Fuelling Sustainability: Improved Cook Stoves for Sustainable Mangrove Forest Management in Kenya

Despite their immense benefits for coastal communities, Kenya’s mangroves face increasing pressure from unsustainable fuelwood harvesting. In Lamu County, households rely heavily on mangrove wood for cooking, often using inefficient three-stone stoves that consume excessive amounts of fuel.

To address this challenge, Wetlands International collaborated with local communities and researchers to introduce improved cook stoves (ICS) in Lamu’s Matondoni and Pate villages. This community-led initiative has benefited 3,010 community members. By decreasing fuelwood consumption, the ICS reduce pressure on mangroves and contribute to their conservation. This also translates to cost savings for households, as they use less fuelwood, freeing up income for other needs. Additionally, ICS produce less smoke, improving respiratory health and indoor air quality. Furthermore, the initiative has enhanced social cohesion by creating a sense of community ownership and encouraging the sharing of knowledge and experiences on the use of the stoves.

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Empowering fishermen through resource management within a structured framework

Not only to improve the governance of Nosy Hara and strengthen the resilience of the local community to the challenges of climate change but also in the pursuit of sustainable fishing practices within this marine protected area, our project focuses on empowering local fishermen to manage and protect their natural resources effectively, thereby establishing a structured governance system for resource management. By intertwining regulatory compliance with community engagement, we aim to establish this structured framework that addresses the immediate challenges posed by migrant fishers while ensuring that local fishermen can obtain the necessary professional permissions to operate legally. As migrant fishermen do not respect the fishing calendar, laws, and do not hold authorization allowing them to work legally in the area.

This project aims to empower local communities to take charge of their natural resources. By fostering collaboration among fishermen, we create a sustainable framework that ensures both economic viability

Combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing practices

The Global Programme “Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture”, implemented by GIZ, aims to increase fish supply from sustainable and resource-friendly fisheries and aquaculture to boost a healthy and diverse nutrition. The solution presented here supports sustainable fishing practices in artisanal fishing communities and preserves aquatic resources. It combats illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by establishing multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) to develop a legal framework for sustainable fisheries management. The project also provides training to fishers on legal fishing practices, implements a robust registration and licensing system, and builds cooperative community-based management structures. It improves patrol quality and conducts public campaigns to raise awareness about sustainable fishing practices and the dangers of IUU fishing. These efforts help restoring fish populations, stabilize the fishing sector’s profitability, and improve the livelihoods and safety of fishing communities.

Sustainable Aquaculture for Food and Livelihood

India’s states of Assam in the north-east and Odisha on the east coast, have long standing traditions of aquaculture cultivation, which play an important role in sustaining food and nutrition security and strengthening livelihoods. Both states hold large areas suitable for sustainable aquaculture of often yet unexplored potential.

The Indo-German Development Cooperation Project “Food Security through Integrated Aquaculture” (EIAA) is part of the GIZ Global Programme on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (GP Fish). The project, locally known as Sustainable Aquaculture for Food and Livelihood (SAFAL), aspires to provide more fish products for the food-insecure population and higher income from sustainable and resource-efficient pond-based aquaculture in Assam and Odisha. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in partnership with the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (MoFAHD), Government of India and is implemented by GIZ between 2021-2025.

SEA Success: The ingredients for an impactful peer-to-peer knowledge exchange visit

Saint Martin Island is located in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. It is the most recently declared Marine Protected Area in the country (2022). It covers an area of 1,743 km2. It was established to conserve the only coral reef of Bangladesh along with its overall marine biodiversity and to promote sustainable livelihoods of dependent communities.

The national authorities have committed to the IUCN Green List, and the goal is to add Saint-Martin to this prestigious list of Protected and Conserved Areas that are effectively managed and fairly governed.

SEA Success, a UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge project, gave the opportunity to pilot a knowledge exchange approach to support Saint-Martin’s stakeholders to overcome some of their challenges. SEA is an acronym for Scoping (site-specific challenges), Exchanging (on solutions experienced by peers) and Activating (the implementation of suitable solutions to overcome the challenges).

