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[11:37:36 AM] Maru Arreola: es que todo el y su entorno es mi sueño!
[11:37:42 AM] Maru Arreola: (inlove)
MAR Leadership
Resource Book
Launching Innovative
Conservation Projects and
Learning with Young Leaders
in the Mesoamerican Reef
Paquita Acknowledgements
Bath and Maria Eugenia Arreola
T
Authors: Paquita Bath and María Eugenia Arreola.
Photos: Javier Ochoa, Yuself Cala, Claudia Taylor.
Editor: Claudia Taylor.
Acknowledgements
The MAR Leadership Program was launched in 2009 thanks to the visionary foresight of the
Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, A.C. (FMCN) and The Summit
Charitable Foundation. An Executive Committee made up of Lorenzo Rosenzweig (FMCN),
Carlos Saavedra (Summit Foundation), and María José González (Mesoamerican Reef Fund)
has guided the program from its inception. As the program has grown, additional donors
have offered their support, including the Oak Foundation, the TreadRight Foundation, The
Bodhi Tree Foundation, and individual donors through GlobalGiving. The program has also
been fortunate to have strong and committed staff members who have worked to identify
motivated fellows and provide them with the tools and coaching to advance their ideas and
launch innovative projects.
Special thanks to Claudia Taylor, editor, and Paquita Bath, Founder of Aligning Visions
(www.aligningvisions.com), for working on this manual.
MAR Leadership Resource Book: Launching Innovative Conservation
Projects and Learning with Young Leaders in the Mesoamerican Reef, 4th
edition/Paquita Bath and María Eugenia Arreola. – Mexico City: Fondo
Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, A.C., 2013.
77p.: il.
1. Project design. 2. Training. 3. Conservation.
This manual was made possible thanks to the
support of our donors:
Page
Introduction: Seeding Innovative Projects ................................ 1
Launching MAR Fellow Cohorts ................................................................................. 1
The Mesoamerican Reef System................................................................................ 4
Building MAR Fellow Impact ..................................................................................... 5
Project Planning Evolution ........................................................................................ 7
Step 1: Define Project Scope ................................................ 10
1A: Project Scope: Physical Geography.................................................................... 10
1B: Project Scope: Target ...................................................................................... 12
1C: Project Scope: Threats .................................................................................... 13
Step 2: Identify Project Strategy .......................................... 16
2A: Opportunities and Passions .............................................................................. 16
2B: Theory of Change............................................................................................ 19
2C: Linking Strategies with Results ......................................................................... 21
2C-1: Logframes and Results Chains .................................................................... 21
2C-2: Goals and/or Outcomes ............................................................................. 22
Step 3: Engage Key Partners ................................................ 28
3A: Assess a Variety of stakeholders ....................................................................... 28
3B: Stakeholder Analysis ....................................................................................... 30
3C: Engagement Strategies.................................................................................... 32
3C-1: Examples of engaging Stakeholders ............................................................ 35
Step 4: Monitoring & Evaluation............................................ 40
4A: General Background ON M&E ............................................................................ 40
4B: Monitoring Methods ......................................................................................... 42
4C: Completing Results Chains with Indicators ......................................................... 44
Step 5: Develop a Work Plan ................................................ 47
5A: Work Flow Diagrams ....................................................................................... 47
5B: Additional Work Flow Tools ............................................................................... 50
5B-1: Gantt Charts ............................................................................................ 50
5B-2: Budgeting Time with PERT ......................................................................... 53
5C: Finalizing Planning for Implementation .............................................................. 55
Step 6: Build the Budget ...................................................... 57
6A: Fixed and Variable Costs .................................................................................. 57
6B: Direct and Indirect Costs.................................................................................. 59
6C: Time Is Money ................................................................................................ 60
6D: Categories and Line Items ............................................................................... 62
6E: Revenue Streams and Matching Funds ............................................................... 63
Conclusion ......................................................................... 69
Completing Project Design ..................................................................................... 71
Next Steps ........................................................................................................... 71
Annex 1: List of Fellows by Cohort ........................................ 74
2010 Cohort ..................................................................................................... 74
2011 Cohort ..................................................................................................... 74
2012 Cohort ..................................................................................................... 75
Annex 2: Participating Experts .............................................. 76
Mesoamerican Reef References ............................................. 77
A vision without a plan is just a dream
A plan without a vision is just drudgery
But a vision with a plan can change the world.
Proverb
Donors, staff, and Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) Leadership Fellows recognize that fellows can,
and must, change the world by reversing the behaviors which have stressed and degraded
the Mesoamerican Reef. Our goal is to induce key stakeholders in the MAR region to choose
a more sustainable path so that the reef and the ecosystem services it provides (such as
coastal protection from storms, habitats for the fish that feed coastal communities, and
protecting the species that inspire and attract tourists) are preserved for future generations.
In support of this vision, the MAR Leadership Program selects an annual cohort of 10-12
committed visionaries who have an innovative idea of how to:





Improve coastal development planning
Encourage sustainable tourism
Build more sustainable fishing practices
Reduce land-based pollution affecting rivers that drain into the MAR
Strengthen the existing network of marine protected areas
Fellows selected range from high school graduates to Ph.D. students. They represent not
only the traditional NGO sector but also business, government, education, and the media.
Some of them are the sons and daughters of fishers; others are immigrants to the coastal
zone. Fellows’ ages generally range from 25 to 35. The one thing they all have in common is
a strong commitment to the MAR and an innovative idea to change conservation in the
region.1
1
See Annex 1 for a full list of MAR Fellows.
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Recognizing that the MAR requires cross-border solutions, fellows are chosen from the four
countries that share the Mesoamerican Reef: Mexico (specifically, the state of Quintana
Roo), Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. An unusual aspect of the MAR Leadership training
program is that each cohort focuses on a different issue affecting the MAR. The 2010 cohort
focused on unsustainable tourism, the 2011 cohort on unsustainable fishing, and the 2012
cohort on Marine Protected Areas. This decision was based on three ideas:
1. The expectation that cohorts of fellows who are trying to impact the same major
threat would build greater synergies for peer review and effective networking. In this
way, fellows build greater synergies and cross-border collaborations.
2. A desire to forge common ground and give fellows time to share their perceptions,
voice their concerns, and identify overlapping stresses.
3. The convenience of thematic focus in terms of providing relevant materials,
attracting expert speakers, and developing background documents.
While each cohort meets four times, the program also makes an effort to bring cohorts together to
enhance networking across the region and build relationships that can support fellows throughout their
professional lives. In March 2012, fellows from all three cohorts came together.
Each cohort cycle lasts 18 months, during which the program’s fellows receive individual
and group training aimed at making them more effective leaders and helping them design
and implement sophisticated conservation projects with strong potential for replication.
Over the three years of the program, we have adapted the training program for each
cohort, but many successful elements have remained the same. Three workshops are
offered during the fellows’ first year (see MAR Leadership Cohort Cycle), during which
fellows gradually improve their project design and enhance their understanding of the MAR
ecoregion while refining their leadership abilities. For individual trainings, fellows have
access to a small budget that can be used to participate in courses or technical diploma
programs, intensive English or Spanish classes, visits from mentors, visits to pilot projects,
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and internships in international organizations related to the fellow’s project. These funds are
expended according to a training plan designed with inputs from both the program’s staff
and experts.
Experts from major conservation organizations and academic institutions provide
background on the state of the Mesoamerican Reef at every workshop during the first year
of the cycle. These experts not only present their research to the fellows, but also listen to
the fellows’ explanations of their project ideas and provide feedback based on their technical
expertise. In this way, each fellow receives technical support in addition to the project
design training that is the focus of this manual.2
2
See Annex 2 for a full list of experts who have worked with MAR Leadership.
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The beauty of the Mesoamerican Reef attracts high volumes of tourists. Photo: Javier Ochoa.
The Mesoamerican Reef System (MAR) is the most biologically and economically significant
reef in the Americas. It extends for more than 1000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize,
Guatemala, and Honduras. The MAR ecoregion includes oceanic habitats, coastal zones,
tropical forests, and watersheds that drain into the Caribbean Basin. Coral reefs and
mangroves provide critical protection against damage from hurricanes and tropical storms.
They also support generations of fishermen providing fish for millions of consumers. Over
the last few decades a prosperous tourism industry has arisen along the reef, taking
advantage of beautiful beaches, snorkeling and diving opportunities, and species attractive
for sport fishing. The region is also unique for its biodiversity: it is home to sea turtles,
manatees, more than 65 species of coral, and more than 500 species of fish, including the
charismatic whale shark. Local cultures move to the rhythm of the ocean, fish migrations,
and the schedules of species that have defined their livelihoods.
The main threats to the Mesoamerican Reef are well-known. These include land-based
pollution sources, severe overfishing, predatory tourism development, and global climate
change. These threats are being addressed to varying degrees by a cadre of committed
local and international organizations, but their impact is limited due to a lack of leadership
training and deficient project design and development initiatives.
The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Report Card for the Mesoamerican Reef 3 is an
important data source on reef health. The fifty sites (36 in Belize, 4 in Honduras, and 10 in
Mexico) surveyed in all three report cards published to date (2008, 2010 and 2012) show
that although overall reef health declined between the first two reports, there are now signs
3
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. 2012. Report Card for the Mesoamerican Reef: An Evaluation of Ecosystem
Health. http://www.healthyreefs.org.
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of recovery in these sites. In particular, when comparing the 2010 and 2012 report cards,
the percentage of reefs in critical condition decreased from 30% to 15% of the sites, and
reefs in good condition increased from <5% to almost 10% of all sites.
Currently, less than 4 percent of Belize’s territorial waters are under strict (i.e., “no-take”)
protection. This figure is between 2 and 3 percent for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo,
less than 0.5 percent for Honduras, and practically zero for the Guatemalan Caribbean. With
the understanding that healthier ecosystems show greater natural resilience, the MAR
Leadership Program has taken on the mission of developing a network of multifunctional
marine reserves to counteract reef degradation. While there is no consensus regarding how
much protection is needed to ensure recovery of depleted populations, the MAR Leadership
Program, in line with regional goals and initiatives, strives to support fellows who have
interesting ideas of how to engage more fishers, businesses and government agencies to
help secure at least 20% of absolute protection in the territorial waters of each MAR
country.
With the goal of helping fellows launch innovative projects along the MAR, the MAR
Leadership Program provides a generous amount of support to fellows.
1. Project Planning Guidance


Workshop 1: Project Scope/Strategy


Workshop 3: Budgeting/Proposals
Workshop 2: Partners/Monitoring and
Evaluation/Work Plan
Regular meetings with a planning coach
2. Group intranet (Groupsite) for networking and
information-sharing
3. Presentations by visiting experts
4. Funding for discretionary training/mentoring
opportunities
5. Project design manual
6. Peer and expert reviews of projects
7. Support in securing resources for project launch
Photo: Claudia Taylor
During workshops, fellows learn and practice a variety of leadership skills, including:




Negotiation and conflict resolution
Presentation skills and elevator speeches
Interpersonal communication (emotional intelligence)
Inspiration and creative thought
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In exchange for all of these inputs, much is expected of MAR Fellows. Throughout the first
year of the MAR Leadership program, fellows are encouraged to take their innovative idea
and develop a strong proposal that can be used to attract the interest of donors and/or
potential partner institutions. Some fellows identify a particular government agency that
could support their project implementation, while others seek private capital investments or
philanthropic donations. In all cases they must put together a coherent plan that includes:






