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INSPIRING PRACTICES: ENABLING COMMUNITY-BASED MRV AND DATA

MANAGEMENT IN GUYANA

W W F F O R E S T A N D C L I M AT E

FACTSHEET

2019

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WWF CMRV Focus Areas

Corentyne River

Essequibo River

Ireng River

Takutu River

Oronoque River

Rewa (illiwa) River

Kuyuwini River

Kwitaro River

Berbice River

Siparuni River

Kassikaityu River

Takutu River

Burro Burro River

Sipu River

Kanaruwau River

Kowariwau River

Guyana

SURINAME

VENEZUELA

Konashen (Homestead)

Phillipai

Baramita

Paruima

Rewa

Shea

Annai

Kato

ka

Isse

neru

Karispa

ru

Jawalla

Karasabai (Hom

esteads)

Akawini

Aishalton

Sawari

wau E

xtens

ion

Kam

aran

g Ke

ng

Kato

Achiwuib

Kaikan

Shulinab

St. C

uthb

erth

's

Malali

Kuru

kaba

ru

Nappi

Waikrebi Wakapau

Crash Water

Karaudanawa

Rupanau

Mur

itaro

Maruranau

Sand

Cree

k

Apoteri Tract A

Itaba

c

Awariwaunau

Fair View

Kwab

anna

Wai

pa

Yupukari

Paramakatoi

Waramadong

Yarakita

St. Monica

Kamana

Kanapang

Kopinang

Kaburi

Moco Moco

Koriabo

Yakarinta

Moraikobai / St. Francis

Sebai

Bethany

Santa Rosa

Hururu

Wiruni Block 0222

Sawariwau

Santa Aratak

Three Brothers

Eclipse Falls

Monkey Mountain

Wikki/Calcuni

Taruka

Arrau

Potarinau (Ambrose)

Waramuri

Karau

Annai Extension

Massara Tract A

Kaibarupai

Parikwaranawa

Toka

Rivers View/Falmouth

Chenapau

Warapoka Extension

Maicobe

Kokerite

St Ignatius Farm Lands

White Water

Arukamai

Manawarin

Warapoka

Massara

Chinoweing (Homesteads)

Little Kaniballi

Chinese Landing

Campbell Town Great Falls 58 Miles

Hotoquai

Batavia

Assakata

Apoteri Tract B

Hobodia

Tapakuma (St. Deny's)

Massara Tract C

Red Hill

Yakarinta Extension

Wiruni Parcel 1-5

Rockstone

St Ignatius Home Stead

Kurutuku (Homesteads)

Kamwatta Extension

Central, South and South Central Rupununi (KMCRG and SRDC) - Region 9

North Rupununi (NRDDB) - Region 9

Muritaro - (Region 10)

FairView - (Region 8)

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Major Settlement

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×@ Georgetown

CMRV Focus Areas - WWF

Pilot Community

Communities that Participated in CMRV

CMRV Data Labs&+

BRAZIL

CARIBBEAN SEA

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SNAPSHOT What» An initiative that has

strengthened the capacities of predomi-nantly Indigenous communities in Guyana to gather, manage and analyze their own data on their forests, health, and other aspects of their daily life, through the establishment of data labs and a data sharing protocol that enable communities to protect their information and use it to make informed decisions about the issues that affect them.

Who» Guyana Forestry

Commission (GFC)» Indigenous Peoples and

local communities (IPLCs)

» Kanuku Mountain Community Representative Group (KMCRG)

» North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB)

» South Rupununi District Council (SRDC)

» World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

WhereRegions 8, 9 and 10 of Guyana

When2014-ongoing

Project Team contactsRoxroy Bollers, GuyanaWWF-Guianasrbollers@wwf.gy

Vitus Antone, GuyanaWWF-Guianasvantone.wwf@gmail.com

COVER PHOTO: © MARTIN HARVEY / WWF

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SUMMARY

This Inspiring Practice describes an initiative through which 48 predominantly indigenous communities in Regions 8, 9 and

