XXI Congress of the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation and VI International Conference of Partners in Flight, San José, Costa Rica,
October 30- November 3.
Workshop: Supporting conservation implementation: Integrating single species and ecosystem conservation initiatives
Date: Tuesday, October 31 2017
Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel, San José, Costa Rica
Facilitator: Nick Bayly
Note-takers: Kirsten Johnson,
Break-out activity: Supporting best management practices and retention of habitat within working landscapes
Synopsis: Ultimately, we identified that the crucial pieces to conservation in working landscapes at the regional scale throughout Central America include recognition of landowner needs, supporting or developing economically viable products and associated markets which also promote conservation practice, and connecting producers to technical assistance, local leadership and partners/funding. Unifying the business plans through an approach with broad applicability could take shape at the focal area scale. We should first identify those focal areas where capacity exists (e.g. program/initiatives are already being implemented, market-based solutions are possible, landscapes are amenable), and through community engagement we identify gaps or needs. We then engage local partners who can meet those needs or provide those services and facilitate community-driven/self-sustainable conservation initiatives and implementation.
Participants:
Nick Bayly, Selva,
Andrew Rothman, American Bird Conservancy
Becky Keller, Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture/American Bird Conservancy
Dave King, U.S. Forest Service
Jeff Larkin, Indiana University of Pennsylvania/American Bird Conservancy,
Rocio Espinosa, Cenicafe,
Andrés Mauricio López, Cenicafe,
John Hannan, Audubon/ABC,
Kirsten Johnson, Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
Ana María González, Univ. of Saskatchewan,
Introduction:
- Facilitator describes the goals of the discussion and begins with the following question: What strategies will work at the broader scale? Do we work toward protecting more forest or planting more trees?
Points Per Participant:
It was generally agreed upon that currently, there are a number of conservation actions being implemented, however no unified strategy exists that is operating at the regional scale. The group determined a need to identify a strategy that could be broadly applied at the regional level, with consideration to the factors limiting conservation in working landscapes locally (e.g. by country). Two initial directions were identified: conserving more forest, and planting more trees. The group discussed mechanisms for supporting either of these objectives and the results of that discussion are summarized below:
Nick Bayly – What are the approaches that could be implemented or are currently being implemented, and how do these relate to what is defined within the conservation business plans. There are existing strategies – and what we chose will likely be a modification of one or more of these but we really need to think about what can be applied regionally, irrespective of locality and try to bring something different to the table if we can. We also need to think about novel ways of tackling these issues, maybe things that haven’t been discussed yet – and then the who/how these strategies are implemented – organizations, names, partners, stakeholders – to get to a roadmap. Quickly, a review of what’s been talked about already today:
IOC and carbon market offsets, for example Dave King’s work. This can be applied at a larger scale, however was successful due to pre-arranged buyers. Would require identifying buyers or markets for these types of offsets
Market-based solutions:
Paying farmers for specific actions/developing market-based solutions which pay farmers directly (Pablo Elizondo) – but again, someone has to put money on the table for these services
We know that shade supports many species and is an important aspect to conserving in working landscapes – so how do we incentivize shade planting?
Science is showing there is a win-win opportunity in productive systems and we need to disseminate that information to the producers – having shade in the landscape is important!
Certification is an option
Ecosystem service payments
These systems clearly benefit birds (silvopasture systems) – but also increasing meat production, milk production, etc. so again – just a need to get that information to farmers
So we have strategies to tackle the production side, but also putting more trees on the landscape.
Andrew Rothman – Who are we talking to? We talk to ourselves a lot… We need to be economy and economically-based. Working in landscapes where people are concerned with their livelihoods – we can incentivize but also need to find ways to finance. Philanthropic financing is great, but limited. Government and Multi-lateral funding sources are underutilized:
The people who are accessing these funds are not integrated into the conservation planning process We have the mechanisms in place to talk to those people.
How can we turn our projects into investment potential and actual/realizable financial return. Harvard and other organizations are investing in tropical hardwood forestry – how we can turn this potential into something to incentivize for instance cacao productions, etc.
We need to connect investors with/to local economy and producers
Identify and diversify where we look for funding
Becky Keller – we should link working landscapes into eco-tourism trade – people who visit working farms are more likely to contribute because they are working people themselves.
Nick Bayly – this is again a way and expand the language of conservation/who we talk to – bring additional tools and promote other actions in a group where we are maybe not currently focused.
