Resilience assessment in
SEPLS and its policy uptake
through activities by Taiwan
Partnership for theSatoyama Initiative (TPSI)Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) 2020 Project
Professor Dr. Kuang-Chung Lee 李光中 & Dr. Paulina G. Karimova 孫夏天
National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), Hualien, Taiwan
December 2nd, 2022

Our journey in the next 15 mins:
Part I: Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative(TPSI, est. 2015): purpose, members, activities
Part II: SDM 2020 Project: Resilience assessment in
TPSI SEPLS: Why? Who? How? What?
Part III: Policy uptake: Resilience assessment within
the post-2020 transformative change framework for
the Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan
2Part I: Taiwan Partnership for theSatoyama Initiative (TPSI, est. 2015):
purpose, members, activities

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I. Why Taiwan Partnership for
the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI)?
• Taiwan: small area size + high population
density = many environmental andsocio-economic challenges faced bySEPLS• 2011: the Satoyama Initiative wasintroduced to Taiwan – high popularityand many inspiring case studies• BUT, faced with a lack of:• comprehensive policy and strategicplanning;• knowledge enhancement and academicstudies;• capacity building mechanism;• experience sharing and learning fromgood Satoyama practices

Area: 36,000 km2
Population: 23 million
Population density: 640 p/km2• Est. 2015: TPSI 臺灣里山倡議夥伴關係
網絡 as a solution: an integrated
approach to setting up a national
strategic framework for promoting theSatoyama Initiative in Taiwan
4I. TPSI Strategic Framework:
Two action targets and Five types of activities(based on IPSI Operational Framework, 2010)

Five types ofactivities

Source: Lee et al., 2019• Since 2015: Forestry Bureau, Councilof Agriculture, Taiwan: financial andinstitutional support• through the network of 8 district
offices of the Forestry Bureau• Since 2018: Taiwan Ecological Network
Project 國土生態綠網 (2018-2021,2022-2025): legal instrument foreffective implementation• TPSI members (>235 organisations):
government agencies, research andacademia, NGOs and NPOs,
community organisations, green
enterprises, farms and agro-parks,individuals <…>5

I. Act local: at the heart ofTPSI activities• Four regional exchange bases:
capacity-building and on-theground activities• 2016-2022: Annual TPSI regional
workshops: exchange of practicalexperiences and solutions tocommon challenges:

 revitalisation of SEPLS
 regional/ national networking
 youth participation,intergenerational communicationand knowledge transfer & role ofwomen SEPLS resilience and biodiversity
 marketing and socio-economic
development in SEPLS
 ecosystem connectivity & Taiwan
Ecological Network

TPSI-N: Dharma Drum
Institute of Liberal Arts

NW

TPSI-W: Endemic
Species ResearchInstituteE

TPSI-E: NationalDong HwaUniversitySTPSI-S: National
Pingtung Universityof Science andTechnology6

Part II: SDM 2020 Project: Resilienceassessment in TPSI SEPLS:
Why? Where? Who? How? What?

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II. SDM 2020 Project: Resilience assessment inTPSI SEPLS: Why?
• 5 years past: TPSI successes by 2020: an extensive
knowledge database on Taiwan’s SEPLS, experienceexchange and learning, growing network ofpractitioners <…>• BUT: a lack of comprehensive understanding of“How are we doing?” and “What can we dobetter?”:• The need for an in-depth participatory
assessment of environmental and socioeconomic situation in TPSI SEPLS:The Satoyama Development
Mechanism Project 2020

• To evaluate risks and resources in TPSI SEPLS;• To foster adaptive co-management in TPSI SEPLS;• To feed in this knowledge into national policy –Taiwan Ecological Network – for nation-wide SEPLS
revitalisation• Thus, SDM 2020 Project proposal was born
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II. [Let’s take a step back for a moment]
Pre-SDM 2020 Project pilot study: the Xinshe Initiative (est. 2016)• Location: Xinshe Village, Fengbin Township,
Hualien County, Taiwan• The Xinshe “Forest-River-Village-Ocean” EcoAgriculture Initiative (the Xinshe Initiative) - anintegrated landscape-seascape approachSource: Karimova and Lee, 2022

