SEPLS: Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes

Experiences overcoming barriers from around the worldIntroduction
The GEF-Satoyama Project has been working to realize society in harmony with nature by mainstreaming
conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in production landscapes and seascapes. This issue brief is acompilation of lessons learned on biodiversity in production landscapes and seascapes from ten demonstration
projects from around the world.

Key Messages
 ocio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) provide a wide array of values to people.
SCollaborative research on threatened species in SEPLS, and local entrepreneurship harnessing core values ofSEPLS – particularly food – help people better recognize these values.
• 	Traditional knowledge is an integral part of SEPLS, enabling people to sustainably use and manage
various resources, but is in decline. Effective measures to address this decline include creating community
schools to facilitate mutual learning between elders and youths, reinforcing traditional ecological production,and integrating traditional knowledge into science and policies.
• 	
Governance in SEPLS is strengthened through effective collaborative management schemes, involving local
communities in the decision-making process regarding SEPLS management, based on effective
communication between all the stakeholders, financial support and policies that promote local governancesystems.
• 	It is key for the sustainability of SEPLS to develop public policies that are coherent among the different
sectors and levels of government, and to integrate the local values, traditional and local knowledge,
customary rights and community institutions with the management of SEPLS.
•What are SEPLS?
With the increasing human population and footprint, global
conservation of biodiversity can only be achieved with thesustainable management of areas in which people and natureinteract. Production landscapes and seascapes, spaces in which
activities of the primary industry (agriculture, forestry and fisheries)
take place, are important as buffers and provide vital connection
between protected areas. They are also important for theconservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in their own right.
Those that integrate the values of biodiversity and social aspects
harmoniously with production activities, such that production
activities support biodiversity and vice versa, are termed the socioecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS). They arecalled “Satoyama” in Japan, where their values have beenrecognized and made into an international initiative.

Landscape (Peru) ©CI/Devon Dublin

We have identified key
barriers that many SEPLS
face globally.
Challenges:• 	Insufficient recognition of SEPLS
values• 	Disappearing traditional knowledge• 	Weak governance.
We provide solutions to these from theanalysis of the information collected
through the GEF-Satoyama Project.

Restored mariculture (Mauritius) ©CI/Yoji Natori

GEF-Satoyama Project Issue Brief (November 2018)

Question: How can we get the values of SEPLS recognized?
Answer 1: Look at landscapes and seascapes from multiple angles
People recognize the values of SEPLS in many different
ways through many different ways of interaction withthem in their own perspectives, but the totality of thevalue set is not recognized. These areas fall under
different ownership and management schemes in which
various stakeholders are involved. Many producers
prioritise short-term production gains over longterm biodiversity. Yet, the GEF-Satoyama Project has
demonstrated that SEPLS serve as vital habitats forseveral globally threatened species. Other species arevaluable to theSEPLS can take variousforms:

local people for food, medicine, eco-tourism, pollinationand seed dispersal. In some cases, wild species support
the cultural and ethnic identity. These utilitarian andintrinsic values of species constitute biodiversity that is
unique to each SEPLS. Values are recognized fromindividual perspectives, but the holistic values thatemerge from collective whole are not. It is thus important
to comprehensively capture the vital and unique values ofSEPLS and share these with all key stakeholders, so thatthey can take collective action harnessing these values.
Average importance score05

01. Habitat creation & maintenance
02. Pollination & seed dispersal•
customary protected forests•
production agroforests•
croplands•
terrestrial waters• 	inshore seas where artisanal
fisheries are practiced.

SEPLS provides numerous
ecosystem goods and services,
particularly food, providing
grounds for education and culturaltransmission, regulation of climate,water and soils, protection against
natural disasters, which underpin thelivelihoods, security and development ofpeople living in these areas.

03. Air quality reg.

10152025

Managed forest

04. Climate reg.

Grassland

05. Ocean acidification reg.

Farmland06. Freshwater flow reg.

Freshwater

07. Water quality reg.
08. Soil protection & formation
09. Hazard reg.

30

Natural forest

Mangrove
Inshore sea

10. Detrimental organisms reg.
11. Energy
12. Food & feed
13. Materials & assitance
14. Medicinal & biochemical
15. Learnig & inspiration
16. Experiences
17. Support identities
18. Maintenance of options

Above: The importance of different ecosystem goods andservices as recognized in 7 ecosystem types across GEFSatoyama Project’s 10 project sites. In the analysis, 18ecosystem goods and services categories were identified(categorization per IPBES (2017). The importance scorefor each ecosystem type ranges from zero (0) (nonexistent) to five (5) (very important).