Rocio Espinosa - With shade producers – we need to bring them more tools to conserve. We need to bring them educational tools and activities and strengthen communities through identifying leadership within them to promote these other actions aside from just shade and paying for shade – but to show the consumers the actions that are being implemented. And this type of project – linking ecotourism with producers ahs been successful in showcasing these actions, but also providing another way for producers to earn. Similarly, nurseries have been successful in empowering the communities.
Anna ... - There seems to be a need for native trees and nurseries seems to be a key.
Andrew Rothman – this can be a business opportunity – we need to learn how, but can teach folks to propagate these species.
Nick Bayly – this is a need that communities have. They want to see these trees back on the landscape. These traditionally used species have been lost to the communities. We’ve worked with communities to identify these species that are essential and they want to see returned – this can be a bargaining chip to say – we can provide these in return for conservation action. As opposed to offering money – we can say things like “if you conserve forest, we can provide bees, or tools to set up honey production” – providing alternatives that will incite them to conserve in other ways.
Rocio Espinosa – Engaging communities through providing these other sources of earning promotes them to advocate for their neighborhoods and these conservation actions.
John … - Conservation organizations try to take on the business side, but communities need profit right away and we have to somehow balance that. When we partner with responsible business – when we can come to farmers and say we have the supply chain figured out – we will have farmers lining up. We need to bring the buyer to the table before proposing conservation actions. Farmers are asking for funds and technical assistance - There is funding out there for technical support, we don’t need to raise it – we just need to connect it.
Rocio Espinosa - we know it exists but there is a disconnect between local desire and external resources. Farmers are asking all the time how to contact these organizations and get to these resources.
Andres Lopez - The idea is not to pay for conservation action, but to change behavior so they have a better product and are better conserving– we need this to happen at the buyer level as well – to create the links in the market so the farmer sees that return.
Anna ... - bird-friendly beef. There is a foodie sort of market that cares about these specialized, sustainably produced food. Should we identify if there is an existing market for these products or should we create the product first?
Nick Bayly – We need to be linking buyers with producers. With coffee and cacao there has been an explosion in the desire for specialized products, and buyers are working with a small number of producers. This offers an opportunity to depart from birds and to think about things from the economic perspective – how do we link producers in the region to these markets? The market for coffee is saturated - We can help sellers to move their product by saying things like “why not buy a product that supports conservation, or cerulean warblers, etc. “ and hedge this as a unique/niche/exclusive product
... – In Costa Rica where things are expensive, the problem is not the lack of motivation of consumers to purchase these products – the price sometimes outweighs the moral desire to purchase a conservation friendly product. Also, there is lack of clarity on what the certifications actually mean. We need to clarify these standards so consumers know what they are paying for.
It is very expensive for farms to achieve those standards, and they are not necessarily seeing the benefit of those investments – the producer has to sell more and at a more expensive price in order to recoup that cost. Perhaps the government needs to step in and standardize these certifications and subsidize these products.
Nick Bayly – there are two routes: go down the certification route, or maybe the certification isn’t working but maybe we need to reduce cost/barrier from farmer to marketplace – how do we get them to make the most from the highest quality product – perhaps eliminating the middlemen and connect them directly with the roasters.
John – the reality is, there are people out there that are willing to pay for fair trade, etc. at a high premium and we need to connect farmers to those folks. We also have these farmers that want to implement conservation regardless of certification, and will sell in a local market. We need supply chain people to help with these problems – people that can sell to big buyers.
Jeff Larkin – the bird conservation community still plays a key role in those conversations to ensure that something critical to birds isn’t missed
Building predictability for farmers is important – there is rapid turnover in crops based on fluctuations in the market. From one year to the next, we have complete turnover from shade coffee to potatoes, or cabbage. So how does a person live under that level of uncertainty? We can’t expect these people to stay the course when the market drops out and that $20 bag of coffee isn’t being purchased.
Becky Keller - Scaling back from just coffee focus – what are some other alternatives to building bottom-up community bird conservation – what are those other non-crop alternatives?