• Multi-stakeholder platform: 2 Indigenous communities and 4
government agencies, facilitated by NDHU
• Based on the 5 perspectives of the Satoyama Initiative(ABCDE)• Adaptive co-management (ACM) cycle: planning –implementation – monitoring & evaluation (M&E) –adjustment• Resilience assessment workshops (RAWs) – an M&E tool
• applied in 2017-2018 and 2020;• 20 localised place-specific indicators of resilience (learningfrom Bergamini et al., 2014);• used for adjustment of existing (2017-2020) and designof new (2021-2026) action plan(s)9II. SDM 2020 Project: Resilience assessment in TPSI SEPLS:Where? and Who?
• Based on the Xinshe SEPLS experience• Locations/ Participants: 8 SEPLS around Taiwan,
supervised by 8 district offices of the Forestry
Bureau; facilitated by NGOs and academia• Diverse ecosystem types (shallow mountains,grasslands, wetlands, coastal, etc.), socio-cultural
backgrounds (Indigenous, Hakka and Hokkien
communities), production activities (paddy
farming, fruit orchards, bamboo harvesting,apiculture, fisheries)

Photo credits: Society for Wildlife and Nature Co., Ltd;
Watch Nature Ecological Consultant Co., Ltd.

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II. SDM 2020 Project: Resilienceassessment in TPSI SEPLS: How? [RAWs]• Resilience assessment workshops (RAWs) –a series of facilitated community-based
activities aimed at evaluation of socioecological resilience in SEPLS for thepurpose of providing a problem-oriented
feedback to adaptive co-management
processes in SEPLS (Lee at al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020)• RAWs = SEPLS health check: 5 perspectives,
20 indicators

Source: Karimova et al., 202211

II. SDM 2020 Project: Resilienceassessment in TPSI SEPLS: How? [Process]Publications + Learning materials (2020-2022):• February 2021: Sun et al. (2020) publication in TaiwanForestry Journal• April 2021: Lee et al. (2021) RAWs PracticalGuidebook for communities and facilitators + updatedin April 2022

Sun et al. (2020): Localised resilience indicators foradaptive management: building up resilient SEPLS inXinshe Village, Hualien County; Taiwan Forestry Journal

Phase I (2021 – SDM phase): Training oftrainers workshops & RAWs:• April 2021: indoors and outdoors in Xinshe SEPLS(community-led)• October 2021: online

Phase II (2022 – post-SDM phase, ongoing ):RAWs to ACM exchange workshops: ideas/
experiences/ next steps:• April 2022: online• October 2022: indoors and outdoors in Gangkou
SEPLS (community-led)

Lee et al. (2021) RAWs Practical
Guidebook for communities andfacilitators
12December 2020-October 2022:
Implementation of RAWs + follow-up ACM
process in 8 SEPLS communities:• Localising 20 indicators of resilience in SEPLS• Conducting workshops with communitymembers• Communicating RAWs results to all relevant
stakeholders• Designing next steps: action plans, applications
for relevant projects and funding <…>13II. SDM 2020 Project: Resilience assessment in TPSI SEPLS:
What? [Risks and resources elicited by RAWs (some)]A) Ecosystem
health andconnectivity

Risks

Under-use of natural
resources in SEPLS;
ecosystem
fragmentation

Strengthening
evidence-based +community-based
Resources biodiversity
monitoring;
identifying Satoyama
speciesB) Sustainable
resource useC) Traditions
and innovation

D) Multi-stakeholder
governanceE) Sustainable
livelihoods

Threat fromconventional
agriculture; illegal
resource use byoutsiders

Loss of TEK,
culture and skills;
aging andoutmigration inSEPLS

Lack of strong
governance andcommunication
mechanisms withinmany SEPLS

Post-production
challenges inremote SEPLS:
processing,labelling, marketing

High potential for ecoagriculture/ organic
promotion zones andeco-incentives (PES);
revival of native cropvarieties

