Towards more sustainable agricultural landscapes: Lessons from Northwestern Mexico and the Western Highlands of Guatemala

Where did your study take place: Northwestern Mexico and the Western Highlands of Guatemala

When did you engage stakeholders: Throughout the project

How did you identify stakeholders? Recommendations of researchers, Contacts we had previously worked with, Contacts plus recommendations of contacts

Who did you engage?

  • Farmers
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  • Landowners
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  • Local government
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  • Tribal/indigenous members
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  • Local districts (soil, water, fire, conservation)
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  • Coalitions
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  • Collaborations
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  • NGOs
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  • Citizen groups
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  • Industry/commodity groups
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  • Local business
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  • University or academic

To what extent did your team engage stakeholders? 

  • Engagement that gathered data but the focus of the study is to address a problem of importance to stakeholders
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  • Engagement that informed or educated stakeholders
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  • Engagement that helped stakeholders view issues from different perspectives
  • |
  • Engagement that allowed stakeholders to plan for the future
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  • Engagement that helped stakeholders to identify solutions
  • |
  • Engagement that helped stakeholders envision how to put solutions into practice

What methods did you use to engage stakeholders? 

  • Questionnaire or Survey
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  • Focus Groups
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  • Workshops or Conferences
  • |
  • Participatory Action Research

What actions did you take, if any, to meet stakeholder needs?

  • Took into account the biophysical and social context in which the stakeholders were embedded
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  • Shared values with and showed stakeholders respect
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  • Co-owned the engagement process with stakeholders
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  • Co-generated knowledge with stakeholders
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  • Explicitly integrated stakeholder knowledge into the research project
  • |
  • Made changes to our practices based on reflective and reflexive practices and/or stakeholder feedback
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  • Assessed with worked and what did not work with our stakeholders

What process did you use, if any, to evaluate and monitor your stakeholder engagement?

Assessed stakeholder understanding of concepts, please describe how often this was done.

More than once

Assessed stakeholder satisfaction with the process, please describe how often this was done.

More than once

Did you identify, propose, or implement solutions with stakeholders?

  • Proposed

Describe what your team did well engaging stakeholders.

Attempting to apply the assessment approach to two contrasting agricultural landscapes in northwestern Mexico and the Western Highlands of Guatemala reveals both difficulties and benefits. Collecting reliable data on practical indicators and effectively communicating implications of data analysis to guide decisions over time are major challenges to implementing the approach and require long-term commitments of time and resources. Much time and effort are required to build trust, engage diverse stakeholders, apply the approach, communicate what has been learned and what additional information is required, and use that information to build capacity to improve conditions. All of the components are needed to address the challenges of alleviating poverty, improving human health, and addressing climate change. Our modest attempt to apply the assessment approach to the two case studies show that it was not possible to systematically move through all the steps within our limited time and budget. We found that identifying practical indicators is relatively easy compared to monitoring, measuring change, interpreting, and communicating results to guide behaviors. However rapid appraisal is a useful way to quantify trends based on existing data, identify data gaps, and prioritize protocols for gathering data that can inform key indicators. Reality is a special case, and application of the approach can encounter unforeseen obstacles such as sudden project terminations, travel prohibitions, or security concerns.

Describe what your team did well engaging stakeholders.

WE would do a better job f following up with stakeholders. We could not follow up as planned because of Covid and because the US government deemed that travel to these regions was dangerous and would not approve additional travel.Attempting to apply the assessment approach to two contrasting agricultural landscapes in northwestern Mexico and the Western Highlands of Guatemala reveals both difficulties and benefits. Collecting reliable data on practical indicators and effectively communicating implications of data analysis to guide decisions over time are major challenges to implementing the approach and require long-term commitments of time and resources. Much time and effort are required to build trust, engage diverse stakeholders, apply the approach, communicate what has been learned and what additional information is required, and use that information to build capacity to improve conditions. All of the components are needed to address the challenges of alleviating poverty, improving human health, and addressing climate change. Our modest attempt to apply the assessment approach to the two case studies show that it was not possible to systematically move through all the steps within our limited time and budget. We found that identifying practical indicators is relatively easy compared to monitoring, measuring change, interpreting, and communicating results to guide behaviors. However rapid appraisal is a useful way to quantify trends based on existing data, identify data gaps, and prioritize protocols for gathering data that can inform key indicators. Reality is a special case, and application of the approach can encounter unforeseen obstacles such as sudden project terminations, travel prohibitions, or security concerns.

PI Contact:vdale@utk.edu

VirginiaDale

University of Tennessee

vdale@utk.edu