A clear statement of the problem
Their theory of change and a coherent strategy
A detailed work plan
Measurable results
A multi-year budget
Plans for project sustainability and replication if successful
1. Acknowledge
that
project
plans
are
dynamic, and be willing to adjust.
2. Present updated project plans at every
workshop.
3. Mirror plan with strong presentations.
4. Use training funds to advance ability to
implement projects.
5. Incorporate feedback.
6. Provide feedback to peers.
7. Submit a full project proposal by September
of the cohort cycle.
8. Actively work to launch project, sharing
lessons learned in the process with other
MAR Fellows.
Kim Ley, 2011 MAR Fellow,
sharing his lobster tagging
expertise with his cohort
The goal of project planning workshops is to help fellows develop effective strategies while
building their confidence, and the confidence of donors and partners, in the feasibility and
impact of the project. The MAR Leadership program also recognizes that many fellows will
be adapting and developing new projects over a lifetime of living and working along the
Mesoamerican Reef. Strengthening their ability to design coherent projects will continue to
have a positive impact for decades.
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Over a three-year period, the
MAR Leadership Program has
climbed a steep learning curve
to ensure that fellows can
successfully apply planning
methods to their project ideas.
In 2010 we used a business
planning methodology, but
soon found that most fellows
were better served by project
planning and proposal writing
tools.
With the 2011 and 2012
cohorts,
planning
training
incorporated the two major
planning methodologies used
by donors and conservation
organizations this decade: the
Logical Framework Approach and Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation 4 (also
known as “Conservation Action Planning,” or CAP). The training program for the MAR
Fellows familiarizes them with both approaches. The MAR Leadership process adapts the
CAP methodology 5 for smaller-scale projects, because fellows generally do not have the
resources or capacity to address multiple threats at seascape or ecoregional scales.
However, we fully recognize the need for the fellows to be aligned with these wider
programs and think regionally as they look to replication. Many are employed by, or can
partner with, larger programs in which the full CAP methodology can be used. This manual,
and the approach used in training fellows, are designed to empower individual action that
can build on the local connections, commitment, and place-based understanding needed for
effective projects.
The basic training program and homework activities of the MAR Fellows during their first
year are tailored to ensure effective project design. The three planning workshops in year
one all include practical application exercises and clear deliverables that fellows can work on
between workshops. We recognize that MAR Fellows’ plans for their projects will change
many times throughout the process. Thus, we repeatedly take the time to go back and
ensure that all parts of the project fit together and are well-aligned.
4
www.conservationmeasures.org reflects the work of the Conservation Measures Partnership.
http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPlanning/ActionPlanning/Pages/conservation-action-plann.aspx
is a website managed by the CAP Coaches’ Network that helps all organizations implementing the Open Standards
process to continually improve their capacity.
5
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Following this format, all fellows commit to submitting a strong project proposal by the
conclusion of the training program in year one. To assist fellows in developing a plan, and
ultimately in securing funding, each fellow is asked to complete the following template, or,
alternatively, the proposal outline provided by a potential donor.
1.
Problem:
 What important threat affecting the Mesoamerican Reef does this project address?
 What is the current status of this threat?
2.
Theory of Change:
 What is your goal for a biodiversity target(s)? In what geographic area?
 What are the major and indirect threats affecting your targets? (If not covered in #1)
 What are the key opportunities where you can make a change?
 Have similar interventions been effective elsewhere?
 What is new and innovative that has potential for replication/scale about your strategy?
3.
Game Plan:
 Who are the key actors and how are you engaging with them to achieve this change?
 What are the difficulties and risks (internal and external) that threaten the project? How will your
team manage these?
 What outputs can be measured with annual benchmarks that will allow you to adaptively
manage your project?
 Demonstrate a Gantt chart or other project phasing tool (activities and timeline) with annual
output indicators.
4.
Budget:
 What is the estimated 3-year cost (with annual breakouts) of implementing this project?
 What are current sources of funding?
 What is the estimated funding gap?
5.
Sustaining the Project:
 What organization/team will have responsibility for the ongoing sustainability of your project?
 How will funding be secured?
 What capacity is in place to implement these strategies and to lead, manage and adapt the
project over time?
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Of the 2011 and 2012 cohorts, 96 percent of the fellows (23 of 24) were able to design an
ambitious, yet viable, project at the conclusion of the three workshops. Similarly, as our
selection process, coaching, and training methods improved, the number of fellows securing
funding and launching projects increased with each cohort. Five fellows of the 2012 cohort
secured funding for project launch within 10 months of entering the MAR Leadership
Program.
The following chapters provide more detail, and case study applications, of each of these six
sections of project planning.
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To begin a discussion on their projects, each fellow brings their initial idea to the first
workshop. Using these ideas, we start with scope.
Scope: A range or extent of action or activity that, for these projects, refers to:
1A:
Physical geography
1B:
Target
1C:
Direct and indirect threats
The MAR Leadership Program works with all three concepts, making sure targets, threats,
geography, and their link to strategy all make sense.
Starting with physical parameters, fellows are asked to clearly identify what area of the
Mesoamerican Reef they can impact: a defined area where they hope to see the
implementation and results of their projects. They are asked to map the geography where
they have ties to the local communities through their birth, their residence, or their work.
This geography is often an area defined by the boundaries of a protected area, a fishing
zone, a delta, or an area defined by prior data collection that can be used as a baseline.
Defining the coordinates helps fundamentally define the scope, the stakeholders, the extent
of the measures, etc. in any of the fellows’ projects. Given that fellows are invited every
year from each of the countries that border the MAR, the geographic scopes of the projects
are increasingly overlapping, creating opportunities for exciting synergies.
These are a few examples of the many ways in which projects are influencing each other
across cohorts:
Cohort
Fellow
Title of the project
2012
Joel Verde
Developing an integrated
management plan, using a CAP
methodology, for 4 adjoining
protected areas in Mexico and
Belize
2011
Nicanor
Requena
Empowering local committees
for Community Managed Access
Programs in Port Honduras
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Geographic area
impacted
Bahía de Manatí,
Mexico through
Northern Belize
(Corozal)
Port Honduras
Marine Reserve,
Belize
Overlap
Built his idea in part
from the success of the
Southern Seas
integrated management
program where
Nicanor is working.
His work in expanding
managed access is now
being complemented
with no-take zones by
Seleem.
Page 10 of 77
2012
Seleem Chan
Expanding replenishment zones
with fisher support and use of
lobster shades
Port Honduras
Marine Reserve,
Belize
2011
Kim Ley
Cooper
Effectively marketing sustainably
produced lobster for valueadded fishing income
Banco
Chinchorro,
Mexico
Is gaining support from
fishers to leave a notake area and install
lobster shades based in
large part on Kim’s
success in Mexico.
Is also sharing his skills
with other MAR
fellows such as
Maricarmen García,
Celso Cawich and
Kirah Foreman
By the end of this section of the training, fellows have a good idea of a geographic area
where they have the potential to:





Act because they are known and accepted in the community
Measure (and preferably have access to) baseline data
Identify key stakeholders
Assess assumptions and risks that could impact project success
Have an impact!
The MAR Leadership Program recognizes that the geographic area where a fellow may have
the best opportunity to make an impact may be insufficient to include the full set of habitat
types or key ecological attributes needed for a given conservation target. At the same time,
it is often possible to help fellows tie into the efforts of a larger entity such as the Toledo
Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), or a
government effort such as the National Commission on Protected Areas in Mexico
(CONANP). In addition, if the project proves effective and replicable, it can be expanded to
incorporate the broader area needed to impact the conservation target. Most importantly,
the geographic scope helps fellows identify the key stakeholders and communities with
whom they will engage.
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The next issue that fellows are asked to address is the
project target: species, natural communities, or ecosystem
functions. While many begin with broad statements such as
“the health of the Mesoamerican Reef,” we encourage them
to break down the big picture into biodiversity or
socioeconomic targets that can more readily be tracked
and measured for impact. Fellows are encouraged to define
targets of ecoregional significance to the overall MAR, and
make that case in their proposals. The 2012 fellows chose
the following criteria for selecting targets:








The Queen Conch (Strombus
gigas) is 2012 MAR Fellow Yuself
Cala’s target. It is a flagship
species in the MAR region.
Photo: Yuself Cala.
Umbrella species
Flagship species
Iconic species
Of commercial interest
Provides ecosystem services
Related to Blue Carbon
Measurable
Culturally important
At this stage in the project design process, fellows need to identify a clear target(s) and a
general statement of direction to start crafting a future goal statement. Examples include:
Target
 Increase number of viable Acropora palmata
Fellow
Gabriela Nava, 2011
 Increase the number of reproductive female
Kirah Forman, 2011
 Increase lionfish consumption and fishermen’s
Constanza Ribot, 2011
 Increase the number of acres of mangroves
Carlos Segura, 2012
 Implement sustainable fishing practices for
Kim Ley Cooper, 2011
communities that are spawning in Xcalak
National Park.
spiny lobsters in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve.
income in Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.
conserved by hotel owners in the Riviera
Maya.
spiny lobster and increase income of fishermen
in Banco Chinchorro.
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Based on the work of the Conservation Action Planning Coaches’ Network 6 and the
publications on “Situation Analysis” by Foundations of Success,7 much of the fellows’ initial
work is to define the situation as they see it. They are challenged to identify the indirect and
direct threats that impact the health and viability of their targets. This leads to a situation
analysis where fellows can explicitly express their understanding of the relationship between
human activities and the biodiversity targets (species, natural communities, or ecosystem
functions) on which they will focus their projects. A few examples of situation analyses
designed by MAR Leadership fellows follow.
“In the 1970s and 80s the abundance
of Acropora palmata was reduced
dramatically across the Caribbean in
response to a bacterial infection
(Aronson and Precht 2001). With this
loss, and exacerbated by other threats
that caused a general decline in coral
reefs, some areas saw declines as
steep as 90% from the original cover
(Bruckner 2002). In Mexico, the
growth of the tourism industry, coastal
development, anchor damage and ship
groundings, and coral bleaching due to
climate change have contributed to a
series of pressures on coastal and
marine ecosystems. In Xcalak National
Park, even with only a small amount of tourism pressure, the lack of understanding of the
important functions of species, overfishing, lack of strategic management planning, ship damage,
and the lack of active restoration efforts have had an impact on the reef: degradation of habitat,
reduction of coral cover, and low recruitment of young corals are some of the problems identified
that will affect the development and resilience of these coral reefs.”
6
7
http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPlanning/ActionPlanning/Pages/conservation-action-plann.aspx
Using Conceptual Models to Document a Situation Analysis: An FOS How-To Guide, April 2009 Foundations of Success. www.fosonline.org.
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“The fast rate at which mangrove
forests are disappearing in Belize
is
leading
to
increased
vulnerability
of
coastal
communities and contributing
significantly to carbon emissions.
Mangrove forests provide natural
protection to coastal communities
from climate change impacts
such as sea level rise and
increased
hurricanes.
These
forests not only capture carbon
within the trees themselves (like
other forests), but there is also a
significant amount of carbon
stored in the substrate. With
increasing
climate
variability,
impacts on coastlines such as sea level rise and hurricanes are more pronounced and
destructive.”
“In Belize, unlike other countries’
Marine Reserves that are no-take
zones, Marine Reserves were
zoned to include both general use
areas
and
no-take
zones.
Traditional fishers are allowed to
continue fishing inside the general
use zones
of the reserve.
However, the management of
marine
reserves
has
not
examined how fishing pressure
has affected the success of
reserves in maintaining fishery
stocks. Fishing, in terms of both
quantity of catch and methods
used has, for the most part, gone unmanaged. Hol Chan has never monitored catch
information from fishermen, although they report a decline in both lobster and conch. Illegal
fishers, poorly designed gaff hooks that kill young lobster, extremely small no-take zones,
and the lack of formal agreements on catch limits all put big pressure on the reproductivesized lobster and conch populations.”
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Once fellows have completed their situation analysis, they should be able to do any
additional research needed to write a response to the first question of the Proposal Format
discussed in the Introduction.

What important threat affecting the Mesoamerican Reef
does this project address?

What’s the current status of this threat?
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Once the situation analysis is clear, fellows can begin defining their strategy. We approach it
as a four-step thought process:
2A:
2B:
2C:
2D:
Define the opportunity: What can you influence?
Describe your theory of change to clarify the strategy
Build a results chain or logical framework to indicate how the project will work
Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy
This is one of the more difficult parts of the training program. Many fellows begin with
strategy (e.g., we want to tag sharks to see their movements) and have to fight the impulse
to drive with strategy before ensuring that they have a clear target and strong situation
analysis. It is only once they have a strong situation analysis that they can begin the
iterative task of determining if their strategy is truly a good fit for positively impacting the
target that they have selected (2B).
Fellows are aware that they cannot attack all the threats to the MAR in one project. Ideally,
they will be working with other institutional partners and stakeholders who are advancing
work in other areas. In a departure from the traditional CAP processes, we do not rank the
threats at this point, as this manual is designed to allow individuals to make an impact, not
identify threats that fellows are not well-positioned to tackle. Rather, based on each fellow’s
skills, interests, and position in the community or in an organization, we ask them to define
which of the threats they can truly impact.
Pertinent questions include:




Do you have credibility with key stakeholders who can affect a threat?