Many threatened species are dependent on SEPLS:

Above: EcuadorianWhite-fronted Capuchin(Cebus aequatorialis), CR(Ecuador) ©FIDES/Ramón
Cedeño2

Above: Livingstone’sfruit bat (Pteropus
Livingstonii), CR(Comoros) @Dahari

Above: Blyth’s
Tragopa (Tragopanblythii), VU (India)

Above: Indri(Indri indri), CR(Madagascar)

Above: Scalloped
hammerhead (Sphyrnalewini), EN (Seychelles)©TERI/Siddharth Edake© CI/Russell A.
Mittermeier© CI/Edgardo Ochoa

Answer 2: Integrate biodiversity into production activities. Local
entrepreneurship that fully takes into account local context is key totheir success
Collaborative research on threatened species byresearchers and local people unveiled the importance of
maintaining SEPLS as habitats to protect the species; i.e.,empowering local people to become environmental
stewards. Many projects that reinforced ecosystem goods
and services in SEPLS focused on supporting local foodand livelihood security. The food examples include
sustainable cocoa and organic quinoa production, and thepromotion of indigenous Karen cuisine using endemic riceand herbs from rotational farming. Other examples are
ecotourism enterprises, mangrove crab aquaculture, andmangroves as fisheries and coastal shields.

Left: Collaboration
with fishers
to investigate
threatened species
in artisanal fishcatch (Seychelles)

Left: Ecotourism
in mangroves(Ecuador)©CI/Devon Dublin©CI/Yoji Natori

Question: How can we capture and use traditional
knowledge in SEPLS?
Answer: Integrate traditional and local knowledge with modern
science, mainstream education and government policies
Traditional knowledge enables communities to sustainably
use and manage their natural resources. This knowledge
includes the use of animals and plants for food, medicines,
and other necessities. People sometimes use indicatorspecies, such as a frog species whose presence indicatesclean water. Such knowledge is often embedded inresource management systems and social institutions;e.g., customary rules on tree and non-timber forest
product harvest, fishing restrictions and rotational farming.

In addition, indigenous peoples often hold an animistic
worldview on nature, such as beliefs in nature spirits andtaboos, that influences how they treat the naturalenvironment. But it is in decline. Major causes of thedecline include changing values and lifestyles, moderneducation, difficulties in knowledge transmission,
population outflow from rural to urban areas, landtransformation for commercial monoculture, and its
limited recognition by governments.

Below: Trend of traditional and local knowledge systems in relation to the use and management of
biodiversity and ecosystems as seen in the GEF-Satoyama Project: Trend of traditional and local
knowledge: ↗increasing; → no substantial change; ↘ declining.

KNOWLEDGE*
Protected & ↗ Animals and plants
managed↘ High value species;
forests
medicinal plants; primate
taxonomy, ecology & roles
Farmland→ Crop soil & climatic
requirements;↘ Local crop varieties;

MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS*

SOCIALINSTITUTIONS*↘ Harvest NTFPs; grow ↘ Customary& use high-value trees; forest law
rotational farming, lunar
calendar↗ Organic farming;→ Manage pests;↘ Rotational farming

Freshwater → Predict water flow changes ↘ Restrict fishing↘ Clean water indicator frog during spawning season
Mangrove ↘ High value species; fish
reproduction in mangroves
Inshore sea ↘ Fish taxonomy, habitat and → Species-specificfishing methods
movements

WORLDVIEW ON NATURE*↘ Folklores & lycanthropy;
taboos on animal killing→ Karen’s spirituality on
rotational farming;↘ Rituals to beg
forgiveness for killed
animals & plants→ Myths related to water
hazards

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Measures to address the decline of traditional knowledge have been
demonstrated under the GEF-Satoyama Project
Modern education usually uses the national standard
language and curriculum. One way to overcome
challenges in knowledge transmission could be
informal community schools where community elders
teach indigenous language, culture and practices, andelders learn modern technologies from youth. Other
methods include the integration of traditional
knowledge into modern science and expert
knowledge for agroecosystem management, as wellas the systematic documentation and development ofa database of traditional knowledge. To halt
population outflow, some projects have taken steps
to enhance local food sovereignty and self-reliancethrough integrating traditional knowledge andinnovative techniques for increased production.
Against land transformation, traditional knowledge
and practices reinforce ecological production; e.g.,organic quinoa and cocoa production, as well as
rotational farming of upland rice and intercrops.

