Mangroves are vital for climate change adaptation and mitigation due to their efficient carbon sequestration and coastal protection roles providing often untapped opportunities for countries to enhance their national climate commitments (including the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions) under the Paris Agreement adopted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP21 in 2015. In Africa, several countries possess mangroves and have signed the Paris Agreement, however, the level of integration of mangrove actions into the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) has not been adequately explored.
Using a systematic review methodology, 33 African countries possessing mangroves were selected and their NDCs were reviewed, scored, and ranked to assess their level of integration of mangrove ecosystems into their NDCs.
Countries like Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan demonstrate commendable progress and leadership in integrating mangroves within their NDCs. However, gaps in budgetary commitments, spatial planning, and temporal specificity for mangrove actions among a majority of the countries hinder broader mangrove inclusion. The study also revealed a disconnect between research outputs and policy frameworks, where countries with increased mangrove research output in Africa failed to integrate mangrove actions into their NDCs.
To increase African countries’ resilience to climate risks and contributions to global climate goals, there is a need to increase effective collaboration between mangrove researchers, local communities, and policymakers in mangrove-possessing countries. This will bolster public education on mangroves and their inclusion of mangrove actions in their NDCs, ultimately enhancing the implementation of mangrove actions on the ground.
Tag: community involvement
Rangeland health data use workshop [Kimana, Kajiado, Kenya 24-25 March 2025]
Restoring rangelands is essential for improving community resilience and agricultural productivity, particularly in the face of climate change. Rangelands support biodiversity, livestock, and livelihoods, while also having significant carbon sequestration potential. When degraded by overgrazing, deforestation, or poor land management, their ability to provide critical ecosystem services is reduced. However, targeted restoration efforts, such as replanting native vegetation and implementing sustainable grazing practices, can enhance carbon sequestration. These restoration efforts improve soil fertility, water retention, and biodiversity, helping agricultural systems cope with climate challenges like droughts and floods. They also boost livestock productivity, stabilize food sources, and create economic opportunities. By promoting a balance between agriculture and environmental health, restoration ensures long-term sustainability and climate resilience.
Community-based monitoring in the context of sustainable wildlife management and biodiversity conservation in tropical countries
This document is addressed to communities and their partners, and features eight main key lessons learned that emerge from the implementation of community-based monitoring in the context of wildlife management and biodiversity conservation, across 15 countries in Africa, the Guyana Shield and the Pacific Region in which the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme is implemented. The examples involve diverse forms of community-based monitoring and include different ecosystems (forests, savannahs, wetlands) and taxonomic groups (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish). We further provide a more focused description of five case studies, including the multitaxa community-based monitoring process implemented by community wildlife and fisheries committees in the Rupununi (Guyana), the human-wildlife coexistence monitoring programme implemented by communities in Mucheni Community Conservancy (Zimbabwe), the co-managed monitoring system implemented for sustainable hunting around Lastoursville (Gabon), and the citizen science process implemented in communities around the Dja Reserve (Cameroon) to monitor and alert emergence of zoonotic diseases and the community-based monitoring system implemented in Namibia in the context of community-based conservancies (Namibia).
Synergizing Carbon Sequestration and Livelihood Improvement: Lessons from community-based crab silvofishery business model in South Sumatra, Indonesia
Action for climate change mitigation and livelihood improvement must be synergized to ensure its sustainability. A community-based mangrove restoration activity has been piloted in Marga Sungsang Village, Banyuasin regency, South Sumatra, Indonesia since late 2023 and adopted a crab silvofishery as a business model. In the last three decades, mangroves in the village have been degraded mainly due to agricultural expansion, and it often occurs in the frontier of the protected forest area. This paper aims to analyze the potential benefit of the mangrove crab silvofishery model for livelihood an ecosystem. The study was using the Business Model Canvas and Five Livelihood Capital as framework for business model development. According to cost-benefit analysis to the pilot action arena, the NPV for the model is USD 5,080/ha with investment support and USD 2,241/ha without investment, for 4 years period of business. The results shows that the model is profitable and has potential to provide additional income for the community compared to depend on carbon business model that provide negative NPV. Silvofishery contributes to ecosystem rehabilitation and climate change mitigation efforts through monitored and maintained mangrove planting, as well as to avoid disturbance to the protected areas through active roles and presence of community in the frontier. Institutional development and capacity building, including in business literacy, are identified as a key success factor for community-based intervention besides the technical assistance. This local evidence provides a global narrative for combating climate change and livelihood improvement.