10 of Guyana established data labs and developed data collection and sharing protocols to manage information about their environmental and community wellbeing. Building on earlier, smaller-scale efforts to create community Measurement, Reporting and Verification (CMRV) in Guyana, this endeavor refined the training and technological frameworks for commu-nity-based data management to make the CMRV process more effective, productive, and self-sustaining. As a result, community monitors were able to gather and analyze data from more than 9,000 people with direct benefits for each community as a whole—for example, by revealing the need to address declining animal stocks or to adjust water use practices. Through

1 Government of Guyana. 2015. “The Reference Level for Guyana’s REDD+ Program.” ² Government of Guyana. 2016. “2012 Census: Compendium 2, Population Composition.” ³ Guyana Forestry Commission. 2015 “Guyana REDD+ Monitoring Reporting and Verification System—Year 5 Summary Report.”

this work, local communities became empowered to manage and store their own data, to define their own priorities and goals for data gathering, to control who has access to their data, and to use their data to make informed decisions about their present and future.

CONTEXT

Nestled between Suriname, Venezuela, and Brazil on the north coast of South America, the nation of Guyana has the

second-highest percentage of rainfor-est on Earth. Its pristine forests hold more than 5 billion tons of stored carbon1 and support some of the world’s richest biodiversity. These forests also support the traditional livelihoods of over 200 indigenous communities who live within them. Indigenous communities make up more than 10 percent of Guyana’s2

population, and they hold title to about 14 percent of the nation’s forests.3

Yet despite its low population density and rich natural resources, Guyana’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the lowest in South America, and the desire for economic development threatens the future of its forests. Rising gold prices have pushed the growth of mining that destroys forests, polluting streams and rivers with mercury and contaminating the fish on which indigenous communities rely. Growing demand for wood from the nation’s forests and agricultural expansion have also driven forest loss. In response, Guyana committed to forest conservation as the first country with a national-scale payment-for-performance REDD+ system through an agreement with Norway signed in 2009. Although the mechanism for that system – and for its financial benefits, in particular – is still being developed, it has spurred the development of a robust national

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system for forest Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV).

Since 2014, WWF has worked to develop participatory MRV as a means for Guyana’s indigenous communities to actively take part in and benefit from national MRV and REDD+. Working closely with communities and community-based organizations like the NRDDB, WWF sought to train paid community monitors (known as Community Resource Environment Workers, or CREWs) to establish baselines and monitor carbon and other important indicators using smartphones and open-source software. Between 2014 and 2016, CMRV efforts with the 19 indigenous communities represented by the NRDDB and with the Wai Wai Kanashen community were successful, but also met with some challenges. The year-long training process required ongoing technical and financial support that staff had difficulty sustaining, as well as a considerable time commitment from CREWs and communities before they could see results. Technological limitations, like the lack of reliable internet connectivity, also hindered CREWs’ ability to store and analyze data on their own.

WWF set out to address these challenges by retooling its approach. With a more streamlined and accessible training program in place, WWF aimed to send CREWs out into their communities faster and to generate tangible results more quickly, in order to foster community buy-in earlier in the process. WWF also worked with CREWs to establish data labs in or near their communities where collected data could be stored and analyzed, with provisions in place to bypass many of the technological limitations of earlier efforts. The goal was to set up the conditions for self-reliance—to enable communities to engage with MRV in a way that coheres with national requirements, including newly mandated requirements for five-to-10-year Village Improvement Plans (VIPs), but also empowers them to control and use their data for their benefit.

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DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS

Involved in project design, make decisions, and receive benefits

Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs)

Kanuku Mountain Community Representative Group (KMCRG)

North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB)

South Rupununi District Council (SRDC)

Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs

STRATEGIC STAKEHOLDERS

Provide material, human, and other resources

Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI)

Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation (Norad)

Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC)

WWF

EXPECTED CHANGES

Develop an improved CMRV capacity-building and implementa-tion process that is more accessible, sustainable, and beneficial for Guyana’s indigenous communities, and that encourages community engagement and buy-in early on.

Establish community-based data labs that enable CREWs and CREW data managers to store, manage and analyze data on their own terms, despite limited access to reliable power and internet connectivity.

