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Pitch

Future proofing Living Landscape Approach: building resilient communities to sustain and restore ecosystems to adapt to changing climate


Description

Summary

The challenges that confront rural landscapes are interlinked, complex and multifaceted. These challenges need to be solved utilizing an integrative approach involving all sectors and building local ownership. The strength of the proposal is the partnerships, which bring together the skills and strength of different sectors using an Living Landscape Approach (LLA). The aim is to build resilient and informed communities and strengthen their ability to withstand, adapt and take collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change. The process will generate ownership with the stakeholders to create locally driven innovations. This combined with innovative policies, green economics and private investment will created strong support, buy-in and guidance that ensures the long-term sustainability of the innovations.

The approach integrates the "U" methodology”, a transdisciplinary research and ecosystem approach which provides opportunities for all stakeholders to engage in a deeper level of inner reflection on the social-ecological system in order to identify and create viable community-based innovations. These will address underlying social problems on an individual, community and institutional level and change behavior to better reflect the values of inclusion, fairness and opportunity. The final objective of the project is to foster partnerships that integrate and catalyze resources and funding for sustainable innovations that facilitate adaptation to climate change. 


Category of the action

Changing public perceptions on climate change


What actions do you propose?

The proposal is broken into five WPs that will be implemented in a coordinated and interrelated manner to address the objectives of the proposal.

The activities in the different WPs and envisioned project deliverables are described in the following sequence of tables.

 

WP 1 Building of knowledge and evidence base: During this phase, all stakeholders will be brought on board, assessments conducted and synthesized. Assessments of social, economic, natural capital will form the cornerstone of well-guided interventions. Knowledge synthesis and sharing amongst the stakeholders is vital and will provide for holistic guidelines and informed decision making.

Objectives

• Generated knowledge and evidence base to inform, mainstream and institutionalize sustainable innovations.

 

Activities

A0: Undertaking social-ecological system analysis

A1: Climate change vulnerability assessment

A2: Assessing potential for ecosystem services

A3: Developing ecosystem monitoring system

 

WP 2 Creating a green economy: innovations strategy and implementation of prototype: Many current practices are not ecologically sustainable, equitable, or scientifically defensible. A number of innovations will be designed and trialled to showcase which can bring long-term sustainable rural livelihoods.

Objectives

• Identify, design, and prototype innovation pilots to stimulate a shift to a green economy

Activities

A0: facilitation of action groups

A1: Multi-criteria analysis of innovations

A2: Cost benefit analyses and estimation of socio-economic effects

A3: Identify and design prototypes

A4: Implementation of prototypes

A4a: Recruiting and training of local people to implement the prototypes

 

WP3 Governance, mainstreaming and capacity building: The current segmented and individualistic pursuit of governance by different stakeholders is entrenching the current unsustainable situation and creating barriers to innovation and effective adaptation to climate change. Collaboration and enhanced governance capacity is needed to identify and design innovations in ways that reduce transaction costs, share the costs, risks and benefits, and mobilize the unused or currently inaccessible sources of all forms of local, regional and national capital needed to facilitate such a change.

Objectives

• Building local and regional capacity to develop and implement a collective integrated strategy and engagement with stakeholders to facilitate mainstreaming for application.

Activities

A0: Identifying legal, financial and institutional framework

A1: Developing Strategic Catchment strategies

A2: Engaging and empowering authorities and policy makers

A3: Setting up and institutionalizing collective governance structures

A4: Leadership workshop and training

 

WP4 Refining the LLA: The LLA will culminate in the synthesis of knowledge and learning from knowledge production and sharing, assessments, landscape innovations and development of collective governance capacity. This synthesis of the lessons learnt will form the basis of LLA training tools and courses for other policy and decision makers and implementing agents in other parts of SA.

Objectives

• Conceptualize and building capacity to mainstream the Living Landscape Approach Activities

A0: Facilitation and capacity building in the LLA (mainly trough dialogue interviews, stakeholder engagement, learning journeys, workshops, meeting, learning event and others)

A1: Co-initiation: Building and sharing knowledge of the ecological, economic and socio-cultural characteristics and functioning of the catchment

A2: Co-sensing: Creation of collective awareness and understanding between stakeholders

A3: Co-inspiring: Harness collective intelligence and collective ownership to ensure a sustainable vision and proactive future

A4: Co-creating: Development and creation of agreed innovations

A5: Co-evolving: mainstream and institutionalizing innovations and prototypes in policies

A6: Capacity building and applying ILA to other regions

 

WP5 Social Marketing and Results Dissemination: The dissemination of the knowledge created and lessons learnt amongst the stakeholders in the project area, but also to policy makers and interested parties in other parts of the country and internationally.

 

 

 

 

 

IFigure : LLA indicating the timing and contribution of each Work Package.

 

 

 

 

Methodology and flow:

 

Project Phases, Work packages and Actions

While the project is broken down into 5 different phases, as outlined in the Theory U, there are also 5 different WP that group particular types of activities together in a logical and functional manner. Some of these WPs straddle more than one or all phases of the project. The LLA process and the project management will ensure that the different WPs are well integrated with each other and each of the deliverables will arise out of the participatory process.

