In all its programmes, Save Lamu is particularly conscious of ensuring the participation of women and the recognition of the roles that women play in maintaining livelihoods, community health and safeguarding the traditional knowledge and cultures of the communities in Lamu. Save Lamu seeks a balanced representation of women in training components of the project. Women will be represented when BCP feedback is sought. In addition, participatory film will seek to incorporate the views of elders and women as to conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and concerns of future developments, so that their vital contributions to traditional knowledge and customary conservation practices are not lost.

In order to involve the communities throughout the process, Save Lamu uses a bottom-up approach whereby there is open discussion concerning planning and implementation of activities. Parallel to this participatory method, the following are the proposed plans to help us ensure community participation. Planning of the Project 1. Involvement of Executive Committee: the Save Lamu executive committee is made up of members of the local community as well as representatives from partner CBOs. The executive committee advises and oversees project design and implementation. This is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and representation in our organization. Contributions from the committee were used to advice on the formulation of this proposal. 2. Participation of Community Representatives: Save Lamu is a coalition of various stakeholders within the community. Save Lamu consists of over 46 member groups of community based organisations whose representatives will be used to implement various components to promote collaboration that is greatly needed. The objectives and activities within this proposal have been developed consistent to previous activities, expertise and interests of our member organizations. Through community involvement in the BCP process, Save Lamu has clearly articulated the plans and issues that the community wish to address, thereby designing the project with these considerations in mind. Implementation of the Project 1. Executive Committee: Hiring of staff to implement the project will not be done without adequate consultation and approval of the committee who are key representatives of the community. Furthermore, some of the members will be actively involved in the field work to implement the project. 2. Community Representatives: The aforementioned community representatives will work closely with Save Lamu in the implementation of activities as volunteers and advisors of the programs making sure they conform to community issues and concerns. Community stakeholders will be involved in providing comments to the draft BCP and providing supplementary information as to conservation and natural resource use through planned systematic meetings. In addition, the communities will be actively involved in the implementation of participatory mapping of natural resources per livelihood group in the sketch mapping process, recording of GPS points, and final validation of the map before it is disseminated. Participatory video will document traditional conservation practices, illustrating the BCP process, which will be relayed to communities to ensure general understanding of the customary and national laws setting out rights and responsibilities, particularly with respect to conservation and sustainable use. Monitoring and Evaluation Save Lamu will be responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the process through regular meetings and by liaising with local community members and local authorities best placed to assess conservation trends. Each of the three projects.BCP, participatory video and community mapping.has monitoring and evaluation activities that are built into the project.