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Thursday, June 6, 2019

Empowering CBEMR Ambassadors and Strengthening the MAP CBEMR Network.

 Written by: Jaruwan Enright, MAP Project Manager (24 May, 2019)

The Mangrove Action Project (MAP) has been promoting and working on Community-Based Ecological
Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) with coastal communities along the Andaman Coast since 2012.   A group of communities have gathered together as an informal network calling themselves the “CBEMR Network”.  On the 20th to 22nd of April, 2019 the second workshop on “public speaking and presentation skills” was held in Krabi Province for fifteen CBEMR ambassadors from five of MAP’s CBEMR communities representing three provinces in Southern Thailand: Trang, Krabi and Phang-Nga.  The three day workshop was facilitated by a professional instructor, Khun Wara Chaitap, from Chiang Mai.   This training was a follow up workshop for the Facilitation Skills workshop held in May 2018. The workshop aimed to strengthen the participants’ skills on how to share and present CBEMR experiences and lessons learnt with outsiders especially from the government sector.  As most of the CBEMR community representatives regularly host and attend meetings and workshops, there are opportunities for them to deliver their experiences confidently.  MAP believes that it is a very important strategy for local peoples’ voices to be heard and their role to be recognized not only through their practices but also through their presentations when they have opportunities.  From previous work on CBEMR with local communities we have learnt that CBEMR methodology also assists to highlight indigenous knowledge to be used as a significant input into the work. An example on the value of indigenous knowledge is the local’s people observations and suggestions on species selection to help the natural regeneration and the solutions on hydrology adjustment at the restoration site.


       The workshop was designed to have participants construct the content and plan group work on CBEMR experiences and practices, followed by practicing presentations. The workshop instructor added tips on general rules for public speaking. Background information on community mangrove management and the CBEMR process, such as community mapping, timeline, photos and table of activities, was introduced at the workshop.  Tips on public speaking were discussed and learned through the Body Scan session (please see in the photo 2) which included the basic needs and rules for being a good presenter.  The participants worked as a group and helped each other to improve while practicing. 
        A very important session was requested and included as part of the workshop. This was a session on the simulation of a CBEMR network meeting during which the participants spent almost three hours to draw out the CBEMR network including goal and mission, main objectives and main activities.  The representatives presented the discussion output to MAP and the trainer.  The significant points of the CBEMR network were how members can move both CBEMR and livelihoods forward sustainably by themselves, following the end of MAP’s projects in the next several months.

The workshop ended with a reflection on what participants had gained from the workshop and how this workshop encouraged and boosted up their energy to work together as a network.  The intermediate action after this was the next CBEMR network was planned and agreed to be held at Klong Gum (Klong Lu) in June 2019.

Again we would like to convey a huge thanks to Lush: Fresh Handmade Cosmetics for their support for this successful workshop! 

Figure 3: Participants simulating a CBEMR Network meeting


 Figure 4: Group network strategy discussion


                Figure 5: An energizer session during the training

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