Enhancing community-based eco-tourism enterprises to strengthen financial sustainability conservation in the Maya Golden Landscape of Southern Belize

Ya’axche Conservation Trust has been empowering communities and conserving wildlife in Belize for 25 years. The Maya Golden Landscape (MGL) of southern Belize is the area of work. The MGL encompasses an area of 275,000ha. It forms a part of the Maya Mountain Massif and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, critical for the maintenance of the area’s biodiversity.

Ya’axche faced the constant challenge of a lack of sustainable financing. This meant that Ya’axche would need to reduce its donor dependency and increase flexible revenue via innovative and sustainable ideas. As a result, Ya’axché instituted a sustainable finance mechanism for effective PA management through Ya’axché Institute for Conservation Education (YICE).

Ya’axche has yet to achieve full financial sustainability. However, through YICE and its 2 revenue streams, Ecotourism Belize and the Nursery, 4 women’s groups have improved their livelihoods and 8%-10% of Ya’axche’s conservation work has been financed.

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Community Based Wildfire Management on the Tonle Sap Lake

Dry season wildfires are destroying the Tonle Sap Lake’s flooded forest and damaging its fishery. And a lack of resources meant that local communities could only watch their forests burn. In 2019 Conservation International began working with a few local fishing communities to address wildfire by providing them with basic fire suppression equipment. Since then, we have developed and are implementing Community Based Fire Management (CBFiM) in 17 communities. CBFiM is a wholistic community-based approach to fire management which aims to prevent and control fire and improve livelihoods, health, security, and conserve wildlands. CBFiM is based around the 5R’s approach:

Review – identify fire issues and options for change
Risk Reduction – prevent wildfire.
Readiness – prepare for wildfire.
Response – control and extinguish wildfire.
Recovery – restore damaged areas.

These communities now have the resources and confidence to prevent and suppress wildfire within the CBFiM framework.

Ecotourism in Hat Chao Mai – Ko Libong seascape: How it benefits people and nature

The development of ecotourism in Trang province, Thailand, has been driven by a combination of government policies, viral social media, and local entrepreneurship. The government-initiated conservation measures to protect endangered species, particularly dugongs, and ecosystems like seagrass beds, started with banning destructive fishing practices. This initially caused social conflicts among local fishers, but the government and community groups worked together to enforce these policies and find solutions.

A turning point came when a baby dugong named Mariam, rescued by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, gained widespread attention on social media. The viral video of Mariam sparked public interest in visiting Trang’s Andaman coast, leading to a surge in tourism.

Additionally, community conservation groups helped raise awareness about environmental protection, involving locals and tourists in conservation activities, and promoting sustainable tourism practices.

Establishing a team of Community Rangers to improve the management and protection of Rugezi Marsh, Rwanda.

Rugezi Marsh once hosted the largest population of endangered Grey Crowned Cranes in Rwanda, but numbers had rapidly declined due to illegal poaching and habitat disturbance. In 2014, RWCA implemented an innovative approach at the Ramsar protected marsh, targeting the problem from all angles to ensure a sustainable impact. Establishing a team of Rangers recruited from the communities living next to the marsh helped to involve communities in protecting their wetland, learn about ecosystem services from which they can benefit, create ownership and provide job opportunities. The team has increased to 54 members, including 22 women, covering all 8 Sectors around the marsh. The Rangers conduct daily patrols to educate fellow community members, raise awareness, report illegal activities, and monitor and protect crane populations and breeding sites. They work in close collaboration with local leaders (for law enforcement) and organise joint patrol exercises with local stakeholders to raise awareness of the work and the challenges.

Building communities capacities to coexist with wildlife

In Assam, Northeast India, the Himalayan foothill forests provide essential habitat for the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. The natural vegetation in the region is moist deciduous forest, but this has mainly been transformed and now contains a mosaic of land uses and vegetation. These include rice cultivation, village settlements, commercial tea plantations and protected areas.

