We are excited to announce the release of a new publication, ‘Toolkit of Indicators for Resilience in Socio Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS)’, during the IUCN World Parks Congress side event, ‘Production landscapes and protected areas: approaches of the Satoyama Initiative’, on 17 November 2014, in Sydney. The set of indicators included in the Toolkit, developed jointly by Bioversity International, the Institute for Global Environmental Studies, the United Nations University and the United Nations Development Programme, is integral to the process of conducting participatory baseline assessments for each target landscape and seascape.
In order to strengthen resilience of SEPLS, it is important for local communities to understand the current conditions of the landscapes or seascapes in which they live and work. To accomplish this, the baseline assessment uses a toolkit consisting of a set of 20 resilience indicators designed to capture community perceptions of different aspects of key systems – ecological, agricultural, cultural and socio-economic. The toolkit familiarizes the reader with the relevant concepts of resilience and provides practical tips to use the indicators, through examples from the field featuring Namibia, Fiji, Turkey and Kenya.
The newly released Toolkit aims to provide communities with a framework for discussion and analysis of socio-ecological processes essential for SEPLS resilience. It is also an effective tool for researchers and development practitioners to understand resilience and develop resilience strengthening management strategies.
COMDEKS is one of the first programs of its kind to deploy resilience indicators as an integral part of its design and as an organizing principle for community participation. The indicators are designed to be revisited periodically by the community, allowing community members to evaluate progress toward outcomes and to identify priority actions for local innovation. As such, they are a primary mechanism for adaptive management and the sustainability of COMDEKS interventions.
Click here to download a PDF version of the Toolkit.
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