- Native species nurseries – this sounds like an issue across multiple habitat types and an opportunity to build something from the bottom-up rather than relying on big foreign investors
Nick Bayly – We need more trees on the landscape. We’ve talked about crops and how to incentivize there, but taking a step back green investment and selling our products, what are the other areas or elements we need to get into the landscape? Potentially it’s just providing resources and tools for reforestation – getting people access to those trees, water protection, erosion control, etc. it’s not just about money it’s about heart. If we feel it’s right to conserve a patch, and we can show the benefits – its got to come from ‘you’ and again this is stepping away from just conservation but into sociology, etc. and that tracks with people.
Andrew Rothman – from the US perspective, NRCS – is basically a service which provides technical capacity for landowners similar to Cenicafe in Colombia – this is fundamentally missing from all of Central America. These have resources, technology, care, economics behind it and these organizations can get to the heart aspect. We should talk about the landowner outreach approaches used here to start communicating about these resources where available.
Jeff Larkin – in addition to research, I have five employees and they are focused on working with landowners and conservation planner – we reach out to landowners that are in strategic places. We assess interest, we go out to their property – and we’re not really talking about birds. We identified them because of birds, but we talk with them about their needs, places where they are open to have some thing happening, and if they see the benefits and want to apply that is where we really step in and assist with the paperwork, the link between them and the resources. At the end of the day, they get a conservation plan, something concrete on which they can make a decision to their level of investment. We work through the implementation with them, navigating and translating between them and the foresters, bringing the bird conservation perspective into focus within the context of that forestry and the landowner needs/values. There is money out there – we need to send that message that we need to do this for the birds, but we are selling something else as well. To bring it home – there are these people that have been working farms for years – if we can reach them, they spread that message through their communities for you. Technical assistance is THE most important thing we can do.
Dave King – And NRCS has a specific list of things that they will support, and this could be the list – rather than all of these different initiatives, but it would be focused things that could be supported.
Becky Keller – but there is money involved with NRCS, or at least most things. Maybe the conservation plans, these could be self-sustaining.
Jeff Larkin – Some of these programs already exist, but are not being capitalized upon.. So that outreach piece. There is a program like this in Costa Rica already.
... – you don’t get much back from those programs, so it is definitely coming from personal motivation or for certain perceived benefits.
Jeff Larkin – Thinking about the US programs, like the golden-winged warbler program – there are very targeted areas where we focus this work. We need to identify very important places -which in the wintering grounds is very easy. We need to work off of those conservation focal areas – we need to select a few to attack from the technical assistance, to the identifying of community advocates, etc. and spend the time to show that this approach can work and expand from there.
Nick – so re-cap of possible strategies
... there were 4 points here that were not captured re-capping earlier parts of the conversation
Providing for landowner needs – technical assistance etc. promoting diversification at landscapes and individual farms – shield farmers from fluctuations, satisfy farmers and promote resiliency, providing alternatives
Identifying market-based strategies which connect businesses to the product – linking producers to sellers and removing those intermediaries that are taking the majority of the profits, opening market access, thinking about certifications and how to improve
Appealing to hearts and minds – promoting those conservation alternatives which aren’t economy focused but on those ideals which we believe in and getting folks to engage in those actions
Packaging all of that in consideration of producer needs – offering several different solutions rather than just one.
Did we miss anything? And what do we really want? Do we want more shade in agroforestry systems, do we want more forest fragments? Do we want them both and can we achieve this in one strategy? Or is there a low-hanging fruit – what is the easiest and most tractable approach?
Becky Keller – which of these have been used successfully? We know some work better than others...
Andres Lopez – in the context of Colombia, there are areas where shade is negative for production and there are no benefits for the farmers, so in those areas, the strategy there should be forest fragment conservation.
Nick Bayly – where you have some sort of natural element to the landscape, they maintain biodiversity. So are we going to try to shoot for a strategy that does both?
Andrew Rothman – we have to do both.
Kirsten Johnson – with the focal areas you have such a good vehicle for a multi-faceted approach. So in each area you assess what are the options available here, and taking the NRCS model – we look at this from the local landowner – what are the option that you have on this farm, what are your needs/desired outcomes – can we conserve forest? If not, within your focal area, here are the things we are prioritizing. So identifying what are those A, B, C, D approaches in each focal area – and that might get at sort of addressing the other issues. We can look at that focal area unit and say what are those economic opportunities we haven’t explored here, who are the active partners, we can use this for our product/market-based solution marketing each focal area as a unique single origin type product. And this allows us to apply the same adaptive strategy throughout the region while accounting for landscape context, political context.