Capacity development
Skills, experience and knowledge vested in people combine to form a specific set of capacities that enable them to assume management and leadership responsibilities at the workplace or within their community. While some skills can take years to acquire, others can be quickly and efficiently taught.
Starling Resources implements capacity development strategies to improve skills and practices across a wide variety of critical tasks, including:
• Organizational and personnel management
• Work planning and budgeting
• Proposal and report writing and communications
• Leadership and negotiation
• Financial management and administration
• Collaborative decision-making processes, including participation in governance boards, planning committees and other multi-stakeholder decision-making bodies
Starling Resources has implemented capacity development programs for students, farmers and fishers, government staff, NGO staff and others who share the mission of protecting and rehabilitating important ecosystems and natural resources. Our team employs methods to suit specific groups and organizations, combining formal workshops, one-on-one and group training, lectures, learning-by-doing as well as long-term mentoring through seconded staff.
Selected Projects
Project summary
The Bird’s Head Seascape (BHS) in West Papua is one of the most bio diverse marine environments in the world and provides critical support for more than 700,000 people. However, these vital resources are under threat from poorly planned development, destructive and intensive fishing, climate change and other factors. Since 2005, a collaboration between local governments, Conservation International (CI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and others has successfully established more than 3.5 million ha of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across Raja Ampat, Kaimana, Tambrauw and Cenderawasih Bay.
After providing financial and operational analysis and advisory to the early planning and development stages of the BHS initiative, Starling Resources in 2012 began to develop and implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the MPAs to correspond with the eventual drawdown in donor funding and NGO presence.
Our services
Working closely with local governments, NGO partners, and local CSOs, Starling Resources designed and implemented a comprehensive sustainability strategy for the BHS protected areas focusing on developing the following:
Sustainable financing
- Maximizing government budget allocations by supporting medium-term development planning (RPJMD), annual strategic planning (Renstra), and annual budgeting processes (RBA)
- Increasing independent revenue streams by redeveloping an ecosystem services tourism fee that now generates over $700,000 annually; and the deployment of the first public service agency (BLU) for conservation in Indonesia
- Designing a multi-million-dollar conservation trust fund to fill financing gaps, including financial projections, fund structure and design, and other details
Capable MPA management
- Developing regulatory and political support for the MPA management body
- Strengthening the MPA management body through the development of organizational structure and staffing, management plans, and operational procedures and systems
- Providing individual capacity development and mentoring including the delivery of numerous management-related curricula and the seconding of a full-time mentor
Constituencies of support
- Working with our partner, SeventyThree, to identify and position local beneficiaries as strong advocates for the MPAs
Project term
2011 – present
Clients and Partners
Walton Family Foundation (Client)
David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Client)
Trust for Conservation Innovation (Partner)
Conservation International (Partner/Client)
The Nature Conservancy (Partner)
World Wide Fund for Nature (Partner)
73 (Partner)
Project documents and reports
Palau Conservation Society Institutional Development
Project summary
The Palau Conservation Society (PCS) was formed in 1994 and remains Palau’s leading local NGO dedicated to protecting Palau’s natural resources. PCS focuses on supporting various constituencies throughout Palau with regard to conservation and resource stewardship. Starling Resources has worked closely with PCS over many years to support development of organizational strategies, procedures, and capacities, and to improve financial sustainability.
Our services
PCS worked with Starling Resources in order to improve its financial and operational performance. Our team helped PCS develop a variety of management strategies and organizational development tools to promote more effective organizational management and worked one-on-one with key staff to support individual management skill development. Specific strategies and tools included an organizational business and strategic plan, cost recovery strategy, and an organizational cost model to monitor revenue and expenses, as well as timesheets, staff and supervisor evaluation forms, fundraising databases and internal budgets.
Project term
2009 - 2014
Clients and Partners
David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Client)
Trust for Conservation Innovation (Partner)
Project documents and reports
Palau Conservation Society Business Plan
Palau Conservation Society Cost Recovery Strategy
Blue Swimming Crab Sustainable Fishery Initiative
Project summary
Blue swimming crab is the nation’s third most valuable export fishery and supports livelihoods for thousands of Indonesians. However, data and anecdotal evidence point to declining stocks and value. Fisheries management is critical to ensuring fishery sustainability. However, while Indonesia has embraced best practices in fisheries management, in practice there few examples exist of well managed fisheries in Indonesia.
The BSC-SFI is an initiative to implement participatory, science-based management at an appropriate scale with explicit consideration to the cross-sectoral nature of fisheries systems. The initiative brings together relevant stakeholders from across sectors to collaboratively develop and implement fisheries management plans. The methods and approaches tested through this initiative will be a model for other fisheries and point the way toward improving fisheries management in Indonesia. The fisheries management plan developed through this effort will also support national BSC fishery management planning (RPP) and Indonesia’s commitment to the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM).
Our services
In 2015, Starling Resources with support from other partners, designed and hosted a national workshop for BSC stakeholders to identify challenges and opportunities regarding BSC sustainability in Indonesia. Participants identified opportunities to improve BSC sustainability and prioritized the development of a pilot project to test best practice approaches to BSC management. Starling Resources has since worked under the leadership of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, local governments, and the Indonesian BSC Processors Association (APRI), and in close partnership with EDF and many other organizations, to design and implement the BSC-SFI. Phases and milestones completed to date include:
- Systematic and collaborative pilot site selection
- Socialization and characterization of the pilot site (Lampung)
- Launching of the Lampung multi-stakeholder management planning team
- Completion of the fishery management planning process including collaborative decision-making, broad consultations, and capacity development to accommodate each step in the planning process
- Launching of the Lampung BSC management “action plan” including a science-based adaptive management cycle
- Launching of the Lampung BSC management implementation committee
Project term
2016 – 2020
Clients and Partners
The David and Lucille Packard Foundation (Client)
The Walton Family Foundation (Client)
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (Partner)
Asosiasi Pengelolaan Rajungan Indonesia (APRI) (Partner)
Environmental Defense Fund – Yayasan Bina Usaha Lingkungan (Partner)
Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project
Project summary
The Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project (Katingan Project) is a REDD+ project on a 150,000 ha peat swamp forest in the districts of Kotawaringin Timur and Katingan in Central Kalimantan in Indonesia. PT. Rimba Makmur Utama (PT. RMU) is the project developer and holds a 60-year-long ecosystem restoration concession (ERC). By avoiding planned deforestation in the project area, the Katingan Project aims to yield carbon credits in the voluntary, and eventually in the compliance market. Revenues from the sale of carbon credits will support community development activities on the ground.
The Katingan Project has four primary components: Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV), ecosystem restoration, biodiversity protection, and community development. By collaborating with various stakeholders including local communities, local and national governments, universities, NGOs, and researchers, this project seeks to ensure carbon, community and biodiversity benefits, while also confirming the credibility and accountability of MRV methodologies that can be adopted under jurisdictional and international REDD+ mechanisms.
Our services
Starting in 2006, Starling Resources engaged with PT. RMU and its partners to lead REDD+ feasibility studies, ERC policy analyses, stakeholder analyses, MRV methodology development, database development, and project financial analyses. We also served as a main author of the Project Description Document (PDD) that was successfully verified by the VCS+CCB standards in 2016.
Project term
2006 - 2016
Clients and Partners
Rimba Makmur Utama(Client)
Yayasan Puter Indonesia (Partner)
Wetlands International (Partner)
Permian Global (Partner)