Are you in a position/organization where you could impact a particular threat?
Do you have special credentials/skills that allow you to tackle a particular problem?
What are you passionate about changing?
Are there threats that no other organization is effectively addressing that you could
impact?
What learning objectives do you have that could be reached by addressing one of the
threats?
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A fun Venn diagram that has been widely shared online also helps fellows realize that their
project must connect with their passions and vocation:
Once fellows have reflected on their strengths and passions they identify the areas where
they have the perseverance and commitment to implement their projects. A few examples
are included below. The full situation analysis is shown, but the indirect threats that fellows
are not best suited to impact are now lighter in color, and arrows indicate the areas where
fellows feel they can have the strongest impact.
Gabriela is a Ph.D. student and an
experienced scuba diver. She
recently founded a nonprofit
organization, Oceanus A.C., with
her
business
partner.
Her
specialty is in coral genotypes and
she is very familiar with the coral
structure in Xcalak National Park,
near her hometown. Thus, she
has chosen to focus on the threats
where her skills can be best put to
use.
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Kirah is the daughter of a fisherman on
Ambergris Caye. She understands the
needs of fishermen and knows how to
communicate with them and work with
them. She works in the Hol Chan Marine
Reserve, which has 13 staff, the largest
reserve staff of all of the Marine Protected
Areas in Belize. Thus she sees her biggest
opportunity working directly with the
traditional fishers who are currently using
the Hol Chan fishing grounds.
Giacomo was named Director of the
South Side Office of Roatan Marine Park
(since then, he has become the director
of the whole park!). He helped design of
the park’s project management plan and
works to enforce it. Giacomo is the
founder of Shark Legacy Project, a
Roatan-based organization that played a
key role in the declaration of Honduras
as shark sanctuary as well as the
declaration of Cordelia Banks as a Site of
Wildlife Importance for Honduras. He has
an opportunity for fundraising as well as
stopping ship groundings and anchor
damage with buoys.
One of the most important parts of this discussion is to ensure that fellows recognize that
they can rarely, if ever, affect all of the indirect threats and causes of threats. Their goal in
this section is to identify what special skills and contacts they bring to the MAR that will
open up unique opportunities for making a difference.
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Once it is clear which threats fellows may be able to impact, they are asked to draw a
schematic of their “theory of change.” Theories of change require fellows to turn their
assumptions about how their actions can impact a target into explicit statements. We do
this in a group exercise, using the same diagramming techniques that we have done to
date. Fellows have all answered the following questions, presented them to colleagues, and
been challenged by experts, to ensure they were clear on their responses:



What is your goal for a biodiversity target(s)? In what geographic area?
What are the major direct and indirect threats affecting your targets?
What are the key opportunities where you can make a change?
If fellows can clearly do all of the above, they are then asked to explicitly state what their
strategy is for affecting those targets. The strategy is named and then the key assumptions
are listed in terms of how the indirect and direct threats will be impacted. This a general
statement; more detail will follow in their results chains (section 2C).
Using the same examples from the previous sections, “theory of change” statements are
then constructed:
Gabriela
will
start
a
Reef
Restoration Program, beginning by
rehabilitating sites of Acropora
palmata
(AP)
through
the
establishment of coral nurseries.
She will engage the community
through an ecotourism/scientific
tourism project that can bring
more income into the local
community.
The
project
will
restore habitats with genotypes
that have proven resistant to the
bacterial
infection
that
has
decimated this coral in the past.
Ultimately the new corals will be
planted on the skeletons of former AP reefs so that they will once again be covered in new
corals and generate the structure and habitat needed for species recovery and connectivity
in these areas.
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Kirah seeks to fill in the management
gaps within Hol Chan to further protect
the conch and lobster fisheries. For
fisheries
management
to
be
successful, park managers need to
know the extent of fishing pressure in
and around the MPA. Hol Chan has
been operating as a managed access
area since the establishment of the
reserve.
However,
agreements
between fishers have not been
formalized, the no-take zone is very
small, and the quantity of catch being
extracted has not been monitored.
This proposal will help to fill in these management areas and work with fishers to ensure
that fishing activities are carried out sustainably to benefit the fishers and the biodiversity of
Hol Chan. This project is a pilot study in the Hol Chan reserve, working with a few fishers to
ensure greater success, with future plans to replicate it in two other reserves (Caye Caulker
and Bacalar Chico Marine Reserves).
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To ensure that strategies logically align with results, we use a technique called “results
chains.” Results chains are diagrams that show the causal relationship between elements of
the strategy from actions to outputs.8 They perform many of the same functions as more
traditional logical frameworks, but show the direct links between elements of the strategy
which larger table- or pyramid-style logical frameworks can sometimes miss. A logical
framework can be pictured like this:
With a causal relationship, a logical framework looks like the following graphic:
The Logic of Logframes
Project
Description
Goal
Indicators
Source of
Verification
Assumptions
If the OUTCOMES are accomplished;
Then this should contribute to the overall goal
Outcome(s)
If OUTPUTS are produced;
Then the OUTCOMES are accomplished
Outputs
If the ACTIVITIES are conducted;
Then OUTPUTS can be produced
Activities
Start here
If adequate RESOURCES/INPUTS are provided;
Then the ACTIVITIES can be conducted
8
Using Results Chains to Improve Strategy Effectiveness: An FOS How-To Guide. Foundations of Success, May
2007. p. 2. www.fosonline.org.
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Logical frameworks are used in many conservation and development projects. Results
chains take the idea one step further by better diagramming the relationship between the
specific activities, outputs, and outcomes.
Basic Components of a Results Chain
Output
Strategy
Output
Threat
abatement
Outcome
Goal =
Impact on
Target
Results
Once the relationship between logical frameworks and results chains is clarified, we ask
fellows to consider their work to date and state this work as results that will logically and
sequentially contribute toward the ultimate goal. This exercise is not a work plan that lays
out detailed project activities (that is covered in Step 5), but rather it is designed to see if
the alignment between the outputs and outcomes truly makes sense. Good results chains
have:
• A causal diagram of “if-then” statements for achievement of outcomes and goals
• Only one result in each box
• Enough boxes to logically connect how we think a strategy or set of outcomes will
reduce a threat and/or conserve a target
• Some results that can be measured so we can test our assumptions during project
execution
• Key objectives (results with SMART goals, Step 2C-2) labeled explicitly on the chart
MAR Fellows are next encouraged to take their target and think about a measurable goal. In
some cases fellows are not able to do so because they are more focused on reducing a
threat; when this is the case, they use the same process below but state a measurable
outcome instead of a goal. For example, Yimi Chirinos, from the 2011 cohort, has a theory
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of change that impacts a threat (reduced illegal fishing), instead of making an effort to
measure the full population of fin fish along the Honduran coast.
The MAR Leadership Program uses well-known approaches such as SMART goals to develop
a schematic. In their project design, fellows are encouraged to use short, clear, compelling
language to describe these goals.
SMART goals enable:
SMART Goals

Clarity for strong
decision-making

More focused and effective fundraising
and marketing as fellows can describe the
challenge and importance of their project

priority-setting
Adaptive management by building
milestones or feedback loops
and
in
S
•Specific
M •Measurable
A •Attainable
R
•Realistic
T
•Time-Bound
SMART goals also enable fellows to measure
success. It can be challenging to balance
Challenging
ambitious plans with realism, but realistic
planning is crucial to achieving a feeling of
success and empowerment. Yuself Cala of the
2012 Cohort describes coming to terms with
this issue: “With my original project idea, I
would have won the Nobel prize if I had
Attainable
achieved it, however with the new plan I can
actually envision myself getting the funding and
time needed to do it.” The goal needs to be challenging but attainable, not something so
large that fellows will be frustrated or lose the confidence of local stakeholders. Helping
fellows develop challenging yet attainable goals is crucial in this phase.
Gabriela Nava, 2011 MAR Fellow
Work with the local community to restore 4 reef sites (500 m 2) of Xcalak Marine Park by increasing the coverage
of Acropora palmata coral through the establishment of 10 coral nurseries and the transplanting of 4000 new corals,
with a 70% survival rate, over 3 years.
Seleem Chan, 2012 MAR Fellow
Extend the no-take zones of Port Honduras Marine Reserve by 2014 which will result in a 25% increase of conch,
spiny lobster, and fin fish populations by 2018.
Giacomo Palavicini, 2012 MAR Fellow
Reduce by 80% the amount of shark bycatch in Cordelia Banks in 3 years.
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Similar to goals, outcomes are sometimes the most explicit measures of project success.
Outcomes go through the same process as goals, with fellows asked to think about clear,
SMART descriptions of what they will achieve.
Yimy Chirinos, 2011 MAR Fellow
This project will train 30 judges and prosecutors along the Atlantic coastline of Honduras to more effectively interpret
and apply the fishing laws of Honduras. This project will increase the application of the Honduran Fisheries Law, and
attention to the activities permitted within protected areas, as indicated by an increase in reports, fines, and guilty
verdicts for illegal fishing.
Kirah Foreman, 2011 MAR Fellow
Develop an ecologically and economically sustainable management plan for the conch and lobster fisheries in Hol
Chan Marine Reserve by 2014 by engaging fishers and managers in adopting responsible fishing practices, expanding
the no-take zone, and monitoring and adapting fishing pressure based on fishery data collection.
Pamela Ortega, 2012 MAR Fellow
Provide economic alternatives to 20 families in Los Cayitos, Utila, through a system of micro-credits, and by 2014
diversify their sources of income, minimizing their economic dependence on fishing.
Kim Ley, 2011 MAR Fellow
Kim’s project’s objective is that fishers from Banco Chinchorro and Sian Ka’an adopt good fishing practices for spiny
lobsters in order to promote lobster conservation and sustainable management.
The expected results from the project are:
 The organization of fishing grounds into parcels upon consolidating the network of artificial and natural
shelters to contribute to the lobster fishery in Banco Chinchorro.
 The strengthening of fair and sustainable trade by spreading and applying the CHAKAY principles and
criteria and the MSC certification.
 The creation of a participatory biological monitoring method to permanently analyze lobster stocks and the
functioning of artificial fishery reserves in no-take zones.
2C-2.1 INPUTS AND OUTPUTS
While we will delve into this in much more detail in Step 6, at this stage the inputs and
outputs are general ideas that are placeholders for the overall strategy for the project.
Fellows transfer inputs and outputs directly from the theory of change strategy ideas and
state them in very general terms in order to clarify their main activities so that outputs,
outcomes, and goals can be clearly stated as results.
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2C-2.2 LINKING THE CHAIN
Once the elements are identified, fellows are asked to begin diagramming. A full results
chain is then shared with their colleagues for input and feedback. Results chains that fellows
have developed include:
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The results chain is the basis for further developing the proposal and moving on to a clear
set of activities and outputs as part of the work plan (Step 5). By the time the fellows have
reflected on their opportunity, their theory of change, and a results chain, they are in a
good position to respond to the second question from the Proposal Format.

What is your goal for a biodiversity target(s)? In what
geographic area?

What are the major direct and indirect threats
affecting your targets? (If not covered in question 1)

What are the key opportunities where you can make a
change?