Implement a data sharing protocol or “stoplight system” that outlines steps that must be taken before data can be released, to ensure commu-nity members’ control over their information.

Build capacities for communities to gather, analyze, and manage their own data so that they may make more informed decisions about issues that affect them, more successfully develop VIPs, and more fully participate in and benefit from national forest conservation efforts.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

November 2009: The Guyana-Norway Agreement (GNA) is signed, commit-ting Guyana to maintaining the country’s low deforestation rates in exchange for up to US$250 million in funding to support a low carbon development strategy over five years.

2010: A national MRV system is initiated to comply with the GNA.

2011-2013: The Global Canopy Program (GCP), Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IIC), and the 16 indigenous communities of the NRDDB pilot a participatory MRV model, training the first 32 CREWs to gather data in their communities.

2014-2016: WWF sets out to learn from the GCP project and develop an improved CMRV, working with the indigenous Wai Wai community of Kanashen.

2017: Guyana’s national government institutes the requirement that communities prepare five-to-10-year Village Improvement Plans in order to receive funding for green economy development.

2017-2019: WWF works with commu-nities and community-based organizations to establish data labs and expand CREW training.

ACHIEVEMENTS

A more successful and sustainable CMRV training process has been developed and replicated across 48 predominantly indigenous commu-nities in Regions 8, 9 and 10 of Guyana, with benefits for more than 9,000 community members. At least two CREWs have been trained in each community. By streamlining the CREW training process to three months and enabling CREWs to share results with their communi-ties every two weeks from the start of training, communities were able to see the benefits of participatory MRV earlier in the process. Data gathering and analysis were tailored to the needs of the community early on as well, with communities weighing in on the indicators they wished to measure. Although the data collection framework was built on existing forms that correspond with national MRV system require-ments, the forms were adapted to each community and CREWs learned how to modify them so that these could evolve with the commu-nity’s needs. Together, these changes engendered more engage-ment, support and buy-in.

Five community-based data labs have been established, with each lab serving as many as 16 communities. Equipped with a laptop, open-source software, and a wifi device enabling the data-gathering smartphones to transfer their data to the laptop, and located in structures with solar or otherwise reliable sources of electricity, these labs are able to sidestep many of the technological limitations that affected earlier efforts and provide

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CREWs and CREW data managers with reliable and robust home bases for data storage and analysis.

CREWs and CREW data managers have collected and analyzed a rich trove of informa-tion on a range of environmental and social indicators, including hunting and fishing practices, educational status, and community health and wellbeing, that have directly and positively impacted their communities. Data that showed depletion of animal stocks, for example, led communities to modify their hunting so stocks could replenish; a survey about well depths revealed that certain wells were running out of water during the dry season because they were not deep enough. In more than one instance, CREW data enabled health workers to pinpoint and address the causes of significant public health concerns. For example, mapping health data onto data about waste management practices in one community revealed that an outbreak of diarrhea was linked to trash dumping and burning; rain was washing the trash and burnt remnants into the community’s water source. These represent real and tangible benefits from CMRV.

Standardized workflows and a detailed data sharing protocol or “stoplight system” have been implemented to ensure that data are correctly gathered, analyzed, stored, and—most importantly—protected. The stoplight system is a six-page document that outlines the steps that must be taken before data can be shared with other communities or with research institutions. A larger community organization overseeing the lab, such as the NRDDB, KMCRG or SRDC, must ultimately authorize the release of information. This protocol ensures that indigenous communities retain control of their data and can decide for themselves how it is to be used.

The communities and individuals who have engaged in this process have built capacities that empower them. CREWs have gained valuable technical and interpersonal skills they can apply not only in CMRV, but also to pursue new job opportunities. Communities are better equipped to prepare effective, data-backed VIPs that align with their own priorities and with national goals.

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Significant steps have been taken to improve gender and generational equity through this process. There are currently 30 female and 70 male CREWS total, and certain communities have achieved a 50/50 split in male/female representation among CREWs. CREWs also range from 15 to 60 years in age. This growing diversity enriches the monitoring process with a variety of complementary skills, perspectives, and expertise.

