environmental health and sanitation aspects to its cockle management program. It will also provide information on areas subject to contamination, and which require work to improve water
quality. Monitoring continues of cockle no-take zones voluntarily established by communities and adjacent areas to assess this alternative management regime. The national government is
interested in this model and if results are positive, is considering widespread expansion elsewhere.
Promotion continued of best management practices with a focus on shrimp farms at AGROPESCA, FINCAMAR and Cristo Rey all legally located within protected areas. All have
undergone several production cycles with technical assistance from UCA and are keeping records, improving production, and lowering inputs through better use of feeds and fertilizers.
Farmers have been provided with and taught to use water quality monitoring equipment to improve water quality management. Revenues are increasing due to the improved management.
2.3.3 Ecuador
A workshop in ICM was held in Pedernales with 37 participants from major governmental agencies, community groups and educational institutions in the Cojimies region and with support
by the Pedernales Mayor’s office. Clearly, EcoCostas has successfully established some of the enabling conditions for ICM and has created stakeholder demand for intensified conservation and
management efforts. Groups such as the shrimp farmers, who until now have been reluctant to become involved in such efforts, are now expressing interest. Pedernales has invited EcoCostas to
lead planning activities for the beach areas, which are the site of rapidly growing tourist activities. This is a turning point for the ICM effort in Cojimies, as this strong constituency will now allow
EcoCostas to take more direct action to restore the estuary and watershed in SUCCESS Year 4. Efforts to reforest the Mache-Chindul watershed continue. Twenty-six acres of cacao trees have
been planted, and funding obtained to reforest another 25 acres in Nuevo Milenio and 3,000 ha in Esmeraldas. The USAIDEcuador-funded Nuevo Milenio nursery will provide some of the
seedlings for this effort. Otherwise successful trials of Chame and shrimp polyculture have been challenged by a scarcity
of fingerlings. Chame normally breed either in artificial or in natural ponds and wetland areas. Currently, all the shrimp ponds in Cojimies have been stocked and local shrimp production has
been rebounding. With this rebound has come the use of barbasco toxin from local shrub to control the mosquito fish which negatively impact shrimp production. Barbasco use has, in turn,
negatively affected the Chame fingerling supply. If future work in Chame is to continue, the use of barbasco must be addressed or other sources of Chame fingerlings identified. The Chame
effort has also resulted in two studies a characterization of Chame culture and biology; and a feasibility study for a Chame training center.
Testing and promoting of alternative livelihoods continues, with products and income from these increasing—a successful passion fruit harvest, establishment of ornamental and medicinal plants,
completion of the first guided tours in Mompiche, and the addition of three new beekeepers.
2.4 Regional Capacity Building
2.4.1 Certification
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The SUCCESS Program has turned its attention in Years 3-5 on designing and implementing certification programs for coastalmarine practitionersprofessional. In East Africa this takes the
form of a certification program for marine protected area MPA professionals, while in Latin America the focus is a certification program for individuals working in integrated coastal
management ICM at the municipal level. The driver for this effort on certification programs is the growing body of evidence pointing to
the limitations of one-off training courses as a vehicle for building the needed human capacity for effective management of the world’s coasts and protected areas. SUCCESS surveys and
workshops with existing experts in these regions has highlighted the need for a new more long- term and sustainable approach to capacity building as well as strong demand for capacity building
in these two focal areas – MPAs and municipal-scale coastal planning. In East Africa, the highlights this reporting period include: 1 a regional workshop that further
vetted a strawman model for the program; 2 leveraged support for the program from the European Union funded RECOMAP Regional Coastal Management Program; and contracting
of a South African expert in certification programs to further detail out the program, its technical content, its mechanics, and its administrative functions and structure.
In Latin America, highlights of the ICM certification program initiative included: 1 leveraged funding support from the Land Ocean Interface along the Coastal Zone LOICZ program; and
garnered interest and support from a suite of universities in the region that can serve as delivery venues for the Program’s course work
2.4.2 Regional Networks and Knowledge Management
The EcoCostas-CRC Network KMS has been turned over to EcoCostas and is online at http:www.EcoCostas.orgkms
and now includes a blog WebLog for member posting. WIOMSA and CRC are beginning construction of a web forum for mariculture activities in East
Africa with moderated discussions on specific topics relevant to the practice and SUCCESS.
The Cross-portfolio Learning Topics CPLT system on the CRC website is cross-linking 167 documents related to three mariculture sub-topics of 1 General Approaches to Addressing
Mariculture as an Element of ICM Programs, 2 Managing Pond-Based Mariculture Systems in the Coast Shrimp and Fish, and 3 Managing Open-Water Mariculture Systems in the Coast and
Oceans Seaweed and Mollusks. Content for the first subtopic and launch of the web-page is expected by the end of this fiscal year.
The SUCCESS Monitoring and Evaluation System MandE was completed and upgraded so that field partners can securely login and remotely enter data for and supporting evidence documents
for indicators. Reporting options were upgraded to include a format that shows progress toward Life-of-Program goals by intermediate result.
SUCCESS published the second edition of the Basins and Coasts newsletter on the theme topic of Environmental Security. The newsletter and other information on the SUCCESS and the
Global Water for Sustainability GLOWS Programs can be found at
http:www.imcafs.org
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2.5 Science for Management