Have similar interventions been effective elsewhere?
What is new and innovative about your strategy? Does
it have the potential to be replicated and/or scaled?
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To finalize this section of MAR Leadership Workshop 1 and make sure all of the fellows are
confident about their project design, fellows are encouraged to “tour” one other’s diagrams
and provide feedback. Feedback is essential to designing an accurate logical framework, the
importance of which is clear in this diagram from Foundations of Success:9
After receiving this initial training (Workshop 1), all of the fellows prepare and deliver
presentations for their colleagues and visiting experts to ensure that they can articulate and
defend their project idea. This original presentation is improved and refined over the course
of the next two workshops to reflect on stakeholders, monitoring and evaluation, work
plans, and budgets. By the conclusion of the first workshop the fellows have completed
Steps 1 and 2 of the project planning approach.
9
Foundations of Success: http://www.fosonline.org/
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The design of a strong and coherent project strategy takes the most time, thought, and
reflection from fellows, but it is critical to invest time to get this right. In the three-month
break between the first and second workshops, fellows are encouraged to review their
theory of change, adapt their results chain as needed and write a response to the first two
questions in the proposal format. Upon arriving for the second workshop they need to be
very comfortable with their situation analysis and theory of change so that they can think
more deeply about community stakeholders and possible institutional partners.
While we focused on biodiversity targets in the first workshop, now we focus on people. The
major threats to targets are due to unsustainable human activities, and conservation only
happens when people engage. Fellows need to be clear about who they will be working with
and the best methods for engaging them; project success depends on this. We approach
this through a three-part process:
3A: Assess the full, diverse range of stakeholders
3B: Stakeholder analysis
3C: Engagement strategy
“Stakeholders” is a difficult word because it reflects a variety of groups: participants,
beneficiaries, partners, and distantly interested individuals. We work with fellows to identify
the individuals, groups, or institutions who have an interest in the natural resources of their
project area, and who could be affected by their activities and have something to gain or
lose if conditions change or stay the same.
A full set of stakeholders, which reflects the diversity in coastal communities, emerges when
fellows are asked the question:
Who is affected by your goals and strategies?







By geographical location
By use of the protected area
By relationship to the protected area targets
By ethnicity and background
By gender
By status
By influence
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We spend time discussing the need to think broadly about all potential stakeholders before
jumping to prioritization and engagement strategies.
While looking at the broad array of community
members we ensure that fellows are thinking about
gender issues as well: the socially constructed roles
and characteristics assigned to men and women in
their local communities. Gendered realities have an
enormous impact on people’s access to, use of, and
control over natural resources. When working on
marine issues it is easy to focus on the
predominantly male captains and crew of the local
fishing fleets. However, more and more women are
also fishing, both men and women work in the
tourism and guide industry, and women are major
This mural in the fishing cooperative of
decision-makers in household economics and
Punta Allen, Mexico shows that conservation
resource
consumption.
Gender
realities
and
doesn’t happen without community
expectations shift over time in response to changing
involvement.
economic and social conditions. Furthermore, the
rich national and cultural diversity along the MAR includes strong minority populations of
garifunas, k’ekchi, and expatriates, all of whom have different gender realities. Fellows need
to reflect on how their projects will be viewed by both men and women in the community
and how benefits and sacrifices will be distributed.
The most important takeaways are to:
1. Give visibility and support to both women’s and men’s contributions individually.
2. Don’t assume that a project will affect men and women in the same way; benefits
and sacrifices will be felt differently.
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Once fellows have thought broadly about a range of diverse stakeholders, we begin
narrowing down this full list through a stakeholder analysis:
1. Identify principal stakeholders by determining whose interests and behaviors are
critical for your project to succeed.
2. Investigate their interests, roles, and capacity or motivation to participate.
 What is causing the threat to the target?
 Why are they contributing to a threat to the conservation target?
 How do they benefit from more sustainable use of the conservation target?
3. Identify relationships between stakeholders, noting potential for cooperation or
conflict.
4. Identify who has power and influence that could affect your project.
5. Interpret the findings of the analysis and determine how you can enhance project
design and success.
To respond to these questions, the following two charts are helpful. The first addresses
questions 1-3 above:
Stakeholder
10
Interest in project
Effect of project on
their interests
Capacity/
motivation to
participate
Relationship with other
stakeholders
Caldwell, R. 2002. Project Design Handbook. CARE.
http://www.ewb-international.org/pdf/CARE%20Project%20Design%20Handbook.pdf
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Stakeholder
Barra Sarstún
Village
Interest in
project
Effect of project on
their interests
Capacity/
motivation to
participate
Relationship with other
stakeholders
High interest
in the project
This project will be
positive for them,
because they will
have a better
understanding and
control of the fishing
zones.
The fishermen and
women’s group
from Barra Sarstún
are eager to
participate in the
process.
This community has
good relationships with
three other coastal
communities from
Sarstún protected
areas. However, their
challenge is to negotiate
with the trawlers from
Livingston.
The second chart explores the issue of whose interests and behaviors are critical for the
project to succeed, abruptly narrowing the full set of stakeholders to a much smaller group.
It also identifies who has the influence to help a project succeed or cause it to fail.
Stakeholder
Unknown
Stakeholder
Coastal communities from the Río
Sarstún Multiple Use Area
Trawlers from Livingston
Fishers’ network
CONAP
Barra Sarstún Fishers
Barra Sarstún Women’s Group
11
Low
Unknown
Moderate
Low
Significant
Moderate
Critical
Significant
Critical
x
x
x
x
x
X
x
Caldwell, R. 2002. Project Design Handbook. CARE.
http://www.ewb-international.org/pdf/CARE%20Project%20Design%20Handbook.pdf
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With time to reflect on the different
types of stakeholders, their interests,
and who will be affected, fellows can
then use this chart to establish their
priority stakeholders, from A to D.
By the end of this exercise, fellows
should have a strong sense of how
different groups will be affected by
and/or can influence their project,
allowing them to start prioritizing
engagement strategies.
Once fellows are clear about the importance of different groups, they need to plan
communications and engagement strategies. It is difficult, especially in small and relatively
close-knit communities, to manage effective communications, make the wider set of
stakeholders still feel engaged, and not burn out and get sidetracked by numerous other
issues and perspectives. Fellows need to be strategic about the time and effort spent in
reaching these different groups, so the following tables are helpful to ensure appropriate
communications and follow-through.
As a general rule, stakeholders identified as Group A in the chart above would tend to be
listed in the Involve, Collaborate, or Empower areas of the chart on the next page. These
areas will require the majority of the work, time, and relationship-building invested. By
contrast, those listed in Group D can be informed through mass media-style approaches
such as a newspaper article, a project launch announcement, or a website. By developing a
comprehensive plan for engagement, fellows can then better apply their time where it is
most needed and think about project work plans (Step 5).
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Process
Stage
Coordinate and facilitate
planning process
Collect basic information
Identify and assess targets
Identify and assess threats,
opportunities and stakeholders
Strategy development
Strategy Implementation
Monitor and evaluate
management effectiveness
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Process
Stage
Coordinate and facilitate
planning process
Coastal
communities
from the Río
Sarstún
Multiple Use
Area
Collect basic information
Trawlers
from
Livingston
Identify and assess targets
Identify and assess threats,
opportunities and stakeholders
Strategy development
Strategy Implementation
Monitor and evaluate
management effectiveness
Fishers’
network
CONAP
Barra
Sarstún
COCODE
Barra
Sarstún
Fishers
Barra
Sarstún
Fishers
Barra
Sarstún
Women’s
Group
Barra
Sarstún
Women’s
Group
Barra
Sarstún
COCODE
12
Excerpt from: The Nature Conservancy. February 2009. Protected Area Management Planning: A target-based
approach, a practitioner’s guidance. Unpublished draft.
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The Nature Conservancy further developed this idea with the following chart to structure
different levels of stakeholder engagement with the accompanying set of example
techniques.
LESS
Level of Stakeholder Impact
MORE
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Participation
goal
Provide
stakeholders with
objective
information on the
problems,
strategies,
opportunities,
and/or solutions.
Obtain
stakeholder
feedback to
inform the
analysis,
strategies, and
decisions.
Work directly
with
stakeholders
throughout the
process to
integrate their
concerns and
aspirations.
Partner with
selected
stakeholders in
decision-making.
Place final decisionmaking in the hands of
the stakeholder group.
Promise to
stakeholders
We will keep you
informed.
We will listen
and acknowledge
your concerns
and aspirations
and let you know
how your
feedback
influenced our
decisions.
We will work
with you to
incorporate
your concerns
and aspirations
into our
strategies.
We will
incorporate your
advice and
recommendations
into the decisions
to the maximum
extent possible.
The final implementation
decision will be yours.
Example of
different
techniques