Managing the return of a charismatic species in an urban environment

Singapore is a city-state in southeast Asia that has undergone large-scale urbanisation. In 2022, it ranked as the world’s third most densely populated country. Remarkably, in the late 1990s, the smooth-coated otter Lutrogale perspicillata, absent for three decades due to extensive habitat loss, made a resurgence by taking up residence in Singapore. Since then, otters have been spotted across the island, making use of the coastlines and waterways. They have even been found in the highly-urban city centre.

In response to these circumstances, the Otter Working Group was formed in 2013 and formalized in 2016, comprising government agencies, institutions, NGOs, and members of the public. The primary objective of this group is to monitor otter-related issues and address them through a multidisciplinary approach. This case study aims to detail the establishment and activities of the Otter Working Group.

Facilitating a transboundary governmental approach to address the threats to a species

The snow leopard Panthera uncia inhabits twelve countries in central and south Asia, which include Afghanistan, the Kingdom of Bhutan, China, India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

This initiative aimed to protect the critical ecosystems used by the snow leopard, leading to the endorsement of the Bishkek Declaration on Snow Leopard Conservation, and launch of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystems Protection Program (GSLEP and hereafter “the Program”) implemented by all aforementioned nations at this meeting. This case study delves into the transformative efforts of the GSLEP towards fostering unity among range country governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, local communities, and the private sector through a transboundary holistic approach and a collective embraced vision to conserve snow leopards and their valuable high-mountain ecosystems, including addressing conservation conflicts.

Navigating cultural narratives to provide meaning to a human-wildlife conflict situation

Encompassing an area of 1067 km2 in southwestern Guinea-Bissau, the Cantanhez National Park, situated in the peninsula of Cubucaré, incorporates mangroves, forests, and savannahs, but also cultivated land. People with different cultural and religious backgrounds and ethnicity live in the national park. The national park also contains small-scale farming areas interspersed with forested areas in a dynamic landscape. Groups of chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus inhabit various patches of forests within the park. Their presence means they often lived in close proximity to the inhabitants of Cantanhez. As a result, the chimpanzees sometimes foraged on the inhabitants’ crops. Although direct interactions between chimpanzees and the inhabitants were rare, when they did occur, they could result in physical injury and death to either the inhabitants or the apes.

In 2009, a PhD student conducted research in Cantanhez National Park to explore the human-wildlife interface and the people-park interface from the perspective of the park’s inhabitants. This case study focuses on how these investigations revealed that encounters between chimpanzees and people, as described by the park’s inhabitants, generated two parallel narratives. Two narratives coexist—one attributing the actions of a chimpanzee to a person who supposedly shape-shifted into a chimpanzee, while the other attributes the chimpanzee’s actions as a response attributable to the conservationists.

Preserving and nurturing deeply interconnected cultural relationships to facilitate coexistence

The Dibang Valley (Chithu Huluni in the Idu language), located in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is the ancestral homeland of the Idu Mishmi people. The Valley has mixed vegetation, including tropical and sub-tropical forest and bamboo, as well as temperate broad-leaved and conifer forests. The elevation rises from 100 m to above 5000 m across its 13000 km2 mountainous geography. The forests host diverse wildlife species, including tiger Panthera tigris, common leopard Panthera pardus, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, wild dog Cuon alpinus, Mishmi takin Budorcas taxicolor and Himalayan musk deer Moschus chryogaster. The Idu Mishmi are traditional animists for whom “human dispositions of consciousness, intentionality, and mortality belong to all beings, including animals and spirits”. According to Idu origin stories, tigers are their elder brothers. Consequently, harming or killing a tiger is the most serious taboo, one that invites grave danger to the “murderer”.

Between 2013 and 2015, a team of researchers and local Idus conducted the first ever scientific camera trap study on tigers in the Dibang Valley. The study revealed a higher tiger population in the Dibang Valley than in many of the government-managed tiger reserves. This unique phenomenon was attributed not to park guards and a top-down management approach, but rather to the protective influence of the Idu culture. Shortly afterwards, a team of government scientists conducted camera trap surveys in Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area located in the northern part of the Valley. The sanctuary was declared in 1998, apparently without local consent.

This case study covers the historical background to these relationships between the Idu Mishmi people and tigers, exploring how external interventions – specifically, the implementation of a top-down tiger reserve model – may lead to unintended negative outcomes for both the Idu Mishmi and the tiger population, and it will examine ongoing efforts to maintain these intricate relationships.