Gradual return ofmigrant youth(UJI); weaving ofSEPLS production
activities witharts andeducation

Interest and support
from government
agencies (projects,financing) + at a crosssectoral basis; growing
youth leadership in
SEPLS

Development ofnew marketingskills and channels(online, SOGOstalls) + rural-urban
connectivity (CES)14Part III: Policy uptake: Resilienceassessment within the post-2020
transformative change framework for
the Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan

15III. Resilience assessment in TPSI SEPLS:
Policy-relevant lessons of SDM 2020 Project
Our Successes

The first ever systematic, comprehensive, nationwide,simultaneous assessment of resilience in Taiwan’s SEPLS:• based on locally-sensitive indicators of resilience (unique for eachSEPLS)• identified environmental and socio-economic risks and resourcesin TPSI SEPLS• mapped future ACM steps: sectors, stakeholders, projects, etc.

Carried out/ supported by the government agency – theForestry Bureau and its 8 district offices;Publications, training of trainers and experience sharing
workshops: a new interactive and inclusive peer-to-peer &SEPLS-to-SEPLS learning model;
A nationwide capacity-building effort, enhanced collaboration
across TPSI network, strengthened mentorship role of TPSI
regional exchange bases (TPSI-N, W, S, and E): > 150 directand >8000 indirect beneficiaries
Actively ongoing to date <…>16

III. Resilience assessment in TPSI SEPLS:
Policy-relevant lessons of SDM 2020 Project
Our Challenges: Where do we go from here?
• [Local scale] How to sustain RAWs successes/ resultsfor effective ACM processes at a SEPLS scale?
• [National scale] How to feed in RAWs successes/
results into national policy – Taiwan Ecological
Network – for island-wide revitalisation of SEPLS?
• [Regional/ Global scale] How to make our experienceswith RAWs useful, applicable and replicable in other
SEPLS in the Asia-Pacific and other regions?

In other words: What is the transformative
potential of TPSI RAWs?
Source: Karimova and Lee, 2022
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III. Post-2020 transformative change framework for theSatoyama Initiative in Taiwan (Lee et al., 2021)

RAWs as a monitoring &evaluation tool for
Taiwan EcologicalSource: Lee et al., 2021
Network (2022-2025)18

III. Resilience assessment in TPSI SEPLS and Taiwan
Ecological Network: Post-2020 policy uptake opportunities
2022-2025: RAWs as the main M&E tool for Taiwan’s SEPLS:• follow-up RAWs in 8 initial SEPLS communities• baseline RAWs in 8 more SEPLS communities• SEPLS-to-SEPLS experience exchange/ potential self-assessment

by 2025, 16 SEPLS in total

Ensuring socio-ecological coherence and connectivity:• SEPLS + priority biodiversity areas + conservation corridors = cross-mappingCreating a digital database for knowledge sharing and uptake:• 20 localised indicators in 16 SEPLS• identified + compared risks & resources• experiences with RAWs-to-ACM

Cross-scale and cross-sectoral cooperation of government agencies:• within the Forestry Bureau network (working stations, district offices, headquarters)• within one ministry: the Council of Agriculture• across several ministries: with water resources, economic, transportation, cultural and otheragencies
19Thank you for yourkind attention!
We acknowledge the funding support to this project provided by theSatoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) 2020 and the Forestry Bureau,
Council of Agriculture (grant number 110FD-09.1-HC-01)
Our gratitude to the local people in eight TPSI SEPLS communities, four
TSPI regional exchange bases and eight district offices of the Forestry
Bureau – our key Project partners
You are welcome to contact us at: scapeslab@gms.ndhu.edu.tw and visit:https://conservation.forest.gov.tw/EN/0002040
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