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identification of priority actions for local innovation and implementation of adaptive management through community-led activities.
Toward these ends, training in the use of the indicators was provided to the project proponents, their partners, and other stakeholders, to enable them to contribute
to building environmental and social resilience on the ground. Some of the key
benefits gained from the application of the indicators in the GEF-Satoyama Project
are discussed below.
• Recognizing the value of nature
• According to the results of the use of the indicators under the GEF-Satoyama
Project, resilience assessment helped community members to re-evaluate nature
in their communities through discussion of the diversity of flora, fauna, and food
sources; the exercise of mapping their landscapes and seascapes; scoring of the
indicators; and sharing and understanding their reasons for scoring them as they
did. The discussion also helped local communities to revisit their history and
socio-ecological and political conditions related to how they have engaged with
their landscapes and seascapes, share their perceptions related to nature and their
management, and recognize the evolution of their SEPLS. In turn, this encouraged more active participation of local communities in the development of participatory management plans, conservation practices, natural resource
management, and enforcement. In the project in Zunheboto District of Nagaland
in northeast India, conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the
villagers of Sukhai, Ghukhuyi, and Kivikhu had become concerned that they
were consuming too much wildlife, which led them to establish a community
conserved area (CCA) in their territory. CCAs are areas voluntarily put into protection by communities for the purpose of conservation through consensus under
self-imposed management rules. Although the ban on hunting has an economic
impact on all community members due to loss of income from wildlife sales,
after carrying out the resilience assessment they agreed that they could benefit
more from conservation through activities such as ecotourism involving bird and
butterfly watching. Activities also include making use of available natural
resources by revitalizing their traditional weaving of handicrafts or shawls, a
skill that only a few women currently possess. During the resilience assessment,
members of the communities recognized that they still have extraordinarily rich
biodiversity in their ecosystems. However, many of them found that unique ecosystems and the associated natural resources they were benefiting from were
declining in size and quality, and understood the need to take more rigorous
management measures to keep receiving these benefits. Thus, the resilience
assessment helped them to identify challenges in their SEPLS, and encouraged
active engagement of local communities to develop and implement natural
resource management plans.
• Revitalizing indigenous and local knowledge
• The resilience assessments also evaluated local knowledge systems, including
indigenous, local, and women’s knowledge. This exercise helped local communities to recognize and take stock of their indigenous and local knowledge and
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…
identification of priority actions for local innovation and implementation of adaptive management through community-led activities.
Toward these ends, training in the use of the indicators was provided to the project proponents, their partners, and other stakeholders, to enable them to contribute
to building environmental and social resilience on the ground. Some of the key
benefits gained from the application of the indicators in the GEF-Satoyama Project
are discussed below.
• Recognizing the value of nature
• According to the results of the use of the indicators under the GEF-Satoyama
Project, resilience assessment helped community members to re-evaluate nature
in their communities through discussion of the diversity of flora, fauna, and food
sources; the exercise of mapping their landscapes and seascapes; scoring of the
indicators; and sharing and understanding their reasons for scoring them as they
did. The discussion also helped local communities to revisit their history and
socio-ecological and political conditions related to how they have engaged with
their landscapes and seascapes, share their perceptions related to nature and their
management, and recognize the evolution of their SEPLS. In turn, this encouraged more active participation of local communities in the development of participatory management plans, conservation practices, natural resource
management, and enforcement. In the project in Zunheboto District of Nagaland
in northeast India, conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the
villagers of Sukhai, Ghukhuyi, and Kivikhu had become concerned that they
were consuming too much wildlife, which led them to establish a community
conserved area (CCA) in their territory. CCAs are areas voluntarily put into protection by communities for the purpose of conservation through consensus under
self-imposed management rules. Although the ban on hunting has an economic
impact on all community members due to loss of income from wildlife sales,
after carrying out the resilience assessment they agreed that they could benefit
more from conservation through activities such as ecotourism involving bird and
butterfly watching. Activities also include making use of available natural
resources by revitalizing their traditional weaving of handicrafts or shawls, a
skill that only a few women currently possess. During the resilience assessment,
members of the communities recognized that they still have extraordinarily rich
biodiversity in their ecosystems. However, many of them found that unique ecosystems and the associated natural resources they were benefiting from were
declining in size and quality, and understood the need to take more rigorous
management measures to keep receiving these benefits. Thus, the resilience
assessment helped them to identify challenges in their SEPLS, and encouraged
active engagement of local communities to develop and implement natural
resource management plans.
• Revitalizing indigenous and local knowledge
• The resilience assessments also evaluated local knowledge systems, including
indigenous, local, and women’s knowledge. This exercise helped local communities to recognize and take stock of their indigenous and local knowledge and
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…