PROSPER Assessment Report: First and Second Annual Outreach Campaigns

The People, Rules, and Organizations Supporting the Protection of Ecosystem Resources (PROSPER) program is designed to introduce, operationalize, and refine appropriate models for community management of forest resources for local self-governance and enterprise development in Grand Bassa and Nimba counties. The three primary objectives of the program are:

  1. expand educational and institutional capacity to improve environmental awareness, natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, and environmental compliance;
  2. improve community-based forest management, leading to more-sustainable practices and reduced threats to biodiversity in target areas; and
  3. enhance community-based livelihoods derived from sustainable forest-based and agriculture-based enterprises in target areas.

PROSPER requested a communications consultant from the home office to review and evaluate the annual outreach campaigns and related products, partially summarized in Deliverable 11, a series of brochures, radio programs, community theater, and video products designed to educate the Liberian public in community forest development, land tenure and rights, and environmental awareness; and the second outreach campaign summarized in Deliverable 15, a series of brochures, radio programs, community theater, and video products developed to support community forest management in Liberia.

This assessment was designed to look at and make recommendations on the focus, process of planning, implementation, and impacts in communities, to the degree possible, of the first and second annual outreach campaigns. It was further designed to identify needs for continued targeted advocacy and outreach on the Community Rights Law (CRL) and Regulations as well as overall community forest management.

This report is based on the results of the Lessons Learned (LL) Workshops held in Tappita, Sanniquellie, and Buchanan to discuss interpretations of key messages, understanding of the materials, thoughts on accessibility and appropriateness of the communication channels used, and suggestions for improvement. It considers results from the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) baseline and endline surveys for forest communities conducted March 3–20, 2014, and July 16–31, 2014, respectively. The endline assessment for the second annual outreach campaign was conducted September 21–30, 2015. In all cases, conclusions about the current levels of knowledge have been triangulated from multiple sources. Only where there were two or more sources stating a need for improvement is a recommendation presented in this assessment. This report is also based on independent interviews with a member of the Community Forestry Working Group (CFWG) and Community Forestry Management Body (CFMB) co-chair for Gbear-Gblor community forests, held February 1–5, 2016.