging, but in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and The Philippines, this is starting to change thanks to local communities.”
Keep Reading (Bird Life International)
Themes:
● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Conserved Areas ● Cultures and Traditions ● Engagement, Education & Empowerment
How Indigenous-led conservation could help Canada meet its land and water protection targets
“In the far northwest of Manitoba, the Seal River flows 260 kilometres through the thick boreal forest into Hudson Bay. It’s the only major river in northern Manitoba without any dams. No roads lead to the river, and there’s only one human settlement in the river’s watershed. That community, the Sayisi Dene, is leading an initiative along with neighbouring Dene, Cree and Inuit communities to protect the 50,000 square kilometres of the watershed. That’s an area of untouched wilderness roughly the size of Nova Scotia, which would be protected from industrial development if the community’s proposal is accepted.”
Keep Reading (CBC)
Themes:
● Indigenous Issues ● Conserved Areas ● Governance, Rights & Conflict
Meet the Indian biologist who completely changed the way local communities treat endangered storks
“’One day I had a life changing encounter, I saw a man cutting down a huge nesting tree for Hargila birds. This is the largest nesting colony of these birds in the world. And from that day my mission started, I wanted to save the species from extinction.’ The Hargila Army is a group of women led by Dr Barman who aim to make an impact on their local communities and environments. They connect their communities with their surrounding ecosystems, and especially Hargila birds, through community activities, workshops, and fundraisers.”
Keep Reading (EuroNews)
Themes:
● Women and Gender ● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Governance, Rights & Conflict
The Return of the Jaguar
“In Mexico, the number of jaguars is now growing, increasing to 4,766 animals in 2018 from 4,025 in 2010, a promising sign that conservation strategies are working. . . A big part of the Jaguar Alliance’s conservation work has been orchestrating deals between the government and local farming communities called ejidos. Many Calakmul ejidos are now pivoting from ranching, agriculture and illegal logging to conservation work, including community forest management and the sustainable cultivation of organic products, like the nutrient-rich Ramón nut, silky Melipona honey that won over the Noma chef René Redzepi and Chicza, an all-natural chewing gum made exclusively from chicle, which the Maya people have harvested from the sap of the chicozapote tree since ancient times.”
Keep Reading (New York Times)
Themes:
● Wildlife & Fisheries ● Engagement, Educations & Empowerment ● Governance, Rights & Conflict
View Previous Issues:
- CCL Review Issue #15
- CCL Review Issue #14
- CCL Review Issue #13
- CCL Review Issue #12
- CCL Review Issue #11