 Public
comment
 Focus groups
 Surveys
 Public
meetings
 Workshops
 Focused
polling
 Advisory
committees
 Consensusbuilding
activities
 Formal partner
MOUs14
 Citizen juries
 Ballots
 Delegated decisionmaking
 NGO/CBO capacity
building15
Fact sheets
Web sites
Posters
Open houses
13
Adapted from: The Nature Conservancy. 2009. Protected Area Management Planning. A Target-Based Approach.
A Practitioner’s Guidance. Unpublished draft February 2009.
14
MOU: Memorandum of Understanding
15
Non-Governmental Organization or Community Based Organization capacity building: the idea is to strengthen
their capacity to advance projects in the community. For example, MAR Fellow Angeline Valentine (2011) arranged
for training in communications and lobbying to help the Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage win over
96% support in a national referendum on offshore drilling. The decision on how to apply that training to their
referendum was made solely by the Belize Coalition.
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The final point for fellows, beyond strictly asking people to engage, is to identify what
benefits key stakeholders hope to gain from a fellow’s project. To motivate their key
constituencies, fellows must clearly identify:
1. Whose involvement is necessary?
2. What are their motives?
3. What incentives do they need to support the project?
Project: Establishing Fishery Recovery Areas with Key Stakeholders in Bahía
Cocolí. Cleopatra Méndez, 2012 MAR Fellow.
Barra Sarstún Village is a community located in the northern
part of the municipality of Livingston, department of Izabal,
Guatemala; it shares a border with the country of Belize. The
village was founded in 1902 by the Milian family, who own
the majority of the village’s lands. Over the years, other
families arrived, settling mainly on the banks of the river, due
to the limited availability of land and the ease of the location
for fishing. Currently, Barra Sarstún has more than 110
families, 90% of which subsist by fishing. The village is a mix
of the Maya Q’eqchi’ and Mestizo cultures.
Cleopatra Méndez
Photo: Claudia Taylor
The organization of the community, as mandated by the Law
of Development Councils of Guatemala, is known as COCODE, Community Development
Council. This council, by law, must include people of both genders. Aside from the COCODE,
there are three committees in the community: the fishers’ committee, the women’s
committee, and the tourism committee.
The Barra Sarstún fishers’ committee is made up of 33 people: 24 men and 9 women. The
committee is currently running a mojarra fattening project (mojarra is a local,
commercially-traded fish) and a center for buying and selling fish. Both projects are
managed directly by the committee, and the work is divided equitably with the exception of
chores that require greater physical strength, in which women don’t participate. Women are
assigned less labor-intensive work or work considered appropriate for their gender. Profits
are distributed equitably at the end of the month, unless a member missed a work shift, in
which case it is docked from his or her pay. Furthermore, each member receives a bonus in
June, as if it were the mandatory “14 bonus” which is required by law only for formal
workers with benefits, and a Christmas bonus in December, which is also required by law for
formal workers. In other words, the members of this organization receive an extra two
months’ salary each year as a result of their hard work and their dedication to follow strict
procedures to keep the organization running properly.
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The women’s committee is made up of 22 women of the Maya Q’eqchi’ culture and was
formed in 2005. The majority of the women don’t know how to read or write. The leader of
the group is a young Maya Q’eqchi’ woman, Sonia Tiul, who had the opportunity to go to
college and graduated with a degree in primary education. The women on the committee
are an example of perseverance and hard work; they row up to half an hour daily to reach
the meeting spot or the place they are going to work. They currently have an oven and
meet every Saturday to make bread. They also have a mill for cooked maize (nixtamal),
which they manage as a group, beginning work at 5 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. Each
member has established shifts. In addition, they make mud sculptures to sell. They have a
boat with a motor which, aside from using it to get to Livingston or other places, they rent
to members of the community. Currently, their most productive and profitable activity is a
meal service. They have training in meal service and they serve tourist groups and local
workshops. Due to the women’s high level of need for day-to-day subsistence, the profits
from the meal service are distributed after each event. The earnings from the other
initiatives are distributed in December of each year.
Aside from their productive activities, the fishers’ committee and the women’s committee of
Barra Sarstún actively collaborate in environmental education and conservation initiatives,
reporting illegal activity and voluntarily establishing fishery recovery zones. The Boca Barra
Sarstún is one example of a voluntary no-take zone, which is in the process of being
formalized with the relevant authorities.
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Project: Creating a Market for the Control of Lionfish (Pterois volitans) in the
Fishery Replenishment Zones of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.
Constanza Ribot, 2011 MAR Fellow.
This project is focused exclusively on improving actions to control
the population of lionfish inside the fish recovery zone, and it will
complement the efforts that CONANP (National Commission for
Protected Areas) and CONAPESCA (National Commission for
Aquaculture and Fishing) carry out in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere
Reserve. The project will create a new market for lionfish
consumption
by
building
awareness
about
responsible
consumption.
CONAPESCA and CONANP will support the project with personnel
and boats during lionfish hunting tournaments, making sure that
Constanza Ribot
Photo: Javier Ochoa
the rules are respected. The local fishing cooperatives will
contribute their personnel and the use of their equipment to this
project. This will be the first step toward permanent actions to control this exotic species,
but the efforts to control its population must be carried out indefinitely. Part of the success
of this project will be the result of the new skills that the fishing community will develop,
and the community’s involvement in conservation actions. Building awareness and
convincing people that the lionfish is an edible species of comparable quality to other
commercial species are also essential to this project.
The project will have support from CONAPESCA and CONANP to train fishers in surveillance
and to implement the yearly community surveillance program.
This project is crucial to maintaining the efforts to conserve the reef that we have carried
out with fishers over the last four years. The objectives of this project were defined through
collaboration between the fishers’ cooperative and COBI, while keeping the authorities
informed. These objectives are focused on reducing two threats that put fisheries and the
fishers’ way of life at risk, which are the threats that most worry the fishers. The potential
positive impact of this project extends beyond Sian Ka’an and can be replicated in other
coastal communities of Quintana Roo.
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Project: Building Social Capital by Empowering Community Managed Access
Committees for Long-term Fisheries Management Within Marine Reserves in
Belize. Nicanor Requena, 2011 MAR Fellow.
The Belize Fisheries Department, Wildlife Conservation Society
(WCS), Toledo Institute for Development and Environment
(TIDE), and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are working
with fishermen to implement a managed access program at
Glover's Reef Marine Reserve and Port Honduras Marine
Reserve, sites that provide a livelihood to several coastal
communities. In order to implement a managed access
licensing regime, it was vital that a community managed access
committee be appointed to represent fishers from all the
communities that depend on these two reserves. The
Nicanor Requena
committee has one representative from the Belize Fisheries
Photo: Javier Ochoa
Department, the local co-managers, tour guide association
representatives, and a fisherman from each of the communities
that directly depend on the fisheries resources from each of the marine reserves. Fishermen
make up the majority of the members on the committee. One of the functions of the
committee has been screening license applications to obtain a managed access license and
making necessary recommendations to the Belize Fisheries Department. Hence, in order to
represent fishers and provide transparency in issuing licenses and managing the program’s
performance, it is important that this committee functions and is sustainable in the long
term, especially since fishermen represent the interest of the community members at the
respective marine reserves. Building the social capital is an integral component of the
process to ensure the successful implementation and viability of managed access at these
two marine reserves with minimal external interventions. Success will make these reserves
a model for similar management programs in other marine reserves.
At present the overall managed access project in Belize is sustained by an active
partnership among the Belize Fisheries Department, WCS, TIDE, and EDF that pools
together technical, human, and financial resources for implementation at two marine
reserves. The ongoing sustainability of the project is being evaluated at the end of a twoyear pilot/transition period with the goal of local partners including fishermen and the
Government of Belize taking the leading role in future phases of the project. A growing
number of local and regional actors are taking an active role in supporting the overall
project or key components; these include COMPACT, OSPESCA, MAREA (USAID), PACT, and
Social Investment Fund of Belize. The activity of the committees is a responsibility that is
envisioned to be fully embraced by local fishermen and local NGOs, with fishermen in a
leadership capacity and having an ability to have the committees function.
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By thinking through the needs and aspirations of key stakeholders, fellows gain the ability
to respond to two more key proposal format questions:

Who are the key actors and how are you engaging
with them to achieve this change?

What are the difficulties and risks (internal and
external) that threaten the project? How will your
team manage these?
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After fellows complete their stakeholder analysis, we ask them to
focus on their long-term plans for monitoring and evaluation
(M&E). While it will be some time before they launch their
projects, we raise the issue of M&E now because:
1. M&E is a critical part of objective-setting, and fellows
have many new output ideas after the stakeholder
discussion.
2. Fellows need to build the time for M&E into their work
plans.
3. M&E can prove expensive and must be included in
budgeting.
4. A clear statement of objectives and measurement is
needed in all good funding proposals.
Gabriela Nava preparing
to monitor coral health
Photo: Javier Ochoa
Adaptive management is critical for all successful projects, and building in M&E is a
prerequisite for making needed changes along the way.
By this point, fellows have been exposed to available data that could serve as baseline
information. For example, a focus on key threats and resources using information from
sources such as the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (www.healthyreefs.org)
survey data allows many fellows to better articulate how they will create a change and
measure their impact, either by reducing a threat or enhancing the viability of a biodiversity
target with greater technical understanding.
Monitoring and Evaluation:16








16
Help identify problems and their causes
Suggest possible solutions to problems
Raise questions about assumptions and strategy
Force reflection on where the project is going and if it is on track
Provide information and insight
Encourage choices and action based on the information and insight
Increase the likelihood that the project will make a positive difference
Allow fellows to revise their results chains with clearer objectives, ensuring that the
stakeholder information is fully incorporated
Adapted from Civicus, Monitoring and Evaluation, by Janet Shapiro. P. 6.
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Our approach builds on past activities by returning to the results chain and completing it
with clear indicators for outputs, outcomes, and the final goal. How will fellows know that
their project is moving in the right direction? They need indicators that tie in with their
theory of change. To do this they select indicators of achievement that are:




Measurable
Precise
Consistent
Sensitive
We discuss the importance of developing indicators for monitoring and evaluation:

Establishes indicators of efficiency,
effectiveness and impact
Analyzes the information







Collects and records indicator information
Uses the information to inform ongoing
management
Evaluation is best for learning if not left until the
end, so try to assess progress toward a goal or
Compares goal to actual achievement
Assesses strategy effectiveness
Measures the efficiency of resource use
Examines the sustainability of the project
do a mid-term review.
The selection of indicators should include consideration of:

Quantitative indicators addressing questions such as: Who? How much? How often?
or How many?

Qualitative indicators assessing less measurable items, such as how people are
feeling, how behaviors are changing, or how motivations are shifting
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Once a number of clear indicators have been developed, fellows are asked to consider the
methods they will use to assess those indicators.
Examples of monitoring methods:









Recorded observation (head counts, participation levels, etc.)
Diaries
Recording and analysis of important incidents (called “critical incident analysis”)
Structured questionnaires
One-on-one interviews
Focus groups
Case studies
Surveys
Systematic review of relevant official statistics
The table below gives an example of how fellows begin planning a monitoring schedule by
listing indicators and methods and then building monitoring into their timelines (more on
timelines in Step 5).
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Fellows with a stronger science emphasis need to be very thoughtful about types of data
collection, time periods, and strict adherence to a given methodology. Filling out a detailed
table, like the one below, will help them with their project work plan and their budget.
In these situations fellows are also advised to build from existing third-party data sources
when available, such as www.healthyreefs.org or government agency data.
To conclude this session, fellows have time to work on their results chains and specify
indicators. We emphasize indicators as core components of fellows’ projects to be sure they
are fully incorporated into their work plans and their adaptive management strategy.
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At this point fellows look at their results chains and consider how to ensure there are
indicators for the most important outputs, outcomes, and goals. As our process is iterative,
this is one of the moments when fellows can now review their past work with new, fresh
ideas and incorporate more measurable stakeholder and M&E objectives within the results
chain.
Examples include:
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Project Indicators
Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation & Development
(SACD) has a strong monitoring and evaluation process
in place under which all project implementation is
monitored against a project implementation matrix,
developed at the start of the project and integrating an
indicator framework with indicators identified in the
Project Development Table.
The SACD Executive Director will have oversight of the
Joel Verde (bottom right) with an
SACD-sponsored soccer team
project and monitor day-to-day activities and outputs
Photo: SACD
managed by the project coordinators and program
officers. The Executive Director will provide updates on
project activities and financial statements during ongoing monthly monitoring and
evaluation workshops of all SACD organization members, to provide Board oversight and
project transparency. Quarterly reports will be submitted to the Board and, if requested, to
the funding agency. An internal evaluation of the project will be implemented following
completion. An internal end-of-project evaluation will be completed to highlight the
strengths and weaknesses of the project and the lessons learned.
Standardized Indicators
Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has no coral, and is therefore better evaluated using the
indicators selected for Payne’s Creek (herbivorous fish count and percent of sea grass bed
cover).
The turbidity of the water in Corozal Bay doesn’t permit AGGRA/MBRS fish surveys, but
SACD has some baseline data from 2012 for all commercial species of fish from fish trap
catch assessments. The primary research target output for 2013 is to map the seagrass
within the Wildlife Sanctuary through ground truthing and comparison with satellite
imagery.
However, as the project is directed at system-level planning, it would be feasible to include
monitoring of coral reef health:
(1) Biomass (g/m2) of all fish in MPAs (pre/post action)
(2) Herbivorous fish count (parrotfish and surgeonfish)
(3) Percent live coral cover
These are annual monitoring outputs from these protected areas, with baselines in place.
These same three standardized indicators will be required of all projects that will be
developed in the nine marine protected areas designated last year. This way they can be
evaluated based on their ability to make progress on the goals of the program. This
standardization will also facilitate evaluating the success of the program across projects.
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Finally, at the end of this section, fellows can also address:

What outputs can be measured with annual
benchmarks that will allow you to adaptively
manage your project?
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Up to now, fellows have spent all of their time focused on developing a clear theory of
change and understanding how their project will impact targets and stakeholders. We have
moved through the first four steps in the project planning process and had time to align the
different steps to ensure a clear results chain.
By working through the past four steps, fellows have started to get a sense of the duration
and energy needed for their respective projects. To turn that inkling into a reality, it is time
to design a work plan. The work plan, in turn, enables fellows to construct a relatively
accurate budget (Step 6).
While the results chain shows the achievement of project results, a work flow diagram
depicts the execution of activities. To date we have had just a vague box, “Strategy,” that
does not provide any detail on what actions are involved.
It is now time to specify, for example, how the fishermen will be educated or what it will
take to put together a Fisheries Law training program for judges. This section breaks apart
the general strategy bubbles and builds a hierarchical list of activities that must be
completed.
All fellows have seen numerous ambitious projects fail in their communities. The 2012
cohort developed the following list of reasons that projects fail:













Lack of engagement of key stakeholders
Limited time and resources
Lack of understanding of the motivation of participants
Lack of a baseline and inability to monitor impacts
Poor execution
Bad monitoring plan
Poor budgeting
Non-SMART objectives
Lack of follow-through
Lack of logistical competence
Lack of clear commitment
Project not sustainable
Lack of attention to escalating problems
Many of the factors described above are design mistakes, which fellows hopefully know how
to avoid by this point in the training process. The rest of the issues are implementation
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mistakes. Most common are mistakes made with scheduling, budgeting, and errors that
affect a project’s reputation or trust within the community. One of the other reasons behind
project malfunction is a failure to understand that projects are three-legged stools. If the
scope of the project changes, it will affect both the work plan and the budget. Similarly, if
the work plan and schedule change dramatically, changes must be made to the budget and
scope.
Scope
Work Plan/
Schedule
Project
Quality
Budget
To help avoid these mistakes, fellows are encouraged to write up a work plan for their
project, specifying:





