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Under the GEF-Satoyama Project overall, the assessments using the indicators
provided a platform for community members, key stakeholders, and project proponents to come together and evaluate the current status of their landscapes and seascapes and share their perceptions with others. They came up with ideas for
strengthening governance including official and community regulations, communication, and organizational mechanisms to realize natural resource management in
the community. In many cases, assessment participants tried to strengthen collaboration with policy makers to seek better management options. Besides establishing
a baseline against which the achievements of the project are measured, resilience
assessments provided opportunities to:
• Explore traditional and local knowledge, history, and social and political conditions in the area
• Share strengths and weaknesses of the SEPLS among community members and
other stakeholders
• Stimulate dialogue among different community groups and stakeholders that
normally do not interact to a significant extent and thus deepen the understanding
of differing perceptions toward the landscapes and seascapes
• Understand the needs of local communities
• Strengthen trust between project proponents and the stakeholders
The documentation of the discussion stimulated by the process of attempting to
reach consensus scores for the indicators is an asset that endorses participants’
thinking, and which will remain as a valuable reference for the future.
6.3.3 A Case Study in Agrobiodiversity from Sierra del Rosario
Biosphere Reserve, Cuba
Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that puts
plant and tree genetic diversity, which nourishes people and sustains the planet, at
the heart of its work. Most plant genetic diversity is found in small-scale, traditional
agricultural systems largely concentrated in developing countries of the global
south, while the productivity and resilience of the world’s agriculture depends on a
diverse mix of crop varieties, agricultural techniques, farming systems, and traditional and local knowledge. All these attributes can be found in SEPLS, where
humans are described as a “keystone species,” as they are central to the health of the
agroecosystems they have created, and many other species could not survive without their continuous intervention. Bioversity International works with partners on
the ground, and through different research projects has tested and used the indicators of resilience in 11 different countries across different agroecosystems, from the
highland potato and quinoa plots of Bolivia to the tropical agroforestry systems of
Cuba and the rice paddies of China and the Philippines.
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…
Under the GEF-Satoyama Project overall, the assessments using the indicators
provided a platform for community members, key stakeholders, and project proponents to come together and evaluate the current status of their landscapes and seascapes and share their perceptions with others. They came up with ideas for
strengthening governance including official and community regulations, communication, and organizational mechanisms to realize natural resource management in
the community. In many cases, assessment participants tried to strengthen collaboration with policy makers to seek better management options. Besides establishing
a baseline against which the achievements of the project are measured, resilience
assessments provided opportunities to:
• Explore traditional and local knowledge, history, and social and political conditions in the area
• Share strengths and weaknesses of the SEPLS among community members and
other stakeholders
• Stimulate dialogue among different community groups and stakeholders that
normally do not interact to a significant extent and thus deepen the understanding
of differing perceptions toward the landscapes and seascapes
• Understand the needs of local communities
• Strengthen trust between project proponents and the stakeholders
The documentation of the discussion stimulated by the process of attempting to
reach consensus scores for the indicators is an asset that endorses participants’
thinking, and which will remain as a valuable reference for the future.
6.3.3 A Case Study in Agrobiodiversity from Sierra del Rosario
Biosphere Reserve, Cuba
Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that puts
plant and tree genetic diversity, which nourishes people and sustains the planet, at
the heart of its work. Most plant genetic diversity is found in small-scale, traditional
agricultural systems largely concentrated in developing countries of the global
south, while the productivity and resilience of the world’s agriculture depends on a
diverse mix of crop varieties, agricultural techniques, farming systems, and traditional and local knowledge. All these attributes can be found in SEPLS, where
humans are described as a “keystone species,” as they are central to the health of the
agroecosystems they have created, and many other species could not survive without their continuous intervention. Bioversity International works with partners on
the ground, and through different research projects has tested and used the indicators of resilience in 11 different countries across different agroecosystems, from the
highland potato and quinoa plots of Bolivia to the tropical agroforestry systems of
Cuba and the rice paddies of China and the Philippines.
6 Lessons Learned from Application of the “Indicators of Resilience…