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| LauLau Bay, Saipan, CNMI |
TNC and partners conducted the first Pacific Islands Franchise Conservation Coaches Network Rally in Micronesia on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, with an overarching goal of training/enhancing the capacity of conservation practitioners on the CAP planning process to become CAP facilitators and coaches. The four day training workshop provided the 30 participants from American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Saipan, Guam, Yap, and Palau with sessions on facilitation skills, community engagement, how to do stakeholder analysis, identification of conservation targets and threats, using Miradi to rank and prioritize threats, how to do results chain, creating objectives, and adaptive management. The group also visited Laulau Bay, to learn about watershed restoration efforts including tree plantings and road infrastructure improvements, as well as a comprehensive marine monitoring program designed to assess the effectiveness of upstream management activities. Some of the biggest successes of the workshop included interest of the participants to use the CAP planning approach and an overwhelming interest in learning more about how to use Miradi; wanting to participate in exchanges with other sites as CAP coaches to enhance their facilitation/coaching skills; identifying CAP needs for each island and the type of assistance needed from TNC to continue to help build capacity for CAP coaching in each island.