What activities are required
Who will be responsible for each activity
When each activity needs to be done
Resources required to complete each activity
How much each activity will cost and what is funded (see Step 6)
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When looking at a strategy, such as Kirah’s “Engage local fishers to gather catch data,”
fellows are asked to write down all the activities this implies.
Objective: Gain fisher support for no-take and managed access
Strategy: Engage local fishers to gather catch data
Activity
Who
By when
Comments
Identify Fishers
Kirah
May 2012
Design catch registry tool
Kirah
May 2012
Make 60 copies
Host meeting
Kirah
June 2012
Explain registry
tool – distribute
copies
Objective 1: Establish long-term partnerships between Protected Areas (PAs), local conservation
organizations and local stakeholder communities in target areas, to form a model and sustainable
working foundation for increased management effectiveness of target critical ecosystems
Duration of Activity
in Months
Activity
Responsible Party
1.1 Contract Project
Consultant to Implement
project
Blue Carbon Executive
Committee
1.2 Meeting with Key
Stakeholders and technical
advisors to define project
scope and select target
Protected Areas
1.3 Meeting of project
participants and technical
advisors to define project
scope and partners within 2
selected target areas
Means of
Verification
Terms of
Reference
1
2
3
4
5
X
Signed Contract
Blue Carbon Executive
Committee
Meeting Minutes
X
X
Project Consultant
Project Consultant
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Meeting Minutes
X
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The work plan template works well for some fellows, but others prefer to use a more visual
flow chart, which looks like:
There are many different project management software tools available to help document
and check in on work plans. The work flow template is easily managed in Microsoft Excel,
whereas the flow chart works best in PowerPoint. Other programs for project management
that fellows listed include Microsoft Project, Project Builder, www.ganttproject.com, and a
more expensive option, www.projectmanager.com.
Once fellows have a basic work plan we discuss two more sophisticated tools in detail:
5B-1: Gantt charts
5B-2: Budgeting time with PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)
Gantt charts are particularly useful in sequencing activities. They:






Break down activities into a clear structure
Indicate the sequence of activities
Provide a basis for scheduling
Identify a “critical path” for a project with an end date
Can be grouped to plan the allocation of resources needed to complete the project
Can be easily manipulated in Microsoft Project or on graph paper
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When developing a Gantt chart for the first time, it is easiest to visualize it in discrete steps:
1. Break down activities
2. Organize activities on a timeline
3. Organize the list by start time and due date
With experience it becomes easier to jump into creating a Gantt chart without the
intermediate steps, but requires a flexible software tool. The first step is to fill out a list of
activities, like that in your work plan, but then indicate whether the activity is sequential (is
part of a chain wherein something must happen before something else can take place) or
parallel (can occur independently of the other activities). A table like this one spells out the
relationship between activities.
Parallel
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The second step is to organize the activities along a timeline. Note that sequential activities
are all the same color, whereas parallel activities can be different colors.
The last step in creating a Gantt chart is to reorganize your activities to reflect start and due
dates so it is easy to follow your work plan. The final Gantt chart for the above activities will
look like:
= critical path
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The “critical path” is a useful concept because it allows a project implementer to quickly see
when they have fallen behind on a key activity that will derail others going forward. If the
meeting with fishers to explain data gathering doesn’t go well, and an additional meeting is
needed in month 3, it derails the whole work plan. Project adaptation would be needed to
move data collection out by another month to provide enough data for a useful review.
Thus, a Gantt chart allows the project implementer to see when schedule changes are
required. Similarly, if there is extra time in some month, then parallel activities can be
moved up or back, as they are not part of the critical path.
Some fellows already have experience with Gantt charts, and most are able to jump quickly
from a work plan to a Gantt chart without having to work through all three steps. For
fellows with relatively straightforward projects, Gantt charts can be very useful. However, if
there are over 30 activities they can become difficult to manage and often work better if
broken up into subtasks.
As a final exercise to prepare for a Gantt chart, fellows are asked to take their work plan
and identify parallel and sequential activities in the worksheet below.
Activity
Start time (can
be week or
month)
# of days
anticipated
Type (parallel
or sequential)
Dependent
(upon which
other activities)
A
B
C
Fellows always have a lot of questions about how to budget their time. It is important to
resolve this issue prior to moving into financial budgeting. Given that all fellows work in
areas where many of the conveniences of regular internet access, cell phone reception,
three-day package delivery, etc. do not exist, they need to be prepared for unexpected
delays. In addition, fellows depend on the stakeholders they work with. Planning a meeting
with fishers means finding a time outside of their regular fishing season or once they have
pulled back into port. Fellows must take their context into account when budgeting for time.
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There are two other “MAR factors” that are important to discuss in the context of the MAR
region:
1. Pelican time.17 This refers to the amount
of time needed to “hang out” to gain and
maintain the trust of key stakeholders
that live along the MAR. Arriving and
announcing that you will host a meeting,
and expecting people to show up, without
putting in the time to visit with them,
swing by their houses, or have a drink at
the bar, is a recipe for failure. Fellows
need to build pelican time into their
projects.
Constanza Ribot, 2011 MAR Fellow, has
invested significant “Pelican time” with the
fishers of the Puerto Morelos Cooperative, who
are key stakeholders in her project.
Photo: Javier Ochoa
2. Make deposits.18 To quote Greg Low: “You
can’t expect to take withdrawals (e.g.
expect community support for your
project) unless you have made previous deposits (supporting something important to
the community). This ongoing give and take is a part of the life and culture of small
communities—and, for that matter, communities everywhere.” Fellows, most of
whom have been born and raised in the MAR region, know this well, but they need to
consciously account for “making deposits” in their time management.
A tool for thinking about time management in a budgeting sense is called a PERT chart, for
“Program Evaluation and Review Technique.”
1. Estimate the shortest possible time each activity will take,
2. Estimate the most likely length of time, and
3. Estimate the longest time that might be needed.
Set up an equation:
(shortest time + 4 x likely time + longest time)
6
While this equation is useful, the most important part of training in time management is the
process of thinking about possible time ranges.
17
I thank my friend Luis Bourillón of COBI for this great descriptive phrase.
I thank my friend Greg Low, who first crafted this concept in his book Landscape-Scale, Community-Based
Conservation: A Practitioner’s Handbook, The Nature Conservancy 2009.
18
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Now that fellows have a well-defined work plan and a clear idea of their time allocation
needs, we conclude this section with a brief discussion about the importance of
incorporating efficiency measures into activities.
As we discussed in Step 4, monitoring and evaluation help assess impact, effectiveness, and
efficiency. Efficiency is inescapably tied to time and budget management in project
implementation. Efficiency monitoring for ongoing management adaptation requires
questions such as:

Is the project on track?
o Maintaining its schedule?
o Are partners on track too?



Is the budget on track?
Has the time allocation proven accurate?
Are meetings being managed effectively?
Just as we encouraged fellows to develop indicators for monitoring effectiveness, we now
remind them that the same can be done for efficiency. An example is Kirah’s chart:
Developing efficiency indicators prior to project startup helps fellows make adjustments
early in project implementation, especially related to time expenditure.
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After receiving training in Steps 3, 4, and 5 during Workshop 2, fellows develop their project
presentations to include information on stakeholders, M&E, and plans for project
implementation. Again, a “tough love” approach is used to provide fellows with strong
feedback to improve their projects.
At the end of their second workshop, the fellows have already covered a lot of ground in
designing strong projects. Fellows can finish working through the first five steps of the
project planning process over the next few months, conferring with their coach along the
way.
Finally, prior to attending Workshop 3 on budgets, we ask fellows to develop new narratives
to continue improving their draft proposal. They addressed the first three aspects of the
2012 proposal format in the previous steps, and can now complete the final step.

Who are the key actors and how are you engaging
with them to achieve this change?

What are the difficulties and risks (internal and
external) that threaten the project? How will your
team manage these?

What outputs can be measured with annual
benchmarks that will allow you to adaptively
manage your project?

Demonstrate a Gantt chart or other project
phasing tool (activities and timeline) with annual
output indicators.
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Fellows come to the third workshop with clear results chains and work plans so they are
ready to begin the final step in project planning: budgeting. The purpose of this training is
to clarify that budgets drive activities and are essential to all effective project planning.
Goal
Outcomes
Outputs
Activities
Budget
A budget tells a story. It is a project or organizational plan stated in monetary terms. Many
donors and others look at the budget before reading a proposal, because it clearly shows
what the project will do with the money. If the proposal narrative doesn’t align with the
budget story, the proposal loses credibility. Budgets provide a forecast of revenues and
expenditures, enable financial monitoring, and allow fellows to determine the level of
funding on hand and how much they still need to raise. As an introduction to the art of
reading budgets, fellows are given a budget of a project they don’t know about and are
asked to interpret it.
Fellows are introduced to five key concepts for budgeting while taking the time to apply
each to their own projects:
6A: Fixed and Variable Costs
6B: Direct and Indirect Costs
6C: Time is Money
6D: Categories and Line Items
6E: Revenue Streams and Matching Funds
Total costs include both fixed costs and variable costs.
Total Costs
$
Variable Costs
Fixed Costs
Units
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Fixed costs occur regardless of the amount of project
activity and are usually considered the core costs of
running a business or a nonprofit such as office rent,
equipment, and insurance. Fixed costs vary little over a
fixed period (we use one year) and tend to rise
gradually with inflation or major market changes.
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The 2012 fellows considered their expenses and came up with the following ideas of fixed
costs:





Office rent
Insurance
Equipment (scuba gear/GPS etc.)
Car/boat payments
Utilities
In contrast, variable costs expand or contract depending on the amount of project activity.
For example, if a fellow is monitoring coral reef sites, the number of trips out to the site will
affect variable costs such as gas, boat rental, and meals. The 2012 fellows came up with the
following list of variable costs:





