Natural resources and management considerations, Gebel Elba conservation area : expedition report and recommendations

Guatemala is considered as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, facing threats to water and food security as well as livelihoods. Despite this, climate action has received insufficient consideration in the country’s development agenda and local planning. 

To address these issues, the EbA-LAC program has collaborated with relevant institutional teams to establish a joint approach towards guiding municipalities in the incorporation of climate considerations into their planning and budgeting processes. Through advocacy actions, key  actors have updated the public investment system to include adaptation products, providing a procedural framework for municipalities to access funding and include adaptation measures in municipal budgets. In addition, by improving inter-institutional coordination, facilitating joint municipal planning tools, as well as strengthening municipalitechnical capacities, EbA-LAC has succeeded in paving the way for municipalities to leverage synergies towards an increased resilience.

In the Boeny region of Madagascar, communities are facing landscape degradation due to unsustainable agricultural practices (slash-and-burn agriculture, deforestation etc.) and repetitive bush fires. The consequences for agricultural production are serious, posing a dilemma between conserving forests as a home to endangered species and ensuring food security through agricultural expansion. On top, climate change poses additional challenges to the grazing system of around 70 percent of Malagasy households being involved in raising livestock. Traditional spatial approaches separating conservation and production have proven inadequate. The concept of “Aménagement Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral Durable” (ASPD; sustainable agro-sylvo-pastoral management) has been developed with the objective to balance use of space. By combining agriculture, forestry, and livestock planning to enhance productivity while preserving natural resources, ASPD offers an integrated solution, with a focus on the adoption of climate-smart pasture management. 

Recent studies suggest that 12-15% of the Kenya’s total land area is suffering from severe to very severe degradation. Very densely populated Western Kenya is one of the hotspots where the rate of landscape degradation is rapidly increasing, with soils lost on average 0.5 t ha per year in 2017 compared to 0.3 t ha per year in 1995. This in turn leads to low and inadequate food supply and farm incomes. Unpredictable periods of drought and variable rainfall due to climate change are further exacerbating the situation. The solution provided by agroecological methods is to reverse land degradation and provide long-term sustainable methods of soil management as well as new income streams for farmers. Three climate-smart solutions have been assessed and promoted by the GIZ-supported Global Programme “ProSoil”: vermicomposting, conservation agriculture, and agroforestry. The solutions can be aligned or applied separately to meet individual farmers’ needs. 

Multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are collaborations in which actors from at least three distinct sectors work together toward shared development goals. MSPs enable partners to combine knowledge, resources, technologies, and networks, allowing more integrated responses to challenges—such as supporting biodiversity-based value chains and adaptation to climate change—that no single actor can address alone. Gums and resins value chains in Marsabit County were selected to generate additional income for pastoralist communities in dryland areas. This decision was based on the following factors:

• Marsabit County had developed a gums and resins strategy awaiting validation.
• An organized cooperative already existed and could serve as a multiplier.
• Private sector actors confirmed significant untapped potential for biodiversity valorization.
• The national trust “IPLCs of Kenya” was established to work on biodiversity-related issues.
• The Wildlife Research and Training Institute was an ideal partner for developing training modules.

The concept of legally binding contracts dates back over 4,000 years. It is based on well-established principles and practices in all legal systems on the planet. However, news challenges arise from the fact that the emerging frameworks to implement the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) adds atypical elements that have never before been addressed by contract law. An ABS contract is an agreement between governments, indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), researchers and / or companies regarding access to and use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. The main purpose is to ensure the sharing of benefits arising from subsequent use, application and commercialization. Although every ABS contract is unique in its benefit-sharing section, it nevertheless shares certain characteristics with ordinary contracts. The training aims at legal and technical experts dealing with biodiversity, research and development and commercial use of genetic resources.

This solution is part of the Sparsa Solution, which is a Nepali non-profit company that locally produces and distributes compostable menstrual pads. These pads feature an absorbent core made from banana fibre, also processed by Sparsa.

The focus of this solution is the transformation of cellulosic fibres (in our case banana fibre) into paper, using low-tech machinery suitable for small-scale production (up to 20 kg per day). The process is entirely thermo-mechanical, requiring no chemical additives, and can be adapted for other types of cellulosic fibres as well.

As part of this open-source approach, we will share:

• 3D models of all equipment and machines
• Explanations of how they work, and the safety measures involved
• Guidelines for factory organization and daily operations
• Details of our self-designed fresh and wastewater systems
• A complete layout of the factory

This solution is designed to be practical, replicable, and accessible for communities aiming to create sustainable, fibre-based products using locally available resources.