Some projects have progressed in integrating
traditional and local knowledge and practices ingovernment policies, e.g. integrating customary land
use systems into district land use plans throughparticipatory mapping using geographical information

system (GIS), creating no-take zones around fish
spawning banks in a lake, as well as the adoption ofminimum catch size and gear restrictions for artisanal
fisheries in a collaborative fisheries management plan.

In Thailand, several Karen communities decided
that the preservation of their cultural heritage
required institutional learning coupled with informal
opportunities to facilitate inter-generational
exchange. They worked with Karen school teachersto develop a curriculum that uses indigenous poems,
stories, practices and proverbs which is now beingtaught in the Karen language. On the other hand,
the youth groups in these communities, organized
camps which brought elders to teach the young
people about traditional agriculture and cooking
methods which they then used to produce valueadded products for online promotion.

©IMPECT

Above: Mutual learning between
elders and youth (Thailand)

4©CI/Devon Dublin

Above: A nursery of medicinal plants by theopen classroom (Madagascar)
In Madagascar, the knowledge on medicinal plants
was at risk of being lost. An open classroom wasestablished for the youth to gain the knowledge ofthese plants in a fun environment. They createdand maintained nurseries of these important plants
and took the seedlings home to be planted onfamily farms. This youth-led initiative has resulted
in renewed interest of important plant species and arevitalization of producing herbal medicines.

Question: How can we improve the governance of SEPLS?
Answer: Create a multi-stakeholder platform and empower local
communities
Governance in SEPLS refers to the whole of public andprivate interactions to solve problems affecting theSEPLS, to create opportunities through the formulationand implementation of innovative policies and measures.

As the review of ten site-based projects under the GEFSatoyama Project demonstrates, there are a variety ofactors involved in addressing the drivers that affectbiodiversity and ecosystem services.

Ecosystems

Above: Direct drivers affecting the different ecosystem domains, policies and measures addressingthese drivers, and actors in charge, as identified by the subgrant projects in their SEPLS.

Biodiversity conservation and livelihood can co-exist.
The debate is not to pursue either conservation ordevelopment, but how to pursue both in mutually
supporting ways. SEPLS is a system people havecreated through long interactions with their surrounding
environment that provide a model for solutions. A
comparison to protected areas helps understand theissue of governance of SEPLS. There is a single entity,
or a set of well-defined entities, that manages
protected areas, but such is not the case in many
SEPLS. This is so because SEPLS are not designed to bewhat they are, but rather they have emerged to bewhat they are as a result of synergies and trade-offs
among multiple interests and objectives. Good
governance based on meaningful participation of all
relevant stakeholders and productive interaction
between these is particularly important in SEPLS.

Landscape management is a multi-stakeholder
undertaking. In many countries the institutionalframework to manage the natural resources in theSEPLS has been designed to work in a sectorial vision(agriculture, forests, mining, conservation, etc), or insilos, without an integrated landscape management
approach, which generates contradicting policies, plans
and investments. The types of actors, forms ofinteraction and networking vary from site to site, butthere is a common need for collaborative forms ofecosystem management in the SEPLS as building blocks
of participatory and effective governance systems at
the landscape or seascape level. Given these factors, amulti-stakeholder platform is needed to facilitate
effective governance.

5Above: Multi-stakeholder nature of SEPLS management. Production activities, and to some extent
consumption, too, are tied to the landscape. The threshold to the level of activities and how to staywithin the threshold may need to be determined by the scientific community (or shared within
the community as traditional knowledge), but communicators need to deliver such information topractitioners on the ground. Government agencies, non-governmental entities or private sector actors
may need to implement regulatory schemes or voluntary standards to ensure that production (andconsumption) activities stay within the appropriate level. For such schemes or standards to beaccepted in society, education to raise public awareness may be necessary. (diagram based on thediscussion at IPSI-3 in 2012).

In order for such a system to work efficiently, local
communities in the landscapes and seascapes need tobe sufficiently empowered so that they can takeactions that they see necessary. While many SEPLS
governance schemes involve several stakeholders
including government, NGOs and communityorganisations, there is a need to strengthen theexisting structures and processes. Many current
governance schemes are not fully inclusive, with aweak role of community organizations. Governments
at all levels need to actively involve communityorganizations, transferring management rights so that
community organizations can undertake themanagement more effectively, and allocating sufficientpublic resources for these organizations to workefficiently.

