A community-based, awareness and education program will be employed. This process will involve employment of the Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) to elicit the community?s prior knowledge as a key element of a baseline survey as well as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods for sustainable empowerment of the local community to conserve. The PRA will, among other things, inform the residents about the importance of habitat integrity and consequent benefits to themselves and to biodiversity in general. These efforts will revolve around the conservation of wetlands and birds in the valley, with the Bald Ibis used as a key species.
In addition to the educational resources a variety of PRA methods will be used to empower the communities to conserve including mapping or modeling on the ground or paper, listing, 4
estimating, comparing, scoring and ranking with seeds, stones, sticks or shapes, Venn or institutional diagramming. The local structures of governance, namely the local government councilor, the chief and the local community association, will all play a key role to sustain the activities initiated by the project. The education and training activities will target the entire community as well as identify potential trainers for training who will sustain the project activities beyond the official lifespan of the project. In order to undertake the proposed educational activities environmental education specialist will be engaged for training. The services of an ornithologist will be sourced from Bloemfontein, in South Africa, due to lack of such specialists in Lesotho The network will work in partnership with members of the Thaba-Khubelu Conservation and Tours Association also known as Etelang Thaba-Khubelu. The association, is not yet legally registered, and it will be assisted to do so by the project.
Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples
Among the youth that have been found to frequent roosting and nesting places for the Ibis are herdboys who are also blames for destruction of wetlands in the area by grazing livestock int he areas. This group will be specifically targetted to educate them about the environment particulalry wetlands and biodiversity and its importance in supporting livelihoods.
Notable Community Participation
As part of the community outreach and development initiative, the Environmental and Sustainability Education Network of Lesotho expert held three meeting with the Tlokoeng community to conceptualize the project. The initial two meetings were sessions in which the expert raised the community?s awareness about the importance of the Bald Ibis and the wetlands and the value of conserving them. The specialist stressed the potential eco-tourism value of the Bald Ibis and other birds such as owls, as well as the historic sites and the scenic landscape of Tlokoeng valley. The third meeting was held to establish a village association and committee that would drive the conservation and eco-tourism initiative. This was followed by the establishment of a constitution and election of the executive committee that will oversee the initiative. The Environmental and Sustainability Education Network facilitated GEF SGP funding concept based on community conservation and eco-
9
tourism goal and presented it to the community. The community in turn welcomed the project concept. The project will be driven by expertise from the Environmental and Sustainability Education Network of Lesotho, in partnership with a bird specialist from South Africa. The network is legally registered, and will work in partnership with members of the Thaba-Khubelu Conservation and Tours Association also known as Etelang Thaba-Khubelu. The association is led by an executive committee comprising members from Tlokoeng and Makoabating villages. Stakeholders will include members of communities in Tlokoeng, Makoabating and the neighbouring villages, three primary and four secondary schools as well as the Botha-Bothe District Education Office, and the District Environment Office. A ?community and stakeholders project committee? will be established at the commencement phase of the project, to ensure/oversee full participation of stakeholders during the implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases of the project. The committee will be constituted of representatives from the above-mentioned stakeholders.
Project sustainability
Local community has been empowered through training, strengthening of community organizational structures by assisting a local community association to register as a legal entity and involving local authorities throughout the whole project cycle. All surveys undertaken wer done by locals who are now empowered to facilitate all project activities and have been linked to key stakeholders including the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture, entity responsible for the implementaion ofhte National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
Planning non gef grant
Plans are underway to source further funding to further development of the ecotourism componenet of the project and to carryout detailed studies. THe Ministry of Toursim, Environment and Culture and its executing arm, the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation is going around the country to identify potential tourist destinations particularly community based initiatives for assistance and inclusion in the tourism marketing strateg.
Policy Impact
THe project will contribute toward implemetation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The knowledge produced during the various phases of the project will initially be documented as minutes of the meetings held and reports based on undertaken studies and activities (e.g. workshop reports, baseline survey). The documented information will then be synthesized to establish good practices gained and this information will be shared at seminars of the Environmental and Sustainability Education Network and similar forums, environmental conferences and as publications.
Linkages gef projects
The process for the formulation of the Sub-regional and national biodiversity strategies and action plans and programmes was supported by GEF. the initiative is contributing towards achievement of goals and objectives of these programmes.
Policy Influence
The project is contributing directly to the implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. Interventions in conservation and protection of biodiversity in the fauna front are very limited country wide and this initiative is contributing immensely.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The project sets out to link biodiversity conservation with eco-tourism. This concept was well received in the preliminary project conceptualization meetings held with Tlokoeng and Makoabating villages. Based on the provided information about the Southern Bald Ibis, members began to show appreciation of the bird and biodiversity found in the valley in general and how linking its conservation with eco-tourism could complement their crop production, which has become increasingly unreliable. It is therefore envisaged that through the PRA approaches to community education and development of a community driven ecotourism the benefits of the project will be sustained beyond the life-span of the project, and be a permanent feature of the community.
Gender Focus
The project will target Tlokoeng and nearby villages. Specifically, the project will target men, women, youth, herders, as well as teachers and learners in the neighbouring three primary and four secondary/high schools.
Project Results
- Awareness has been created about environment and nature particularly birds and wetlands in Tlokoeng valley, threats to these resources and strategies to conserve them and monitor their status
- 13 herders/herdboys and about 20 youth from the community have been trained in environmental educational trails as educational facilitators as tour guides. This team has already facilitated numerous educational trails for the local community, an initiative that has generated a lot of interest in birds particularly the Southern Bald Ibis. The trails involved learning about the following: Tlokoeng owls, Southern Bald Ibises, the Landscape, wetlands, Protea forest and a variety of bird species found in the valley. Environmental.
- Education brochures, written in both Sesotho and English, have been developed to inform and support the education activities. The community members who participated in the training include women, men, herdboys and youth. The focus of the training has largely focused on the developed trails as well as on the use and handling of the purchased telescope and binoculars. The developed environmental education brochures, mentioned above, have been used for the training of the tour guides.
- 138 species of birds have been identified in the project area and their status and breeding patterns determined. Among these is the Southern Bald Ibis, a red data list species, which has been found to be a permanent resident roosting and nesting in the project area. The roosting and nesting sites have been located and plans and strategies for their protection are in place.
- Environmental education trails have been mapped out and construction of trails to the roosting sites for owls' and the Southern Bald Ibis, camping and landscape viewing sites have been constructed through the use of the `matsema' strategy.
- A local community association called Etelang Thaba Khubelu, has been assisted to register as a legal entity to further strengthen the community organizational structure and to empower the community to conserve nature and venture into ecotourism as a livelihood support strategy.
