99
integral to discussion, analysis, and negotiation in the processes of generating
baseline information, reaching consensus on major challenges to local resilience,
and developing a plan of action to address these challenges. Because of their effectiveness in promoting group discussion and interaction, they are also critical in generating the social capital necessary to undertake community-driven projects.
Under COMDEKS, target communities come together to discuss and score each
indicator during a workshop organized as part of the baseline assessment of the
landscape or seascape. This process is just as important for its educational purposes
as for its role in generating data. Experience has shown that discussing and scoring
the indicators acts as an effective introduction to the principles of landscape and
seascape resilience. First, group discussion before scoring provides an opportunity
to talk about resilience with local examples. The scoring exercise itself grounds this
more general discussion in local experience, acting as a means to consider landscape conditions and trends and what they mean for resilience. Gaining an appreciation for the concept of resilience and how it manifests locally is one of the most
important factors for the community in the early stages of the COMDEKS process.
The scores given for each indicator by stakeholders during the baseline assessment workshop provide essential input for the community to develop its landscape
strategy. This is the most critical part of the planning process, where the community
comes up with a vision of what a more resilient landscape would look like and
determines what actions would be required to realize this vision. Although the
scores are not quantitative measures of resilience, they do help identify potential
problems that the strategy can address through COMDEKS projects.
An ex-post baseline assessment carried out at the completion of COMDEKS
projects also uses the indicators to identify changes in resilience. A workshop similar to that carried out for the baseline assessment is held, at which the indicators are
again scored by the community, and these scores are compared with the earlier ones.
Although comparing the scores from the baseline assessment with those from the
ex-post assessment cannot be used as a quantitative measure of landscape resilience
change, it can be used to highlight local perceptions of changes due to the completed projects, and other factors affecting landscape resilience, and to indicate
progress toward the goals identified in the landscape strategy and recommend adaptive measures. Thus, the indicators are an integral feature of COMDEKS implementation from beginning to end. They are also key to the adaptive management cycle
that COMDEKS is based on, in which project results are used as a source of learning and innovation for future community efforts. The indicator scores, in addition to
other progress metrics, are essential elements in monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
processes.
The COMDEKS program has shown that besides facilitating a common understanding and vision for participatory landscape and seascape management among
local stakeholders, the indicators can play an important part in giving communitylevel interventions legitimacy in the eyes of policy makers. By involving policy
makers in the process and helping them to understand the elements that benefit
resilience, and further by demonstrating that these elements can be considered and
evaluated systematically, experience using the indicators has in some cases made it
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…
integral to discussion, analysis, and negotiation in the processes of generating
baseline information, reaching consensus on major challenges to local resilience,
and developing a plan of action to address these challenges. Because of their effectiveness in promoting group discussion and interaction, they are also critical in generating the social capital necessary to undertake community-driven projects.
Under COMDEKS, target communities come together to discuss and score each
indicator during a workshop organized as part of the baseline assessment of the
landscape or seascape. This process is just as important for its educational purposes
as for its role in generating data. Experience has shown that discussing and scoring
the indicators acts as an effective introduction to the principles of landscape and
seascape resilience. First, group discussion before scoring provides an opportunity
to talk about resilience with local examples. The scoring exercise itself grounds this
more general discussion in local experience, acting as a means to consider landscape conditions and trends and what they mean for resilience. Gaining an appreciation for the concept of resilience and how it manifests locally is one of the most
important factors for the community in the early stages of the COMDEKS process.
The scores given for each indicator by stakeholders during the baseline assessment workshop provide essential input for the community to develop its landscape
strategy. This is the most critical part of the planning process, where the community
comes up with a vision of what a more resilient landscape would look like and
determines what actions would be required to realize this vision. Although the
scores are not quantitative measures of resilience, they do help identify potential
problems that the strategy can address through COMDEKS projects.
An ex-post baseline assessment carried out at the completion of COMDEKS
projects also uses the indicators to identify changes in resilience. A workshop similar to that carried out for the baseline assessment is held, at which the indicators are
again scored by the community, and these scores are compared with the earlier ones.
Although comparing the scores from the baseline assessment with those from the
ex-post assessment cannot be used as a quantitative measure of landscape resilience
change, it can be used to highlight local perceptions of changes due to the completed projects, and other factors affecting landscape resilience, and to indicate
progress toward the goals identified in the landscape strategy and recommend adaptive measures. Thus, the indicators are an integral feature of COMDEKS implementation from beginning to end. They are also key to the adaptive management cycle
that COMDEKS is based on, in which project results are used as a source of learning and innovation for future community efforts. The indicator scores, in addition to
other progress metrics, are essential elements in monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
processes.
The COMDEKS program has shown that besides facilitating a common understanding and vision for participatory landscape and seascape management among
local stakeholders, the indicators can play an important part in giving communitylevel interventions legitimacy in the eyes of policy makers. By involving policy
makers in the process and helping them to understand the elements that benefit
resilience, and further by demonstrating that these elements can be considered and
evaluated systematically, experience using the indicators has in some cases made it
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…