In 2004, a pilot project was established between Chester Zoo (then North of England Zoological Society), United Kingdom and EcoSystems – India, a regional non-governmental organization (NGO), to further learn about the conflict and determine the best way towards sustainable solutions with the impacted communities. This pilot phase became the catalyst for the Assam Haathi Project, which worked with local communities to understand the situation further and identify solutions for addressing the issue collaboratively. The project ran for 14 years, from 2004 to 2018, and conducted many activities to address the human-elephant conflict. This case study highlights a subset of activities that have been conducted by the Assam Haathi Project (hereafter “the project”).

Fostering coexistence through a poverty reduction approach

The Tarija region of southern Bolivia encompasses four ecosystems, including the critically endangered Inter-Andean dry forests. Much of the forest composition has changed as a result of intensive human intervention. Despite the severe fragmentation and habitat loss, the valleys are considered important centres for plant endemism, and it is home to the largest carnivores of South America, Andean bear Tremarctos ornatus, jaguar Panthera onca and puma Puma concolor. The area is prone to the effects of climate change with severe droughts
affecting agriculture, with up to 80 percent crop losses in 2015.

Following a regional assessment on the distribution of Andean bears in 2010, researchers received reports from local communities regarding Andean bears attacking and killing cattle in the Tarija region, with retaliation against the bears ensuing. Researchers were surprised by these reports as the presence of bears had not been documented in the area. However, in 2016, a camera trap study was initiated by Chester Zoo, Protección Medio Ambiente Tarija (PROMETA) and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and confirmed the presence of a reproductive population of Andean bears (mother and cub) in the region. These findings became the trigger to start the Andean Bears and People Project in 2018, a collaboration between Chester Zoo, PROMETA, WildCRU, Centro de Estudios Regionales de Tarija (CERDET), Instituto de Investigación y Capacitacion Campesina (IICA) and the Natural History Museum Alcides d’Orbigny.

Developing and evaluating a beehive fence deterrent through stakeholder involvement

The Elephants and Bees Project is part of Save the Elephants’ Human-Elephant Coexistence Programme, based in Sagalla, next to Tsavo East National Park in southern Kenya.

This case study highlights the process undertaken since 2001 to understand the effect honey bees had on elephants and to develop, evaluate and implement beehive fences at several sites in Kenya, from initial research-based studies on the effect of bees on elephants to the establishment of the Elephants and Bees Project.

Coexistence with large cats: Experience from a citizen science project

Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) is one of four parks in the world adjacent to a large metropolis, that occupies about 100 km2 with a minimum density of ~20 000 people/km2 and contains diverse wildlife such as chital Axis axis, sambhar Rusa unicolor, mugger crocodiles Crocodylus palustris, macaques Macaca mulatta and leopard Panthera pardus.

These incidents coincided with an increase in the number of leopards captured and translocated to the area. In 2011, discussions on addressing these issues were initiated with the authorities in the area.

Reducing human-carnivore conflict through participatory research

The presence of forested islands creates edge habitats for many wildlife species, such as jaguar Panthera onca, tapir Tapirus terrestris, capybara Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris, harpy eagle Harpia harpyja, to name a few. The human population density in the region is very low (0.4 people/km2), with communities consisting of predominantly indigenous Makushi and Wapichan people, with mixed populations including Guyana’s nine indigenous groups. The primary livelihoods in the region are subsistence fishing, farming and hunting.

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme in Guyana (hereafter “the SWM Programme”) aims to ensure that “wildlife, ecosystems and their services are conserved and the living conditions, food security and cultural identity of rural villages are improved”. Under one component of the programme, local beneficiaries led by the Rupununi Livestock Producers Association (RLPA) had identified that

The programme established a body of work for reducing the human-carnivore conflict by conducting participatory research with the impacted communities facilitated in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation at the University of Florida and the Guyana Conservation Initiative at the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens. This case study highlights the initial steps taken to understand the situation further to help inform future management.