Salaries
Payments to local workers or boat captains
Gasoline
Boat rentals
Lunches/drinks/meals offered to crew
The fellows then discuss why it is important to understand the difference between fixed and
variable costs. This knowledge enables them to scale projects up or down depending on the
funding available. It also gives them a cost breakdown of the added value of a new unit
(e.g. trip to the coral reef) so that they can respond when requests come in and know what
the real cost of the additional trip will be.
Activity
A
Fixed
Variable
Fixed
Costs
Variable
Costs
Total
Costs
Intro meeting with fishing coop
Car payments ($200/mo)
$200
$200
Telephone ($50/mo)
$ 50
$ 50
Gas
$80
$ 80
Drinks/Food
$40
$ 40
$120
$370
TOTAL
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$250
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The second key concept in budgeting is direct and indirect costs. Many fellows work for
nonprofit organizations, small businesses, or are sponsored in some way by groups that
have the legal status that allows them to submit proposals for funding. Understanding what
the expected administrative overhead rates are and why those are important for
organizations is crucial, as is understanding that donors often put very tight limits on what
indirect cost rates they will support.
Direct costs are applied “directly” to project implementation. They can include line items
such as staff salaries, gas, transport, materials, some equipment, etc. Indirect costs are
items that are needed for organizational function, but are shared with numerous projects.
These can include a copy machine, office stationery, a receptionist, the Executive Director’s
salary, etc. The difficult part of the concept is that many line items such as “rent” could be
easily placed in either direct or indirect costs, depending on the use. For example, renting a
small, on-site office where the project is based would be a direct cost, whereas the rent for
organization headquarters in another part of the country would be an indirect cost.
However, the square footage of the office where the project director sits could be
considered a direct cost! While many fixed costs are indirect costs, many are not, depending
on their use, so the two concepts are fundamentally different. An example of how similar
line items can be direct or indirect costs is provided in the table below:
Difference depends on use!
Direct Costs
• Salary of Project Manager
• Rent of Project Office
• Supplies – flipcharts,
training materials, markers
• Telephone – cell phone
operation in region
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Indirect Costs
• Salary of Executive Director
• Rent of NGO Headquarters
• Supplies – copier paper,
library materials, stationery
• Telephone – Main Office
voicemail.
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For established organizations, an indirect cost rate has usually been determined over a year
or two of activity by dividing the total indirect costs by the total direct costs of the
organization. In larger organizations this rate is determined by an auditor. For the most
part, fellows don’t have to try to set an organizational indirect cost rate. They do, however,
need a clear understanding of the concept for three reasons:
1. To understand why organizations have to charge an overhead fee if they are
sponsoring fellows’ projects (to help provide much of the back office support such
as financial reports, web sites, etc.)
2. To be able to justify putting items into direct cost categories
3. To ask for an indirect cost rate (usually under 10%) if they are in start-up mode
to help them manage unforseen expenses and issues required in nonprofit or
business startups
Given that the biggest line item in most budgets is salaries, the importance of setting
appropriate salary rates and valuing fellows’ time is the next item covered. Before getting
into financial projections, we revisit the work plan and have a discussion about time
management. The time management discussion gives fellows an opportunity to set priorities
and think about strategies for managing distractions and interruptions.
Prior to coming to the third workshop, fellows are asked to bring:
1. A calculator
2. Their work plan divided into activities and a timeline
3. If they work for an NGO or government agency, the indirect cost rate (overhead)
the will agency apply on the fellow’s proposals
4. If they pay taxes for expenses such as equipment, the percentage that they need
to add to certain line items
5. If they receive benefits with their salary (like medical benefits or paid vacation),
the percentage of what those benefits are worth over and above their salary
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With this information in hand, we can then move into the financial side of determining
fellows’ current salary rates. We ask them each to confidentially work out a daily and/or
hourly unit rate for their salaries that can then be the basis for determining what their time
investment in different activities will cost.
Yearly salary:
_________________________
Divide yearly salary by 220:
Daily salary
_________________________
=
(365 days per year - 96 days for weekends – 21 vacation days – 20 holidays – 8 sick days
= 220 working days)
Divide daily salary by 8 (work hours per day):
Hourly rate
_______________________
=
Multiply hourly rate by any organizational benefits you receive:
Hourly rate x ___1.#__________ (sick leave/vacation leave etc.)
_____________________
(for example in Mexico, there is social security, a savings fund and a pension fund – a large
organization can pay up to 35% above an employee salary on these benefits).
______________ = Fellow hourly rate for budgets (or x 8 = your daily rate)
Once fellows have this unit cost, they can use it to determine how much to budget for their
salary.
We covered the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) in Step 5, but as fellows
try to estimate the time they will dedicate to a project they are reminded that the PERT
process is a useful way to consider their time investment.
Finally, given that personnel costs often include consultants and community member
payments, we also review anticipated prices and extra costs (such as per diem) of these
items.
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The next step in budgeting is to review donor formats and teach fellows how to put
expenses into appropriate categories and line items. By itemizing each expense, fellows
learn to ensure that they have estimated costs well and have thought about other costs,
such as computer technical support or training and development, which they may have
omitted. Fellows use zero-based budgeting, as few of them have prior project budgets to
build from and a full justification is needed. For all expenses, fellows are encouraged to
justify the expense, include estimates, and describe the assumptions used when developing
their figures. This must be mirrored in the narrative.
Identify Line Items for Each Category
Category
Line Items
2012
2013
2014
Total (MX Pesos)
Personnel
Fellow 1
Consultant 1
Training
Workshop 1
Workshop 2
Equipment
Purchase
Rental
As fellows review different line items, they are encouraged to reflect on their country’s tax
policies and what additional expenses may be incurred. For example, the Mexican IVA
(value added tax) of 16% must be applied to all equipment purchased in Mexico, as well as
to local contracts.
Fellows are also exposed to a number of budget formats so they see that different donors
use different formats. We also cover the issue of currency conversion. All budgets must
specify the currency in which they are written, and if budgets are in a foreign currency,
fellows must specify the exchange rate they used.
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Fellows conclude by setting out all of their line items and associated costs. They then share
this with a partner to ensure that the budget is:
 Reasonable
 Thorough and clear
 Easy to understand
 Mathematically correct
Budgets reflect not only expenses but also anticipated revenues. Most donors require a
matching donation to ensure that they are not alone in supporting the project. For example,
the 2012 format for the MAR Fund open proposal process has four different columns to
cover other contributions, both in-kind and cash.
Incorporate Match in Budgets
Budget Unit
Item
Unit No. of
cost units
(total)
Amount
Requested
to MAR
Fund
Other
Sources
(Cash)
(MAR Fund example)
Other
Sources
(In-kind)
Amount
contributed by
the
organization
TOTAL
SALARIES
Coordinator
days
MATERIALS & EQUIPMENT
Hardware
OFFICE EXPENSES
Office
supplies
TOTAL
Fellows have to realistically assess where funds might come from and how well they can
quantify and document in-kind contributions. One of the 2012 fellows, Mariela Ochoa, was
able to secure substantial in-kind contributions for mangrove reforestation from local
volunteers as well as securing gas and boats as in-kind donations.
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Examples of the work of previous fellows are provided to show how others detailed
equipment expenses or explained their matching funds. For example, the work of Angeline
Valentine (2011 cohort) shows how her budget and in-kind support will strengthen the
capacity of the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage.
*All figures are expressed in USD
Photo: Javier Ochoa
Consultants and Other Contracted Services
Description
Cost Year 1
Total
Funds
Project
Required
Governance
structure reform
20,000
20,000
consultancy
Communication/
Negotiation
14,000
14,000
Workshop
Media and Outreach
4,000
4,000
Planning Training
External Project
Evaluation
Total
40,500
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40,500
Cost Year 2
Total
Funds
Cost
Required
Total Cost
Total
Funds
Project
Required
-
-
20,000
20,000
-
-
14,000
14,000
-
-
4,000
4,000
2,500
2,500
2,500
2,500
-
-
40,500
40,500
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Travel and Conferences
Description
Consultant’s Travel
(x3 Consultancies)
Consultant’s
Accommodations (x3
Consultancies)
Consultant’s Meals
(x3 Consultancies)
Training/Workshop
Venue (x3
Consultancies)
Training/Workshop
Meals (x2
Consultancies)
Total
In-kind Contributions
Description
Staff Salaries
Coalition
Coordinator (25% of
time in Year 1 and
12.5% in Year 2)
Research Assistant
(25% of time in Year
1 and 12.5% in Year
2)
Utilities
Rent,
Communications, and
Material (15% of
annual total in Year 1
and 7.5% in Year 2)
Total
Cost Year 1
Total
Funds
Project
Required
Cost Year 2
Total
Funds
Project Required
Total Cost
Total
Funds
Project
Required
6,500
6,500
-
-
6,500
6,500
2,850
2,850
-
-
2,850
2,850
950
950
950
950
825
825
-
-
825
825
4,300
4,300
-
-
4,300
4,300
15,425
15,425
-
-
15,425
15,425
Cost Year 1
Total
Funds
Project
Required
Cost Year 2
Total
Funds
Project
Required
Total Cost
Total
Funds
Project
Required
3,552
-
1,776
-
5,328
-
2,634
-
1,317
-
3,951
-
2,175
-
1,088
-
3,263
-
8,361
-
4,181
-
12,542
-
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Total Project Cost
Categories
Cost (USD)
Consultants and Other Contracted Services
40,500
Travel and Conferences
15,425
In-kind Contribution USD 12,542
Total
55,925
*No overhead fees will be affixed to the administration of this project.
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Photo: Pamela Ortega
Two-year budget (figures expressed in USD)
Category
Staff
Materials and
services
Line Item
Unit
Unit
cost
# of
units
Amt.
requested
Project
coordinator
(25% of time)
1
40
72
2,880
2,880
Financial
expert
(consultancy)
1
2,000
1
2,000
2,000
Credit
Advisor
1
20
192
3,840
3,840
Accountant
1
50
12
600
600
1
500
500
240
Printing
forms and
copies of
manual
Matching
donations
(cash)
Matching
donations (inkind)
Amount
contributed by
the
organization
TOTAL
Phone and
internet
cards
1
10
24
240
Coordinator
trips to los
Cayitos
1
50
48
1,200
1,200 (BICA)
boat rental
2,400
Committee
trips to los
Cayitos
1
50
14
350
350 (BICA)
boat rental
700
Room and
board
1
60
60
3,600
Infrastructure
for meetings
in central
Utila
1
25
12
Loans
Amount to
give loans
1
2,000
20
40,000
40,000
Risk
management
Amount for
beneficiary
assessment
and risk
reduction
1
500
20
10,000
10,000
Field and
travel
expenses
3,600
300 (BICA)
300
Sub-Total
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67,060
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Indirect
costs (10%)
6,706
TOTAL
71,916
6,706
0
1,850
0
To finalize fellows’ budgets, all fellows share their budgets with a new partner who checks
that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The currency used is labeled
If US$ are used, a clear exchange rate is noted
Appropriate taxes are included
Overhead is included if applicable
Categories and line items are clear
Inflation is incorporated if multi-year
Match and other donor funding is clearly labeled
Most importantly:


Does this budget tell a story?
Does this budget look realistic for achieving the goals?
At the conclusion of the third workshop fellows can now complete a full budget for their
projects.

What is the estimated 3-year cost (with annual
breakouts) of implementing this project?


What are current sources of funding?
What is the estimated funding gap?
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73,766
This manual, and the corresponding training program, emphasize the two major planning
methodologies used by donors and conservation organizations this decade, which recognize
the changing nature of conservation and the challenges conservationists face: the Logical
Framework Approach and the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation 19 (also
known as Conservation Action Planning, CAP). The training program for the MAR Fellows
familiarizes them with both approaches. The MAR Leadership process explicitly builds on
planning tools such as the CAP methodology, 20 but adapts these tools for smaller scale
projects.
The basic training program and homework activities of the MAR Fellows during their first
year are tailored to ensure effective project design. This design is then the basis for a
proposal to secure funding so that project implementation can begin in Year 2. The following
diagram shows the overall MAR Leadership process.
19
www.conservationmeasures.org reflecting the work of the Conservation Measures Partnership.
http://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationPlanning/ActionPlanning/Pages/conservation-action-plann.aspx
with the CAP Coaches’ Network that helps all organizations implementing the Open Standards process to
continually improve their capacity.
20
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Step 1: Define Project Scope


Draw up a brief text description and basic map of your project area.

Define your situation analysis: What important threat affecting the Mesoamerican
Reef does this project address? What’s the current status of this threat?
Identify clear conservation target(s) and a general statement of direction to start
crafting a future goal statement.
Step 2: Identify Project Strategy

Reflect on your strengths and passions and identify the areas where you have the
perseverance and commitment to implement the project. Define which threats you
can truly impact.





Draw a schematic of your “theory of change.”

Build your results chain.
Develop your logical framework.
Define a measurable goal. The goal should be challenging but attainable.
Define a SMART outcome.
Identify general inputs and outputs to get a sense of the overall strategy for the
project.
Step 3: Engage Key Partners





Identify people involved in your project.
Assess the diversity of stakeholders.
Undertake a stakeholder analysis.
Prioritize stakeholders.
Choose appropriate engagement strategies.
Step 4: Develop M&E



Develop long-term plans for monitoring and evaluation.
Identify a number of clear indicators and methods to assess those indicators.
Complete results chains with indicators.
Step 5: Develop a Work Plan





List major action steps and monitoring tasks.
Develop a work flow diagram.
Identify the “critical path” of sequential activities and prepare a Gantt chart.
Budget your time.
Incorporate efficiency measures in the monitoring plan.
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Step 6: Build a Budget