·       Phase 0: Preparation

This will entail the building of a strong, well-capacitated project team through a start-up workshop and capacity building in facilitation and LLA. The first Ecosystem Lab (EL) Meeting will be held with key government and public partners to further align with other key programs and activities in the area. Also, existing partnership within the will be strengthened. Monitoring and evaluation capacity will focus on behavior change by undertaking yearly social learning questionnaires that will inform social learning strategies and the media partnership .

·       Phase 1: Co-initiating: Build general and mutual understanding and common intent

Working groups of change agents and decision makers will be created, committed to support, participate and pull the process together.

This phase will be started by visiting existing governance structures and conducting dialogue interviews with stakeholders and change agents in order to engage them in a reflective conversation that will create deeper insights into the area. Those activities, together with expert fieldtrips and desktop studies, will help to inform the social-ecological system analyses. This phase will be concluded by an initiation workshop to create a dialogue around the different activities and outputs. The objective of this workshop is to create a common intent around the project and buy-in on the proposed process. Newsletters and media releases will be published to start engaging with the broader stakeholder groups. 

·       Phase 2: Co-sensing and sense making

It is crucial during this phase, that learning is carried out in a collective and participatory manner; mobilising stakeholders to take ownership of their future. Creating collective awareness and understanding amongst all stakeholders is based on: 1) their dreams, aspirations, challenges, and constraints; 2) the opportunities and benefits of living landscapes, and; 3) their roles and responsibilities. It is important here that there is an emphasis on creating understanding within all stakeholders that they are part of the problem and also part of the solution.

Building trust, empathy and compassion between all stakeholders is critical. Participatory research is an integral part of this phase to identify the needs and challenges of the area and the people. Dialogue will be facilitated to create a better understanding of the system’s functioning and identifying the drivers of constraints and challenges within the system. From this, it will be possible to identify leverage points or opportunities to create the necessary change.

To secure collective learning between all participants, several learning journeys and focus groups will be facilitated to inform and provide feedback on the climate change vulnerability assessment of likely climate change impacts and assessing the potential for ecosystem services. This will broaden the stakeholders understanding and highlight the existing and potential impacts of change. The outcomes of these activities will be captured in a landscape knowledge document to inform a wider stakeholder group and prepare participants for the landscape workshop; this will contextualize all the learning events and identify key leverage points. Additional dialogue interviews will be undertaken to engage a wider group of decision makers; crucial to further develop and mainstream the EbA. During the entire process, media releases and newsletters will be used to increase awareness and understanding about the total system. At the end of this phase, a landscape celebration event will be used to provide feedback on the learnt experiences, innovations and prototypes, as well as to create an opportunity to celebrate achievements. Finally, leadership training will strengthen the leadership and facilitation capacity of stakeholders to sustain the learning and integration process beyond this project.

·       Phase 3: Co-inspiring and Strategy Development

The aim of this phase is to create a collective intelligence, resulting in an environment of trust, active dialogue, and an emerging vision, towards developing effective strategies. Through the interaction and activities in previous phases, a collective understanding will emerge around the possible innovations. The action groups will represent practitioners, government, stakeholders and business representatives who will further investigate feasibility options and develop the prototypes by undertaking a multi-criteria and cost benefit analyses , and identifying legal, financial and institutional frameworks . A strategic workshop will help identify and design prototypes/pilots . Finally, an learning document will be disseminated to all stakeholders and other relevant parties.

·       Phase 4: Co-creating

Commitment and ownership of the prototypes with stakeholders will create an environment conducive to attracting more people, opportunities, resources (co-funding) and will enable implementation and learning around the different innovations. This will help with the implementation of prototypes and enable in-kind support of land owners. Through the leaning journeys the pilots will be showcase to stakeholders, the wider public, business and government. The main aim is to build a stronger learning network of all key stakeholders to mainstream. Additional emphasis will be made to engage and empower policy makers.

 

Phase 5: Co-evolving innovative and sustainable ecosystem

The focus here is mainly to mainstream and institutionalise innovations in policies, strategies, company social responsibility and most importantly, in the day-to-day action. The activities in previous stages including the on-going EL and catchment working groups will create a collective intelligence around the key interventions,  roles and responsibility and sharing of resources. This will help develop Strategic Catchment Management strategies through an ownership workshop. Through further leadership training, local capacity will be increased to drive the catchment working groups and catchment management strategies.

The project will be finalized with a celebrative event to institutionalize collective governance structures and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for Sustainable and Integrated Catchment Strategy. Lastly, part of the project action is to build capacity using the ILA in other regions in SA . At the end of each phase and WP, the lessons learnt and experience gathered will be gathered to inform a field guide and training course. This training course will also be provided to change agents in other South African catchments. 

 


Who will take these actions?

