• Selected sites where it is found necessary and feasible to evolve pilot collaborative management agreements and institutions.

Activities

• PEnA and collaborating partners appoint a Working Group on Collaborative Management to select a number of sites and ecosystems whose effective management requires the contribution and responsabilisation of a variety of partners/ institutional actors/ stakeholders (Linkage with project 2: Development of Management Plans/Structures in Designated Protected Areas based on Biodiversity Surveys and Inventories and project 11: Coastal Zone Management in Gaza and the Dead Sea).
• The Working Group for this project promotes and supports a local participatory analysis of biodiversity resources in the selected sites, including an evaluation of their evolving trends. The analysis includes the identification of all main stakeholders for the natural resources under consideration, a discussion of the “acceptability” of the natural resources trends by all such stakeholders and a specification of the conditions and forms of support by which they all would be capable and willing to collaborate and assume management responsibilities.
• The Working Group reviews the feasibility of obtaining / providing the condition and forms of support required to develop effective collaborative management schemes in the selected sites.

Objective 2

• To support the development of collaborative management agreements and institutions in at least six selected sites in Palestine (pilot collaborative management sites).

Outputs

• Multi-stakeholder collaborative management agreements and institutions in at least six identified pilot sites.

Activities

• In each sleeted pilot site, the Working Group supports a series of meetings by which the stakeholders¾ with the support of a professional facilitator¾ identify a common vision for the future of the natural resources at stake. The visions are legitimised by a socio-culturally appropriate rituals and ceremony.
• In each sleeted pilot site, the stakeholders negotiate management agreements over the options and practices by which their agreed vision is approached. In the agreements, the stakeholders define a clear share of management functions, benefits and responsibilities among themselves (also on the basis of incentives and conditions facilitated by the technical working group).
• The stakeholders in each pilot site negotiate the establishment of one or more multi-stakeholder institutions (management boards, advisory councils, etc.) in charge of implementing and/or advising on the management of the natural resources at stake.

Objective 3

To develop human resources (government and NGO staff as well as private individuals) capable of promoting and facilitating collaborative management initiatives in Palestine.

Outputs

• Governmental and non-governmental personnel capable of assisting/ facilitating collaborative management processes.
• A set of lessons learned in developing collaborative management agreements and institutions, collated and summarised in an action-oriented publication (Collaborative Management in Palestine: Lessons Learned and Tools for Action).

Activities

1. On the basis of the lessons learned in the pilot collaborative management sites and other relevant management environments (e.g. protected areas and habitats; see Projects 1: Development and Management of a Palestinian System of Protected Areas and 11. Coastal Zone Management for Gaza and the Dead Sea), the Working Group and various local stakeholders review the conditions and forms of support that facilitated the establishment of effective collaborative management initiatives.
2. On the basis of identified lessons and needs, the Working Group promotes learning experiences (e.g. formal training, exchange visits, workshops) for government and non-governmental personnel willing to assist and facilitate collaborative management processes.
3. The Working Group maintains an active information network among the pilot Collaborative Management sites and other relevant sites (e.g. protected areas) in Palestine to monitor and evaluate the agreements and institutions, distil and exchange lessons learned and promote¾ as needed¾ relevant changes in policy and practice.
4. The Working Group commissions a summary of lessons learned into a publication (Collaborative Management in Palestine: Lessons Learned and Tools for Action) which is widely circulated in draft stage and finalised with the contributions of a varietof policy makers and field practitioners.

Duration

Four years.

Estimated Budget Break-Down