CHALLENGES

Guyana’s indigenous communities and community organizations have seen many research initiatives come and go without providing direct benefit to the communities them-selves. They have been promised

useful data products, such as reports or maps, that were deliv-ered years later or never delivered. This made it difficult to build trust and buy-in and to cultivate a sense of what CMRV could offer.

Each community’s council selected the individuals who would serve as CREWs, and they tended to select younger people. This created problems with turnover, as young people were more likely to leave their communities in search of work opportunities elsewhere.

Despite efforts to address the technological and logistical challenges that hindered earlier CMRV projects, some of these limitations remain. Transportation remains an issue, particularly for the most remote communities, and poor smartphone batteries and

limited access to charging stations presented difficulties for CREWs as well.

Communication between communi-ties, organizations like the NRDDB, KMCRG and SRDC, donors, support agencies, and other partners sometimes broke down, creating tension and uncertainty about stakeholder roles.

The lack of consistent, long-term funding makes it difficult to appropriately sustain this work. It is demoralizing for communities that buy into this work, that commit to it and believe in the benefits it can bring, to suddenly find them-selves without the resources to carry it forward.

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LESSONS LEARNED

Involving communities and local/regional indigenous organizations from the earliest stages of the process is the key to building lasting commitment and buy-in. It is relatively easy to create interest in monitoring and CREW training among individuals, as CREWs receive a stipend for their services. But creating interest among communities and community organizations is not as easy because the benefits of monitoring can be hard to quantify and communicate, especially when previous efforts have created some skepticism. That is why it is essential to provide measurable victories and tangible benefits early and often. Seeing that they could receive reports and analyses every two weeks and instantly apply this information in practical ways persuaded communities that CMRV has direct benefits, and that created a strong sense of ownership and buy-in.

Training more people from each community and recognizing those who have invested themselves in this effort can help protect projects from the toll of high turnover. CREW attrition was common, most often due to health issues, family problems, or new job opportunities outside the community. It is important to consider this attrition part of the process and design every step taking this into consideration. It is also important to recognize and value the untapped human capacity of those who have committed themselves to this work for the long term. Some individuals who participated in this effort have been working to foster community monitoring in some form or another since 1999. By valuing and supporting these individuals and by training a larger force of CREWs, communities would be better able to prevent or withstand turnover and maintain a more robust, resilient CMRV capacity.

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To gain long-term support and commitment from individuals and communities, you must center their needs and priori-ties in the program design. In Guyana, WWF has continuously worked to improve the CMRV training and implementation processes by responding directly to the needs and priorities of the communities undertaking CMRV. Because transportation and lack of internet connectivity presented challenges, they sought to provide data management capabilities and technical support in local hubs (the data labs). When VIPs were

mandated, they strengthened links between the VIPs and CMRV, showing communities how the data they gathered could inform and support their planning. Making CMRV relevant to the communities and putting their needs first improved the CMRV process and helped build lasting trust and commitment.

Certain enabling conditions are essential for the continua-tion and sustainability of community MRV. These are: a community that is motivated by its own reasons for monitoring; a

committed indigenous organization representing the community, with a political, strategic or practical reason to buy in to the monitoring process; a stable funding source for monitoring; individuals committed to monitoring as a community service, and not only for personal interests; and the establishment of long-lasting alliances to guarantee continuing training, improvement and technical support. This lesson has emerged from all of WWF’s community monitoring experiences, and it has been reaffirmed by the process unfolding in Guyana.

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REDD+ INSPIRING PRACTICES: ENABLING COMMUNITY-BASED MRV AND DATA MANAGEMENT IN GUYANA

100%RECYCLED

This document was produced as part of Project From REDD+ Agreements to REDD+ Results: Generating Results to Secure Consensus, a Norwegian Agency for

Development Cooperation and Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative supported program.

Written by Gisela Telis, for WWF Forest and Climate

Designed by Jo Curnow of 1 Tight Ship for WWF

Edited by Maria Fernanda Jaramillo Botero and Emelin Gasparrini of WWF Forest and Climate

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