The project will be co-ordivated by Livng Lands. Is the NGO responsible for initiating the PRESENCE Learning Network and piloting the LLA approach successfully with PRESENCE partners in the Baviaanskloof. The core business of LL is to facilitate change process such as the ILA and this will be their main responsibility within this project.

PRESENCE is a multi-stakeholder learning network active in forming mutually beneficial and synergistic partnerships for enabling socio-ecological restoration in South Africa. It is presently securing additional investment and collaboration to ensure that its ambitious vision of ‘guiding the restoration of living landscapes’ remains achievable into the foreseeable future. National and international partners include: governmental departments; universities &research institutes; implementation agencies; NGOs; private consultancies and community-based organisations.

 

The project is closely linked to a number of key South African agencies including: (1) the Department of Environmental Affairs, Natural Resource Management Program (including Working for Water/Wetlands); (2) Department of Water Affairs, Water Allocation Reforms; (3) the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Landcare program; (4) Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, Stewardship Program.  All of these will contribute to growing the green economy in South Africa and in generating vital prosperity and job creation. 


Where will these actions be taken?

The project area is the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve (BMR) planning domain in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The envisaged Mega-Reserve is about 500 000 ha, and comprise a cluster of state owned protected land (the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve managed by de Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA)) within a network of private and communal land. The Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve is a unique World Heritage Site because of its outstanding natural beauty and globally important biodiversity. Additionally, the BMR is one of the seven C.A.P.E.’s landscape initiatives (http://www.capeaction.org.za/), and is part of the STEP planning domain.

The area is place to several catchments, including the Baviaanskloof River and the Kouga River which merge within the nature reserve and form the Kouga Dam. Downstream the dam forms the Gamtoos River which then flows to the Indian Ocean. The rivers and its tributaries are vital for biodiversity, functioning ecosystems, tourism and for the growing downstream agricultural, commercial/domestic water demands in the Gamtoos Valley and Port Elizabeth respectively.

During the last century, the area has witnessed considerable changes in the natural, economic and political ‘landscape’. These converging influences, along with questionable agricultural subsidies and extension policies, have collectively contributed to a loss of ecological integrity and severe ecosystem transformation. The area is facing steadily declining biodiversity, agricultural productivity and increased economic hardship. These trends are now being starkly brought into view with current and impending climatic changes. Erratic and declining rainfall is further undermining the resilience of the social-ecological systems in the Baviaanskloof, with special impacts on privately owned land activities and the core Nature reserve’s functionality and biodiversity.

 


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?


What are other key benefits?

The greatest outcome will be an turnaround of the collective consciousness of the communities as regards the long-term sustainability. Without this fundamental change in consciousness, the chances for change on the landscape are extremely limited.

The activities embedded in this proposal seek to investigate all feasible opportunities for sustaining rural livelihoods, especially through restoration activities, PES and corporate social investment linkages. 

For each of the catchments, the vision is to create a generally accepted strategies, where restoration aligns with and-use management. These plans would optimise and prioritise all SA Government interventions and provide additional resources. Innovative approaches for land and watershed management  will improve the chances for long-term sustainable livelihoods. The local rise of environmental and social advocacy will engender a culture of collective responsibility and accountability for managing socio-ecological landscapes.


What are the proposal’s costs?

WP1: 25 000$

WP2: 30 000$

WP3: 35 000$

WP4: 100 000$

WP5: 30 000&


Time line

 

1: Co-initiation: 0-6 months

Activities: Start-up workshop; visiting  exiting local governance structure; knowledge, awareness and behaviour questionnaires; desktop/field study and field trip to create understanding of the key landscape and land use features and how they have changed over to inform the innovations; dialogue interviews; initiation workshop and leadership workshop

Outputs: Inception report; knowledge and awareness report; reflection document; landscape knowledge document; landscape newsletter and leadership program

2: Co-sensing and sense making: 6-18 Moths

Actvities: Learning journeys and focus group; one to one stakeholder meetings; knowledge, awareness and behaviour questionnaires (monitoring); in depth knowledge assessment to inform the innovations; stakeholder interviews; forum meetings and leadership development

Outputs: Reflection document; forum meeting minutes; learning and behaviour change targeted newsletters (6 editions); landscape info booklet

3: Co-inspiring and strategy development: 18-24 Months

Activities: Prototyping/innovation workshop (strategy development), forum meetings, knowledge, awareness and behaviour questionnaires (monitoring), innovations and prototypes assessment and development, leadership development

Outputs: Knowledge booklet on different innovations; strategic action plan; reflection document; forum meeting minutes

4: Co-creating 20-36 Months

Implementing, monitoring and evaluation of prototypes (pilot projects); forum meetings; learning journeys; leadership development; awareness and behaviour questionnaires (monitoring)

Guidelines for prototypes, monitoring and evaluation guidelines, newsletters; forum meeting minutes

5: Co-evolving sustainable ecosystem 20-36 Months

Institutionalising forum to land and water user association, awareness and behaviour questionnaires (evaluation), capacity building workshop and field trips

Policy letters, lessons learned document, guidelines for innovations, reflection document on total process

 


Related proposals

None


References

None