Investigating the potential and economic feasibility for a compensation in advance scheme

Upper Lusatia in Saxony is one of Germany’s largest pond regions, consisting of around 1000 ponds. The building of fishponds and their use for fish farming has been a tradition in the region for over 800 years, providing an essential secondary habitat for several endangered species. One of these species is the European otter Lutra lutra, boasting a population of 400-500 individuals in the region, constituting one of the largest populations in central Europe in 2003. However, the presence of otters impacted the region’s 150-180 fish farmers, particularly those operating small ponds. To mitigate negative interactions between otters and fish farmers, the state of Saxony introduced a type of damage compensation scheme in 1997 to reimburse farmers for their economic losses. In 2003, the Framework for Biodiversity Reconciliation Action Plans (FRAP) project (hereafter the “project”) was initiated with the goal of creating a framework between the conservation of large vertebrates and the use of biological resources by humans. Coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, the project involved 13 partner organisations in nine European countries. The project used fisheries and fish eating vertebrates to illustrate successful approaches for conflict reconciliation. One of the examples used was that of otters in Saxony.

This case study will focus on one activity of the project’s work, which investigated the possibility of providing compensation in advance to fish farmers, where payments are made based on estimated expected losses, rather than payments after the damage had occurred (ex-post compensation).

Using traditional governance systems to manage competition over natural resources

In the Gourma region of Mali, south of Timbuktu, a small population of approximately 350 “desert-adapted” African elephants Loxodonta africana undertake an annual migration circuit spanning over 32 000 km2 driven by the widely dispersed natural resources in the region. Their migration primarily responds to the availability of water, food and refuge throughout the year, while avoiding areas of high human activity.

Started in 2006, following three years of scientific studies the Mali Elephant Project (hereafter “project”) sought to understand the threats to the elephants as arising from the multiple relationships within the social-ecological system, and then try to shift key factors affecting those relationships so the net result would be a reduction in threat for both humans and wildlife. This case study outlines how this approach translated into action. It describes an iterative, adaptive approach of deepening understanding (ecological and socio-economic surveys), coupled with community engagement and action.

Developing a management plan while balancing divergent stakeholder objectives

In northeast Scotland, there has been a history of conflict between seal conservation and salmon fisheries in the Moray Firth, a large area covering approximately 5 230 km2. Seals prey on salmon migrating into the river estuaries and around coastal netting stations, impacting fishing activities.

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, harbour seals Phoca vitulina, and grey seals Halichoerus grypus were all listed, presenting a challenge for seal and salmon management alike as the protection of one species potentially impacted the status of the other. However, this challenge presented an opportunity for the various stakeholders to come together and develop the Moray Firth Seal Management Plan. This case study follows the process of developing this plan.

Integrating community response and stewardship to de-escalate conflict situations

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is the most populated in India, with nearly 200 million people. The state contains four tiger reserves, Dudhwa, Pilibhit, Amangarh and Ranipur, which provide essential protected habitats for tigers Panthera tigris and leopards Panthera pardus, as well as other endemic and endangered species. However, these big cats often leave the protected areas, moving through the forest fragments and human-dominated areas to find new territories. Leopards have been widely documented as surviving in scant vegetation mosaics outside of the protected areas, and in some parts, tigers have also been observed raising their litters in agricultural mosaics. As a result, negative interactions occur between local communities and big cats which often lead to injuries and deaths of humans, as well as more frequent cases of livestock depredation.

Big cats have been observed travelling long distances and causing many human fatalities and injuries. They are often killed during these interactions when the communities retaliate or during the melees which ensue during the conflict management.

To manage this situation, in 2009, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department initiated the Terai Tiger Project (hereafter “the project”). The project established a mobile veterinary service, which primarily used capture and translocation of problematic animals as their main approach to resolving ongoing conflict situations. The mobile veterinary service’s primary role was to intervene in these negative interactions, rescue, treat and subsequently release the problematic animal back into the wild. Despite successfully capturing and releasing big cats, this success was limited to a small number of individual animals.

At the same time, local communities, through poisoning or even by lynching, were consequently killing more big cats in retaliation. The project evolved to take a more holistic and pragmatic approach, aiming to address the root causes by requiring the wide participation of the local community.

This case study will outline the establishment of primary response and rapid response teams to manage these negative situations between local communities and wildlife.