Bridging Technology and Local Participation: A Collaborative Approach for Peatland and Mangrove Restoration
Nowadays, global advancements in technology have revolutionized natural resource management and conservation efforts, offering new tools and frameworks to monitor and manage ecosystems. The integration of satellite imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), drones, and mobile applications has facilitated real-time environmental data collection and analysis, enabling more informed decision-making. An effective monitoring system is recognized as essential to successful restoration and conservation efforts, as it allows to support adaptive management by measuring progress and helping to identify corrective actions needed for a long-term process. Learning from requirements, problems, limitations, and the emergence of new technologies, we develop a Community Based Restoration Monitoring System (CBRMS). The system is designed to be flexible, accessible, cost-effective, and user friendly. By utilizing affordable technologies, it ensures adoption by communities with limited resources also requires minimal technical expertise to maintain the system. The system can be adapted to different ecological and social contexts, ensuring its scalability and sustainability. It empowers local communities for an active role in monitoring environmental conditions and fostering local awareness that led to enhanced conservation efforts. This paper demonstrates the value of the CBRMS in supporting sustainable resource management and conservation efforts through combining participatory monitoring, science and technology. CBRMS serves as a bridge between local participation and modern ecological practices according to evidence of its application for community-based mangrove and peatland restoration in Indonesia. It measures the survival and growth of planted trees and related carbon sequestration. This system also demonstrates local participation in contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Criteria and indicators for tropical peatland restoration
Restoring tropical peatlands is essential for achieving sustainable development goals. Yet measuring restoration progress remains a challenge, particularly across diverse landscapes and stakeholder contexts. This working paper presents a structured framework of Criteria and Indicators (C&I) by which peatland restoration initiatives can be monitored and evaluated with scientific rigor and practical relevance.
Developed through multi-stakeholder consultations and field validation in Indonesia, the framework encompasses four key dimensions: biophysical, social, economic and governance. It enables evidence-based decision-making processes with the aim of fostering inclusive peatland management.
By integrating ecological science with local knowledge and institutional analysis, this paper provides both conceptual grounding and applied guidance for researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Insights generated through applying its framework can help to build more accountable and effective peatland restoration programs – both within Indonesia and beyond.
How do we set the reference levels for REDD payments?
Empowering technologies?: introducing participatory geographic information and multimedia systems in two Indonesian communities
Inclusion of local knowledge in decision-making is recognized as important for land use planning. However, this is prevented by communication constraints. Increasingly local communities throughout the world are using community mapping and simple Geographic Information Technologies (GIT) to communicate information about traditional lands to decision-makers. This corresponds to the trend, primarily in North America, for practitioners to apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies in public participation settings. Claims have been made that use of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) by disadvantaged groups can be empowering. However, others claim that PPGIS is disempowering due to the cost and complexity of the technologies, inaccessibility of data, restrictive representation of local geographic information, and the low level of community participation. The research described in this thesis sets out to contribute to the debate regarding PPGIS and empowerment. Participatory Geographic Information and Multimedia Systems (PGIMS) technologies were developed for this project in an attempt to overcome the weaknesses of PPGIS described above. A PGIMS project was introduced into two communities in West Kutai, Indonesia. The PGIMS technologies enabled local communities to gather information using a digital camera and video camera, and store, manage and access it. A participatory process ensured that communities made all decisions related to the project and were trained in the necessary technical skills. Functional PGIMS were created in both participating villages. These PGIMS were relevant to the communities’ needs to record information for future generations and communicate information about boundaries and land use to outsiders. The research question addressed in this thesis was: How does the PGIMS project empower or disempower local communities? The author developed a working definition of empowerment to enable evaluation: empowerment is an increase in social influence or political power. Furthermore the author determined that empowerment is achieved through a combination of internal changes in an individual or community as well as external factors. These are defined as changes in ‘empowerment capacity’. This thesis presents a framework to structure an analysis of empowerment. It enabled the author to examine how four catalysts related to the PGIMS project empowered and disempowered, as well as increased and decreased empowerment capacity of the individual and community. Catalysts included the information contained within the PGIMS, the participatory process used, the technological skills acquired and the tools applied to develop the PGIMS. Qualitative data were gathered in the field using participant observation, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Data were categorised into indicators of increased or decreased empowerment and empowerment capacity. These indicators were sorted into the relevant cells of the framework. The empowerment framework offered a logical structure to categorize the data and enable an analysis of how different components of the PGIMS project impacted individuals and communities. It was also useful for differentiating between empowerment and empowerment capacity impacts. There were weaknesses with the methods and framework. These included the inability to determine the extent to which the PGIMS project contributed to the observed indicators relative to other influences; the difficulty of interpreting the data to create indicators, and the difficulty of measuring some indicators or defining their relative importance in the framework. This research concluded that the PGIMS project empowered participating individuals and communities, and also increased their empowerment capacity, but it is difficult to determine how lasting or significant this is. It also disempowered individuals and communities. Individuals were more empowered by skills and processes, while communities more empowered by information and tools. The benefits of individual empowerment can conflict with community empowerment. Empowerment in the PGIMS project was highly influenced by pre-existing conditions in individuals and communities.
Evidence in Ecosystem Restoration: Insights and Recommendations
The scope of this brief is the restoration of terrestrial landscapes, focused on the Global South. Landscapes are understood as geographical spaces but also as social-ecological systems whereby interactions between bio-geophysical components and associated social actors shape the overall system.
Property rights and participatory forest management: an overview
This paper is an overview of participatory forest management in relation with property rights issue. It highlights the difficulty in defining property rights. Although the issues presented are applicable throughout tropical Asia, albeit less so in the Pacific, this paper is based primarily on the author’s experience in Indonesia, and almost all of examples are from indonesia. This paper discuss the diversity and changing nature of property rights and continues with a discussion on the issue of communities demanding the rights and possible responses of the government. At the end it presents a short review on participation of local communities in forest management.