Establish fixed and variable costs.
Establish direct and indirect costs.
Set appropriate salary rates: time is money.
Put expenses into appropriate categories and line items.
Assess potential revenue streams and matching funds.
At the conclusion of their third workshop, the MAR Fellows have worked through the six
project planning steps. Consistent with their commitment to produce a quality project at the
end of this training, a final proposal or project design must be submitted to the MAR
Leadership team within a month of the final workshop.
The proposals can be of three types:
1. A proposal that follows the generic format displayed in the Introduction and can
serve as a template for future proposals to donors
2. An actual proposal that follows the format of a donor agency
3. A business plan that uses the same steps but doesn’t require philanthropic funding to
move forward
Fellows all share their final proposals online and receive feedback from staff and peer
reviewers from their cohort. The feedback is designed to provide any additional
programmatic input and encourage well-written final proposals. The goal is for all fellows to
feel confident with their project design, to be motivated to launch the project as soon as
possible, and to recognize that this is the start of a life’s work in support of the
Mesoamerican Reef and the well-being of its people.
At the end of the first nine months of the cohort cycle, program staff and the Executive
Committee review the final project proposals and select the best projects to advance to a
second phase. The MAR Leadership Program’s Executive Committee is made up of three
visionary individuals whose participation guides the overall strategy of the program, as well
as its decision-making processes. The program benefits from the Committee’s experience in
and knowledge of the MAR region, marine and coastal issues, and project design.
Proposals are evaluated based on criteria such as: innovation, financial sustainability,
community participation, and potential for replication. Fellows with solid project proposals
receive additional support during the program’s second phase, which lasts nine months.
During this second phase, fellows receive support in fundraising and are connected to
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foundations, NGOs, and other potential donors or business partners for their projects. After
the second phase of the program, the cohort cycle comes to a close.
However, the close of the cohort cycle is not the end of the program. An explicit objective of
the MAR Leadership Program is to generate and maintain a strong alumni network. The
program works to ensure that all fellows remain engaged in the program and maintain
strong ties with their peers. There are different strategies to ensure that they continue to
receive support for their conservation efforts, including:
1.
2.
3.
An active group intranet 21 with a library and regular updates on funding
opportunities, courses of interest, etc.
Ongoing interaction on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter
Webinars, regular emails, and invitations to serve as mentors or trainers, all of
which keep fellows up-to-date on the program’s progress
Fellows are also proving to be the best source for nominating future fellows, as they can
speak to the value of the program and recognize other committed individuals in their
communities who would benefit from this program. Our motto is: “Once a MAR Fellow,
always a MAR Fellow,” in recognition of the enormous support a network of peers can
provide for fellows as they embark on long careers as agents of change and leaders for a
sustainable future for the Mesoamerican Reef.
Annex 1: List of fellows by cohort
Annex 2: List of experts who have worked with fellows
21
The MAR Leadership Program uses Groupsite, www.groupsite.com.
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2010 cohort
2011 cohort
2012 cohort
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Yashin Dujon, Belize City, Belize. Project: National Interpretative Strategy on Impacts on
Belize’s Barrier Reef.
Karen Aguilar, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: La Garza – Sentry and Educational
Boat.
Esvin Chacón, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Project: Alliance for Sustainable Tourism
Development in Protected Areas of the Izabal Region of the MAR (ATSAM).
Ada Pinelo, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: Geotourism as a Regional Strategy to
Reduce the Impact of Climate Change and Increase Local Development
Opportunities.
Ian Drysdale, Honduras. Project: Earthworms to the Rescue of the Coral Reef.
Jenny Myton, Roatán, Honduras. Project: Conservation Fund for the Bay Islands.
Yanú Ramírez, Roatán, Honduras. Project: Sustainable Construction in the MAR.
Pablo Besquin, Cancun, Mexico. Project: Implementation of Artificial Modular Reefs (AMA®)
in Quintana Roo and the Mesoamerican Reef System.
Vicente Ferreyra, Cancun, Mexico. Project: Agency to Integrate Responsible Tourism
Activities in the Mesoamerican Reef Region.
Maricarmen García, Chetumal, Mexico. Project: Recreational Tourism for the Conservation of
Banco Chinchorro.
Javier Rojas, Cozumel, Mexico. Project: Consultancy for Sustainable Tourism Business
Development (CODESUET).
Celso Cawich, Belmopan, Belize. Project: Identification of areas of biological importance for
commercial fish for the establishment of a marine protected area within the Turneffe
Atoll.
Kirah Forman, San Pedro, Belize: Project: Management of commercial species and
promotion of fishermen empowerment to adopt sustainable fishing methods in the
Hol Chan Marine Reserve.
Nicanor Requena, Punta Gorda, Belize. Project: Establishment of access rights for fishing in
Belizean marine reserves to promote sustainable fishing and the wellbeing of
involved communities.
Angeline Valentine, Belize City, Belize. Project: Media campaign to raise awareness about oil
exploration and exploitation in Belize.
Blanca García, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: Identification of priority ecosystems for
the conservation and sustainable use of the Mesoamerican Reef System in the
Guatemalan Caribbean.
Ana Giro, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: Identification of priority ecosystems for the
conservation and sustainable use of the Mesoamerican Reef System in the
Guatemalan Caribbean.
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Pilar Velásquez, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: Identification of priority ecosystems
for the conservation and sustainable use of the Mesoamerican Reef System in the
Guatemalan Caribbean.
Yimy Chirinos, La Ceiba, Honduras. Project: Strengthening of the capacities of prosecutors
of the Coastal Atlantic in Honduras with a special focus on making the region’s
fishing laws and stipulations more effective.
Kim Ley Cooper, Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Project: Implementation of artificial fish refuges
and lots for marine zoning, the promotion of economic incentives and the restoration
of the Mesoamerican Reef System (MAR) – Banco Chinchorro.
Joaquín De la Torre, Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Project: Let’s talk about the MAR.
Gabriela Nava, Chetumal, Mexico. Project: Restoration of Acropora palmata as an essential
habitat for the establishment of fish refuges in Xcalak Reefs National Park.
Constanza Ribot, Cancun, Mexico. Project: Control of invasive lionfish populations to
minimize their impact on the Puerto Morelos fishing refuge in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Adriel Castañeda, Belize City, Belize. Project: Empowering Fishermen to Achieve Sustainable
Fisheries Management in Belize.
Joel Verde, Sarteneja, Belize. Project: System-Level Planning and Collaboration for
Improved Resource Management.
Leonel Requena, Belmopan, Belize. Project: Private Protected Areas as a Climate Change
Adaptation Strategy and Potential Tool for Mitigating the Impacts of Climate Change
in Coastal and Marine Protected Areas.
Seleem Chan, Punta Gorda, Belize. Project: Evaluation & Implementation of No-Take Zone
Amplification in Port Honduras Marine Reserve.
Angela Mojica, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Project: Economic valuation of carbon retention
and payments for environmental services, vulnerability, and climate change
adaptation of mangroves as a sustainable conservation strategy in the Guatemalan
Caribbean.
Cleopatra Méndez, Livingston, Guatemala. Project: Inclusively Designing a CommunityBased Fishery Replenishment Zone in Cocolí Bay.
Giacomo Palavicini, Roatán, Honduras. Project: Sharks: Flagship Species of a Healthy Reef.
Mariela Ochoa, Guanaja, Honduras. Project: Strengthening Local Participation for the
Restoration of Mangrove Forests on the Island of Guanaja.
Pamela Ortega, Utila, Honduras. Project: Economic Alternatives in the Community of los
Cayitos, Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras: A window to micro-credit.
Carlos Ponce, Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Project: Private Network of Nature Reserves on the
Coast of Quintana Roo.
Yuself Cala, Chetumal, Mexico. Project: Design and validation of practical tools and
integration of key stakeholders for the management of the queen conch as a flagship
species in the MAR region.
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Octavio Aburto
Tundi Agardy
Elito Arceo
Alejandro Arrivillaga
Paquita Bath
Luis Bourillón
Juan Pablo Buchert
Lisa Carne
Costas Christ
Céline Cousteau
Fay Crevoshay
Robert Cudney
Emma Doyle
Exequiel Ezcurra
Jimena Ferraez
Hugo Galeano
Norissa Giangola
Janet Gibson
Eugenio Gobbato
Martin Goebel
Ricardo Gómez
Rachel Graham
Will Heyman
Roberto Iglesias
Steve Knaebel
Isaias Majil
Abner Marin
Ángel Martínez
Guillermina Martínez
Grazzia Matamoros
Anne McEnany
Melanie McField
Thomas Meller
Loren Monterroso
Carlos Morales
Imani Morrison
Wallace J. Nichols
Omar Ortiz
Eduardo Rolón
Amy Rosenthal
Eda Roth
Krishna Roy
Paul Sánchez-Navarro
Gonzalo Sanjurjo
Brigitte Seumenicht
Carlos Terzano
Joaquín De La Torre
Gregg Verutes
Amy Hudson Weaver
Calina Zepeda
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Forest Trends Marine Ecosystem Services Program
Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development
Rare Conservation
Aligning Visions
Community and Biodiversity
EcoGoals/Nahua Chocolate
M.Sc. student, UB/UWI
National Geographic Traveler
CauseCentric Productions
WiLDCOAST
México Silvestre
CaMPAM
The Institute for Mexico and the United States
Consultants in Strategic Business
UNDP/SGP Honduras
Spitfire Strategies
Wildlife Conservation Society
Hacienda Tijax
Sustainable Northwest
Cozumel Reefs National Park
Wildlife Conservation Society
Texas A&M University
Institute of Oceanic and Limnology Studies-UNAM
Independent consultant
Belize Fisheries Department
GoFish Belize
INVOCA/dignidad
Consultants in Strategic Business
Roatan Marine Park
International Community Foundation
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People
Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative
Association of Fishermen of Roatan
SIMM & QA Consultants
Oak Foundation
LiVBLUE
Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve
Community and Biodiversity
Natural Capital Project, Stanford
Actress and communications consultant
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Akumal Ecological Center
Eolic People
Merkatua
Personal Development Analysis International
IFAW Mexico
Natural Capital Project, Stanford
Niparajá
The Nature Conservancy – Honduras (TNC)
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Adame, M. F., Kauffman, J. B., Medina, I., Gamboa, J. N., Torres, O., et al. (2013). Carbon
Stocks of Tropical Coastal Wetlands within the Karstic Landscape of the Mexican
Caribbean. PLoS ONE, 8(2): e56569. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056569.
Basurto, X. (2005). How Locally Designed Access and Use Controls Can Prevent the Tragedy
of the Commons in a Mexican Small-Scale Fishing Community. Society and Natural
Resources, 18, 643-659.
Chavez, C. & Viteri, C. (2004). Legitimacy, Local Participation, and Compliance in the
Galapagos Marine Reserve. Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings,168.
http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/ecmlatm04/168.htm.
Fujita, R., Lynham, J., Micheli, F., Feinberg, P. G., Bourillón, L., et al. (2012). Ecomarkets
for conservation and sustainable development in the coastal zone. Cambridge
Philosphical Society, 88(2), 273-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.2012.00251.x.
Halpern, B. S. (2003). The impact of marine reserves: do reserves work and does reserve
size matter? Ecol. Appl., 13, S117–S137.
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. (2012). 2012 Report Card for the Mesoamerican Reef.
http://www.healthyreefs.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-ReportCard.pdf.
Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. (2011). 2011 Eco-Audit of the Mesoamerican Reef
Countries. http://www.healthyreefs.org/cms/latest-reports/.
Leisher, C., van Beukering, P., & Scherl, L. M. (2007). Nature’s Investment Bank: How
Marine Protected Areas Contribute to Poverty Reduction. Arlington: The Nature
Conservancy.
Lubchenco, J. et al. (2007). The Science of Marine Reserves. PISCO Consortium.
http://www.piscoweb.org/publications/outreach-materials/science-of-marinereserves.
Lucas, B., Lau, W., & Rolón, E. (2012). Feasibility study for a Marine Payment for Ecosystem
Services in the Mesoamerican reef of Mexico. Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico: Comunidad
y Biodiversidad, A.C.
Micheli, F., Saenz-Arroyo, A., Greenley, A., Vazquez, L., Espinoza Montes, J. A., et al.
(2012). Evidence That Marine Reserves Enhance Resilience to Climatic Impacts. PLoS
ONE, 7(7): e40832. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040832.
Morris, J. A., Jr. (Ed.). (2012). Invasive Lionfish: A Guide to Control and Management.
Marathon, Florida: Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute.
Roberts, C. M., Hawkins, J. P., Gell, F. R. (2005). The role of marine reserves in achieving
sustainable fisheries. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B., 360(1453),
123–132.
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MAR Leadership Resource Book
Paquita Bath and María Eugenia Arreola
What MAR Leadership means to participants
“I feel very fortunate to be a part of the MAR Leadership Program
and I thank the program for its support. …It is a wonderful
program, and it has helped me have a wider vision of what the
[Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System] is. …It has made me feel
more optimistic and passionate because I know that I’m not
alone.”
-Cleopatra Méndez, 2012 MAR Fellow