Co-developing a community camera trapping programme to deliver benefits of living with wildlife

The Rungwa-Ruaha landscape in United Republic of Tanzania at nearly 50 000 km2 is one of the most important wildlife areas in Africa and it supports one of the world’s largest remaining populations of lions Panthera leo and globally significant populations of African wild dogs Lycaon pictus, cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus, leopards Panthera pardus and spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta.

Lying adjacent to the southern border of the unfenced protected area is village land, forming an important habitat for large carnivores, especially in the wet season. The landscape is also an important movement corridor for pastoralists linking rangelands, which result in the region having very high rates of human-wildlife conflict. Research in the area found that over 98% of people reported problems with wildlife, with livestock depredation cited as the main concern.

Despite the initial data showing high levels of conflict, prior to 2009, there had been little targeted research on human-carnivore conflict drivers, dynamics and mitigation in the Ruaha landscape. To help fill this gap, and also to provide more information on large carnivore ecology in the area, the Ruaha Carnivore Project (RCP) was founded in 2009. In 2020, RCP merged with work being done in Kenya and Zambia to form Lion Landscapes, one of the largest locally-based carnivore conservation organizations in the world.

GEOfood

GEOfood is a global initiative that promotes food sourced and produced within UNESCO Global Geoparks. It emphasizes the connections between local food, food traditions, and the geological heritage of the region where the food is produced.

The initiative aims to support sustainable development by encouraging responsible food production, protecting biodiversity, and promoting local economic impact. Only recognized UNESCO Global Geoparks can use the GEOfood brand, ensuring that the raw materials come from within or near these geoparks.

GEOfood ( www.geofood.no) is a global brand that promotes food sourced and produced within UNESCO Global Geoparks. It emphasizes the connections between local food, food traditions, and the geological heritage of the region where the food is produced

Here are some key aspects of the GEOfood brand:

Local and Sustainable: GEOfood products are sourced locally within geoparks, supporting sustainable agricultural practices and local economies
Educational Value: The brand helps raise awareness about the i

Reviving Nature: The Cleanup Success Story of King Abdulaziz Royal Nature Reserve

Set over an area of 28,345 km², the King Abdulaziz Royal Nature Reserve (KARNR) is situated northeast of Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Extending to the Al-Arma Mountains and down to several meadows, valleys, and reefs, it mostly encompasses two regions: Rawdat Al-Tanhat, Al-Khafs, Noura, Al-Hqaqa, the western portion of the Al-Summan plateau, and the Ad-Dahnaa’ desert.

In 2018, the reserve was created to protect plant and animal species, and preventing poaching, overgrazing, and logging. Various kinds of plants, animals, and microbes cohabit in the reserve’s varied landscape, including valleys, meadows, plateaus, mountains, plains, and dunes, among other features.

One of the significant achievements in the reserve has been the large-scale cleanup campaigns. Recently, a massive operation successfully removed 55,390 tons of waste from various reserve parts. This effort was part of a broader initiative to maintain the pristine condition of the environment and to ensure that the habitats remain conducive for wildlife.

Planting a Million Seedlings for a Sustainable Future

Nestled among the rolling hills and vast landscapes of King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve, the Authority was established to restore and rejuvenate this precious ecosystem, focusing on our vision to plant a million seedlings in collaboration with the National Center for Vegetation Development and Combating Desertification, enabling life to breathe into our environment. As stewards of nature, we recognize the pressing need to combat climate change, restore biodiversity, and secure a sustainable future for generations to come.

For decades, King Abdulaziz Royal Reserve has been a sanctuary of natural beauty, yet it has faced challenges such as deforestation and habitat degradation. Recognizing these threats, we embarked on an ambitious afforestation project. After months of meticulous planning and sustainable thinking, we proceeded with our endeavour from selecting native species resilient to our climate to preparing the fertile ground for their growth.