Establishing and strengthening local communities' and indigenous people's participation in the management of wetlands
Publication
2000
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Local communities in Nusa Lembongan, within Indonesia’s Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area (MPA), have transformed their relationship with mangrove forests from resource extraction to community led ecotourism and conservation. Since 2006, the Coral Triangle Center (CTC) has supported this transition through capacity building and management assistance, enabling the community to establish a locally managed mangrove ecotourism programme that generates sustainable livelihoods while promoting conservation. Today, a village-based organization oversees tourism operations, habitat stewardship, maintenance, and waste management, with local people actively participating in conservation activities. As tourism has grown following the COVID-19 pandemic, the community has strengthened management by introducing scheduled canoe operations, transparent pricing and visitor education to improve tourism quality while safeguarding the mangrove ecosystem.
Evidence for Nature-based Solutions: How Five Countries Built a Regionally Owned Environmental Database for Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria, shared by five East African countries, supports over 45 million people through fisheries, water supply, and agriculture. Declining water quality, rising pollution, and the absence of a shared evidence base made coordinated basin management difficult. To address this, the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), with GIZ support under the EAC4Nature project, developed the first-ever State of the Basin Report (SoBR).
The approach combines joint water quality sampling at 44 stations across three countries, consultations with all five Partner States – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and integration of findings into the Lake Victoria Basin Water Information System (LVB-WIS).
The SoBR follows a five-year cycle as a shared baseline for planning, policy, and investment. It identifies Nature-based Solutions – wetland rehabilitation, reforestation, and catchment restoration – as the most cost-effective pathway to improve water quality and build climate resilience. All five Partner States endorsed the report.
Restoring Lake Hawassa: How Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Nature-Based Solutions reverse Catchment Degradation
In Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, Lake Hawassa faces accelerating degradation from deforestation, pollution, erosion and rapid urbanisation – pressures no single actor can address alone. This solution establishes an inclusive multi-stakeholder partnership uniting public authorities, private companies and civil society to protect the lake through coordinated catchment stewardship.
Guided by the Natural Resources Risk and Action Framework (NRAF) developed between 2015 and 2020, partners jointly assessed risks, planned actions and implemented nature-based solutions (NbS).
Key building blocks included:
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- Applying the NRAF,
- Joint planning,
- Ecohydrological restoration,
- Waste management,
- Public and private financing; and
- Monitoring.
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URUGUAY. Strengthening biodiversity and land conservation policies as pillars of sustainable development.
In Uruguay, against a backdrop of the loss of habitat critical to biodiversity, the degradation of vulnerable ecosystems and soils due to the intensification and expansion of livestock and agricultural activities, poor grassland management practices, and pollution of water bodies and wetlands, the project aimed to implement actions to strengthen systemic, financial, and institutional capacities for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management, thereby improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the management of protected areas, associated productive lands, and human well-being. This was achieved through: the establishment of a regulatory, financial, and institutional framework for biodiversity conservation and land degradation neutrality; Implementation of biodiversity and land conservation measures at pilot sites; and Knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation, and learning, to promote dialogue between public and private stakeholders.
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Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented in partnership with UNDP, the ‘Ridge to Reef’ approach is an integrated management strategy for marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems, focusing on the connection between land and sea to address environmental degradation.
In particular, the project has been working directly with farmers to improve their sustainable land management practices (SLM). Through direct farmer assistance these farmers have begun to shift their practices to improve ecosystem health and resiliency.
From Blanket to Precision: A Data-Driven Decision Support Tool for Site-Specific Fertilizer Recommendations in Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s smallholder farmers continue to face large yield gaps despite decades of fertiliser use and agricultural research investment. A key constraint has been blanket fertiliser recommendations: uniform rates applied nationwide without accounting for local soils, agro‑ecological conditions, or crop diversity. This one‑size‑fits‑all approach leads to systematic misapplication, with over‑use in some areas and under‑use in others. As a result, Ethiopian wheat farmers achieve only 35-45% of potential yields, while more than 60 years of agronomic research data remained fragmented. The Supporting Soil Health Interventions in Ethiopia (SSHI) project, co‑funded by BMZ and the Gates Foundation and implemented by GIZ with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, EIAR, and the Ministry of Agriculture, addressed this gap by developing Ethiopia’s first Site‑Specific Fertiliser Decision Support Tool. Using machine learning, the tool delivers localised fertiliser recommendations, validated across hundreds of farms.
Enhancing farmer resilience in Benin: Terra preta as sustainable and more effective alternative to expensive mineral fertilisers
A 2016 study found 90% of Benin’s soils, notably in Borgou, Alibori and Zou, have low to very low fertility, cutting yields and threatening food security. Volatile mineral fertilizer prices make inputs unaffordable without subsidies. Locally made biochar amendments such as Terra preta increase farmers’ resilience and cost less than half of subsidized fertilizer. Biochar, produced by pyrolysis of organic matter, corrects soil acidity and, when mixed with compost or fertilizer, forms Terra preta, which improves yields and carbon storage. GIZ’s ProSoil programme promotes Terra preta by turning corn cobs and cotton stalks into biochar using Kon-Tiki kilns, which burn pyrolysis gases to cut toxic emissions. Using local residues maintains soil organic carbon for 100 years and yields a positive emission balance. ProSoil backs LTA graduate startups and the women’s NGO AFVA, trains 2,226 gardeners and 30 startups in Terra preta production, but scaling is limited by low investment capacity and costly MRV for carbon markets.
Strengthen Resilience of Coastal Communities through Local Early Action Plan-Climate Change Adaptation
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Located within the Coral Triangle, Mabul Island is rich in marine biodiversity but highly vulnerable to sea level rise, coastal erosion, wave levels during monsoon and typhoon. These threats affect critical ecosystems, fisheries, tourism, and local livelihoods.
Through collaboration between local communities, government agencies, NGOs, and tourism operators, vulnerable resources were identified and targeted adaptation actions developed. These include rainwater harvesting systems, coral restoration, and improved tourism management. The initiative has strengthened community awareness, improved local participation in climate action, and enhanced the resilience of ecosystems and livelihoods.
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