Sustainable and fair use of the mangroves – SUFUMANG

The scientific barriers to be lifted depend on the capacity to collectively build the definition of a good condition of mangrove social-ecological system based on norms and values, both evidence-based, built by the consortium, and shared with IPLCs, in particular about the uses of the mangrove in two Case Studies : Santa-Cruz in Brazil and Casamance in Senegal. Such a definition must be elaborated through a co-learning process involving a large set of disciplines (biology, ecology, hydrology, geography, anthropology, economy) and non-academic sectors and actors. It must be accessible across sectors and various stakeholders (scientists, decision makers, IPLCs), include local knowledge and be realistic enough to be taken seriously by decision makers.

TASK1 (Assessing the mangrove condition and dynamics in terms of environment, society, and economy) aims at establishing a new, cross-cutting diagnosis of the condition of MSES in the two CS using complementary and interdisciplinary tools.

TASK2 (Re-analyzing mangrove uses with new frameworks toward the nexus of SDGs will rethink the science of the uses of mangroves with more local knowledge and a focus on the IPLCs that have, until now, been often excluded from decision making (women, migrants, youth, etc.).

TASK3 (Upscale transformative solutions towards sustainability and fairness) aims to identify, analyze and disseminate success stories or transformative solutions addressing the complex nexus of SGDs.

SUFUMANG will highlight the importance of mangrove sensitive social-ecological systems for specialists, decision-makers and managers, and also for non-specialists. First, interdisciplinary research will be highlighted as the best tool to give a clear and unambiguous message to the different actors of mangrove conservation. Then, the possibility of a different analysis of mangrove dynamics Southern-centered and gendered-centered will be presented and justified on the basis of robust analyses of both CS. This new approach, tested and disseminated, is the first impact of the project. From the conception of the project to the achievement of impacts, two milestones are important. The first milestone is a better comprehension of the dynamics of the two CS mangroves’ social-ecological systems. To develop a new evidence-based approach to the uses of mangroves, the second milestone is the formalization of two tools, a frame to analyze mangroves which takes into account all components of the social-ecological system and a model applicable to the intersectoral participatory workshops where various stakeholders can visualize the simulated consequences of potential decisions in a management system. These tools will contribute to disseminate the success stories and upscale out and further the common principles of action, to be differentially implemented and adapted to each local context.

The network stimulated by the project will allow for building new research projects and give a chance
to continue the dynamics further. One of the main ways of sustaining the project in the future is to
help the integration of staff members participating in SUFUMANG in mangrove experts’ groups or in
mangrove management entities locally (e.g. scientific council of protected areas). Such integration can
be pursued during the intersectoral workshops of the project to which managers and other
stakeholders will be invited during the activities of T3. Finally, the involvement of young researchers
in SUFUMANG (with a priority for women) will contribute to the project’s success and follow-up in case
they obtain permanent positions in academic or non-academic institutions in connection with
mangrove study and conservation. The SUFUMANG structure and actions will enhance the
competence of all staff members for studying MSES. The thematic fields of research will open future
research planning and new collaboration possibilities through future broader calls. It will certainly
extend the expertise capacity of all staff members and guide future career prospects. Cross-cultural
and cross-sectorial competence will be enhanced thanks to interdisciplinary and intersectoral
workshops. By co-supervising PhD, post-doc and master’s students, researchers will extend their skills
and provide quality insurance through supervision. Members of SUFUMANG will increase their
knowledge in new environments and uses and in the new demands of partners and stakeholders to
maintain and sustain the protection and management of mangrove. The interdisciplinary network will
act as a hub for mutual training in up-to-date technology/methodology for environmental studies,
together with the definitions of rules and actors in political ecology and strategies.