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It is also important to promote equal representation ofboth genders and different social (and if applicableethnic) groups at the community level. All actors
responsible for the public or communal managementof cosystems need to be accountable andtransparent to their constituencies. The related
decision making processes benefit from consensusbuilding, agreements and democratic decisions
between the different interests within and among thedifferent organizations. It is key to develop andimplement policies and programs that contribute tochange environmentally harmful practices, and toaddress the existing problems or drivers.

Conclusion
A strong link between values, knowledge and governancecan potentially enhance biodiversity and production inSEPLS. The recognition of many terrestrial ecosystemservices (and values) by local communities is typicallylinked with extensive traditional knowledge held bycommunities, not only on their geo-ecological features(e.g. lemur ecology in the case of the Makira Forest,Madagascar), but also on their management and use, andtheir role in traditional beliefs (such as worship of theancestral spirits of lemur species).Thesevalues are recognized and often integrated into
governance schemes with specific roles in comanagement
schemes (e.g. joint patrols with rangers such as in thecase of Makira Forest). However, there are cases where
the knowledge held by local communities is not sufficiently
recognised and exchanged with government agencies.
This results in less capacity building for community
organisations, and protected areas where locals arelargely excluded from.

Above: In any landscapes or seascapes, values, knowledge and governance are inter-related

The values of coastal ecosystems for local communities(particularly the provision of food sources andregulation of extreme events), is closely linked to theknowledge held by local communities of the habitats(e.g. coral reef and seagrass beds as fish feeding,reproduction and foraging grounds in Seychelles) andartisanal fishery practices. The values for andknowledge held by local communities as key
stakeholder should be reflected in the governancesystem, as in the case of the co-management ofSeychelles, where the nearshore sea is managed byvarious entities and overseen by the central
government, and the fishing regulation is being

developed as part of a bottom-up process.
It is obvious from the demonstration projects that local
champions play crucial role in mobilizing the communities, being the window of communication toand from the communities, and sustaining theinitiatives after the project terms.
Though we looked at these from the SEPLS
perspectives, the findings presented here may be
applicable more generally to other systems, such asprotected areas.

7About the GEF-Satoyama Project
Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) since 2015, the “GEF-Satoyama Project” for“Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management in Priority Socio-ecological
Production Landscapes and Seascapes” intends to address the barriers that SEPLS face globally,
and contribute to the achievement of multiple Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Sustainable
Development Goals. Under its main component, “on-the-ground demonstration”, the GEF-Satoyama
Project invests in ten demonstration projects in Indo-Burma, Tropical Andes and Madagascar andIndian Ocean Islands Biodiversity Hotspots to enhance livelihoods, conservation and sustainable useof biodiversity and ecosystem services. The intended outcome includes effective conservation
management, improved conservation status of globally threatened species and promotion oftraditional knowledge.

Demonstration project proponents①②③T HAILAND: Inter-Mountain Peoples’ Education andCulture in Thailand Association (IMPECT)MYANMAR: Fauna & Flora International (FFI)
INDIA: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)④⑤⑥⑦

 AURITIUS: Environmental Protection & Conservation
M
Organisation (EPCO)SEYCHELLES: Green Island Foundation (GIF)
MADAGASCAR: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)COMOROS: Dahari⑧⑨⑩C OLOMBIA: Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS)ECUADOR: Fundación para la Investigación y Desarrollo
Social (FIDES)PERU: Asociación Amazónicos por la Amazonía (AMPA)

For further information, please contact:
Conservation International Japan

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Yoji Natori
Manager, GEF-Satoyama Projectynatori@conservation.org

Federico Lopez-Casero
Programme Manager, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
lopezcasero@iges.or.jp

Devon Dublin
Coordinator, GEF-Satoyama Project
ddublin@conservation.org

Yasuo Takahashi
Researcher, Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services
yasuo.takahashi@iges.or.jp

6-7-1-507 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
160-0022 JAPAN
Phone: +81-3-5315-4790

2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, Kanagawa,
240-0115 JAPAN
Phone: +81-46-855-3700

For more information, please visit the project’s website: http://gef-satoyama.net.

Endorsed Collaborative Activity

This was printed on bamboo pulp paper. This use of bamboo for pulp is contributing to a SEPLS in southern Japan.