Micronesia Challenge Socioeconomic Monitoring Draft Plan*
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Micronesia Challenge Socioeconomic Monitoring Draft Plan* Vision: Sustainable and thriving communities empowered through informed conservation *As of May, 2016 1 Micronesia Challenge Socioeconomic Monitoring Plan Vision: Sustainable and thriving communities empowered through informed conservation 1. Background Micronesia Challenge and socioeconomic monitoring In March 2006 all five Chief Executives of the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam agreed to globally declare ambitious conservation targets in order to sustain the biodiversity, protect the culture and environment, and sustain the livelihoods of Micronesian island communities.1 The Chief Executives united the region and launched the Micronesia Challenge (MC) conservation initiative. This shared commitment by the leaders of the region is to “effectively conserve at least 30% of the near-shore marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial resources across Micronesia by 2020.” Later in 2006, at the 8th Retreat of the Micronesians in Island Conservation (MIC) Network, participants discussed the difficulty of satisfying the needs of all stakeholders, yet suggested that the definition of effective conservation in Micronesia must consider a balanced approach that uses a combination of traditional and modern conservation practices.2 Later that same year, a definition of “effective conservation” was drafted and preliminarily approved at the 1st MC Planning Meeting, stating that effective conservation: “entails the social, traditional, political, biological, financial, and legal aspects of sustainable use of at least 30% of marine resources and 20% of the terrestrial area keeping in mind the overall management of surrounding areas, and finding a right balance between resource utilization by communities to sustain their cultural values, socio-economic development, and prosperity.”3 This definition of effective conservation has since been adopted and sustained, keeping in mind the overall management of surrounding areas, and finding a right balance between resource utilization by communities to sustain their cultural values, socio- economic development, and prosperity.” The effectiveness of conservation and the importance of benefits of conservation to people is the impetus for socioeconomic monitoring planning and implementation. Site and monitoring population target(s) 1 Declaration of Commitment: ‘The Micronesia Challenge’. 2006. 2 MC Regional Support Team Concept Paper. 2006. 3 Micronesia Challenge. 2006. “1st Regional Workshop Report.” 2 The regional SEM effort is being implemented to systematically understand and monitor our island community’s human well-being. The SEM sites for each jurisdiction will be determined by that jurisdiction with support and guidance from SEM team and mentors. MC Management plan There is no formal management plan for the Micronesia Challenge, however there is a Micronesia Challenge "We Are One" Business Plan. Moreover, each MC site either has or is in process of developing a management plan and should be referenced at the jurisdictional level. Purpose and history of monitoring The first MC Measures Working Group meeting took place on Pohnpei in 2008 to build on the foundation laid during the Regional Action Planning Meeting. The meeting defined a proposed process and timeline for the periodic (biological) measurement and analysis of progress made toward achieving the goals of the MC. The meeting participants identified the regional overlaps and gaps associated with biological and social indicators related to natural resource management across terrestrial and marine ecosystems by participating agencies and organizations, a shared set of results chains that are related to the MC goals, and reached consensus around a proposed set of relevant and useful categories of MC measures, and a possible set of corresponding indicators to be collected across jurisdictions, as appropriate. It was agreed that refinement of these indicators was still needed, along with a plan for how to build the necessary capacity to measure these indicators within the jurisdictions. In August of 2012, the First MC Socioeconomic Measures workshop was held. It was the fifth in a series of ongoing meetings of the MC Measures Working Group. The participants, with the assistance of socioeconomic monitoring experts, worked together to identify measures of progress in achieving the goal of effective conservation. Over three days representatives from each of the MC jurisdictions met in Koror, Republic of Palau, to lay the foundations for socioeconomic monitoring of the Challenge. As a result, a small set of socioeconomic indicators was selected and agreed by all jurisdictions to measure at their various MC sites. These indicators selected focus on the aspects of human wellbeing that the participants agreed on as being most important for Micronesia Challenge and the processes that are relevant to achieving them. They are also considered to be relevant to all jurisdictions, and are attributed to or contributed by MC efforts and feasible to measure. The three most important human wellbeing domains for MC efforts are: Sustainable Livelihood, Good Governance, and Education/Built Capacity. Indicator areas related to these attributes were then discussed and agreed upon. Because the process of MC was identified as crucial for achieving human wellbeing objectives, participants also discussed and agreed on process indicator areas. Through a number of rounds of comments and edits after the workshop, the initial 3 indicators have been revised and tailored to best gauge the extent to which MC addresses the human wellbeing objectives and process to achieve them. An Appendix for the MC indicators was produced in September 2013 and tested in several sites in the MC countries (see Appendix). During the 2nd MC Social Measures workshop in June 2015, these indicators were revisited and revised (See Table XX for the revised MC indicators) Stakeholders and participation/consultation plans At the regional level, the MC SEM Team is a network of donors, advisors, managers, and practitioners in environmental, resource, societal, and conservation area management working in the region, who provide technical, policy, funding, resources and communication support to the MC Regional Office and MC jurisdictions as needed and appropriate. Key members include the Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), RARE International, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Locally Managed Marine Area Network (LMMA), , the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Pacific Islands Forum, the US Department of Interior, US Forest Service, Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC), Pacific Islands Managed and Protected Areas Community (PIMPAC), the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) and all of the resource management agencies and local conservation NGOs in each of the islands. The social networks are, as shown in Figure 1, strategically aligned to address the various capacity needs of the MC jurisdictions while leveraging each other's resources and avoiding duplicating efforts while maintaining a long-term vision of greater Micronesia. 4 Figure 1: Each conservation audience listed on the left is served by a social network listed on the right. (Image adapted from PIMPAC.) The SEM Core Team is a subgroup within the MC Measures Working Group and the Communications Working Group, as shown in Figure 1. 5 Figure 2: Organizational framework for the MC. At the jurisdictional level, the key stakeholder groups are those from whom the data for the MC indicators come from and whom participate in the collection and use of the data. These are summarized in the Column “Targets for Information” in the table XX below: Indicator Type Targets for Information MC1. Perception of change in food Site Level Census/Survey of the communities, SE availability. POCs MC2. Household participation in Site Level NGOs, Gov. Agencies, Traditional leaders, natural resources management SE POCs planning or decision making MC3. Number of community Site Level NGOs, Gov. Agencies, Traditional leaders, driven management plans SE POCs endorsed by stakeholders MC4. Change in violations and Site Level NGOs, Gov. Agencies, Traditional leaders, illegal activities related to fishing, SE POCs harvesting, and use of natural resources. MC5. Education Site Level MC6. Accessibility of reports to all Initiative MC Regional Coordinator stakeholders. Level MC7. Use of scientific data in Initiative MC Regional Coordinator decision making of MC. Level 6 MC8. Community awareness of Initiative MC SE POCs the MC Level MC9. Community support for the Initiative MC SE POCs MC Level MC10. Commitment of Micronesia Initiative MC Regional Coordinator Challenge governments to human Level wellbeing objectives. MC11. Micronesia Challenge Initiative MC Regional Coordinator regional coordination effort. Level Monitoring objectives Through the minimum set of agreed MC-SEM indicators, we are hoping to begin to monitor these same specific human wellbeing outcomes and process related aspects of the Micronesia Challenge at the site level. However, because every site is unique, and as a result, site specific socioeconomic assessments will vary greatly throughout the region, users of these guidelines may select the following indicators and develop new ones that are relevant to