SUFUMANG aims at providing a new vision of mangrove conservation, promoting fair and sustainable uses, with a knowledge transfer component inside and outside the academic consortium. The dissemination of the knowledge and results produced to scientists, IPLCs, managers, and decision- makers is one of the pillars of SUFUMANG and is expected to have an impact for science, society and policy making. Different components of the project are designed specifically for such knowledge transfer. In this direction, various media will be produced during the project to communicate with both in the frame of T3: photo and video database, participatory mapping, policy briefs, geospatial database, scientific papers. SUFUMANG will adapt its communication activities to every type of user in order to respect their specific priorities and capabilities in terms of knowledge, innovation and results needed. It will target different audiences and expects to send a clear message at all levels of society. Communication with IPLCs will mostly use photos and videos and discussion around these. Direct contact during field actions in the different CS will be very important in the communication. The database construction and sharing in Open Source has the advantage of engaging the participants in long-term exchanges, because it will stay open to integrate more data after the project from the current partners, future projects, or other sources. It will have an impact on the scientists working on mangroves elsewhere, because there is not yet much data directly available at the world scale. It will generate new comparisons of SES, with the indicators validated and provided by the project. The generation of an Open Source database and information storage on mangroves and their conservation across the world will ensure a permanent sustainability of both data and the knowledge generated by the project. Sediment cores collected during the project will be recorded on the «Cyber Cartothèque« website, DNA barcoding will be stored in BOLD and Genebank, in the context of Open Science, botanical observation will be published trough the GBIF portal.

Mangrove studies fit into sustainability science through a trade-off yet to be found between the need to protect them, and the needs of IPLC (Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities) in low-income countries. Today, governance of mangroves is mainly aimed at global objectives (driven by Northern countries) and not at the needs of IPLC. SUFUMANG, an interdisciplinary project driven by such context around the mangrove is proposed to facilitate the cross-sector implementation of transformative solutions fostering shared prosperity and reduced poverty while protecting the environment. This project will focus on the uses of mangrove and in particular on the transformative solutions that will reconcile SDGs centred on society and SDGs centred on nature. To this end, our positioning is to bring a Southern-centric, local-centric, and women-centric perspective. The project is therefore positioned in an interstice between studies that aim to understand the state and the dynamics of mangroves and their explanatory factors, and those that aim to improve decision-making tools in the fields of conservation. This project aims to understand the values and uses of IPLC to assess how and why they constitute explanatory factors for changes, in terms of degradation, conservation or improvement. It is important to emphasize that this project is designed in partnership with research institutions in the studied countries (Santa-Cruz in Brazil, Saloum in Senegal) and that a little part of the budget will be allocated to missions of Brazilian and Senegalese team members.
The project is structured in 4 Tasks. T0 is dedicated to management with a strong focus on the interface (Interdisciplinary, intersectoral, exchanges between case study). T1 is answering to the question what a “healthy” mangrove is, when mangrove is defined as a social-ecological system. A large set of disciplines will put studies together. Then, 3 components will be mobilized in a retrospective analysis of dynamics. T1 will produce an original grid for such assessment based on interdisciplinary collective work. T2 is fully dedicated to the uses of the mangrove where the science is mostly persistent on assimilating use as driver of degradation. To reanalyze uses differently, they will be the object of new in-depth interviews bringing both accurate description an understanding of the values. Then such new understanding of uses will be confronted with a political ecology analysis of governance understanding how fair governance is regarding the uses. A model developed ad hoc will be used for both retrospective analysis (hypothetico-deductive approach on the impacts of uses on the environment) and prospective seminars (stakeholders visualizing the effects of scenarios of management). T3 will, then, identify, analyse, and disseminate success stories addressing the nexus of SGDs. It requires innovative co-learning between disciplines to assess the criteria of success. The actors of these solutions will be implied in the process. We will work on a sample of actions subject of in-depth studies, analysing their governance and trajectory all along the innovation. Our understanding of such success story will be the thread of the exchanges with stakeholders during intersectoral workshops to design a shared framework of analysis. The last 5 months will be dedicated to the networking and dissemination outside the partners on the results concerning sustainable and fair uses of the mangroves.
Impact and benefits of the project are: a new approach, new tools applied to a more sustainable use of mangroves, Initiatives of knowledge transfer on a new vision of mangrove conservation, promoting fair and sustainable uses inside and outside the academic consortium and knowledge transfer designed for new management insuring fairer use of mangroves.