IKM members are involved in a wide range of projects through their respective organisations and institutions as well as individually. It is the pooling of our collective knowledge, perspectives and experience that strategically positions IKM to pursue its objectives. Below are some examples of projects in which IKM has been, or is directly involved as an organisation.

The DLIST (Distance Learning and Information Sharing Tool)

The web-based information sharing platform and associated toolkit, DLIST Benguela (http://www.dlist.org) has been an excellent example of the synergy and collaboration of IKM members and its broader network of partners. DLIST started as a project funded by Norwegian Trust Funds through the World Bank, then received GEF-funding through IW:Learn, and finally evolved into a Medium-Sized GEF project awarded to IKM.

DLIST aims to

1. increase the flow of information between players in the coastal areas that flank the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME),
2. provide a wide range of role players with access to distance learning in sustainable coastal development.
3. The DLIST approach has since been embedded in the preparatory phase of the Agulhas and Somali Currents Large Marine Ecosystem (ASCLME) project with the purpose of soliciting input into the ASCLME Strategic Action Plan (SAP) while establishing communication channels and mechanisms for better governance during the implementation phase .

Coast Care, a national government poverty alleviation programme implemented at the grassroots level in South Africa, is another example where IKM provided an enabling framework for small businesses, NGOs and CBOs in the Northern Cape and part of the Western Cape that shared concerns about the coastal areas and the welfare of people living there.

IKM assisted various community-based groups to become independent businesses and organisations that merged their power and influence to establish livelihood options for people on the ground (see also: www.south-north.co.za).

The Orange River Mouth Transfrontier Conservation Area (ORM TFCA) is a Ramsar Site that straddles the border of Namibia and South Africa. In this instance, IKM has assisted a group of stakeholders, including local government and the Richtersveld community, to develop a planning framework and prepare proposals to assist in its implementation.

IKM implemented a UNDP-funded project in the ORM, with the goal of returning the ORM and coastal belt to a functioning ecosystem which is appreciated and wisely managed, and can provide economic development opportunities to help alleviate poverty in the area. The main objectives were to build the capacity of youth, decision makers and local people, and to support livelihood planning in the ORM amongst local communities and to develop a Land Use Plan for the future management of the area.

SARUNO – Friends of water (http://www.saruno.org) is an organisation that started when school children from the arid western part of South Africa, Russia and Norway came together to pool their energies to address the burning need to provide sufficient clean water for people across the globe. These children represented their schools, which have pledged their commitment to this programme. Together the schools and their pupils work on projects to improve the water situation where they live and also to spread the message of wise water-use in their home towns. IKM assisted in various ways and continue to support individual students.

The Richtersveld Sida !Hub Community Property Organisation (CPA) received its land back from which it had been dispossessed during the Apartheid era in South Africa. A key exhibit in the court case was a land-use plan collaboratively drawn up by community organizations with the assistance of IKM with funding from a UNDP Small Grant. This plan has since provided the framework for the integrated conservation and development of 93 km of coastal areas in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa. As part of the process IKM also developed sufficient capacity in the CPA to receive their own UNDP Small Grant in the following year.

The Ambodiletra Community in Madagascar is wedged between Madagascar's largest rainforest on the one side, and one of the first three coastal and marine national parks in the country, on the other side. IKM has supported information sharing in this community for many years and amassed a number of local, national and international partners to establish a project that includes a school and the development of alternative livelihoods in along one of the world's most fragile rainforests. It is hoped that the project can be emulated at other sites around the Masoala National Park and on the perimeter of national parks elsewhere.

The Ae!Hai Kahalari Heritage Park consists of land that were returned to the Khomani San and Mier Communities after a successful land restitution land claim. IKM and some of its partners developed the management plan for the heritage park which is part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park between South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. In spite of getting their land back, the community has remained in a disadvantaged situation and is ridden with poverty. IKM has remained in close touch with the community who aims to prepare a nomination dossier for a World Heritage Site. During the management planning process IKM members collaborated closely with traditional leaders such as Oom David Kruiper of the Khomani San.

The Micheweni District of Pemba Island, Zanzibar, has recently benefitted from an extensive cultural landscape mapping exercise supported by the Government of Zanzibar with UNDP funding and technical assistance from IKM. The cultural landscape mapping is rich in ancient mosques and other sites of cultural and archaeological significance. The team included NGOs, community members and government officials, and is continuing and expanding to the entire west side of Pemba Island. It is expected that much of the mapped area will be nominated for inscription on the World Heritage List in 2011.

Richtersveld - the Land and its People, is a book being developed collaboratively between IKM and groups in the Richtersveld who are united in a "writers circle" for the purpose of producing the book that not only covers the ecology, history, culture and the struggle to get their land back, but also explores techniques by which the "voice from the ground" can be captured and made available for popular consumption by mainstream audiences. IKM considers it essential that indigenous knowledge and community concerns be brought into the open and not only remain in isolated pockets of information such as academic papers and research reports.

In line with its philosophy of capacity transfer, local ownership and collective effort, IKM avoids taking credit for projects. The above initiatives include only some in which the organization or IKM members have been intimately involved. IKM also contributed time to the preparation of the successful nomination dossiers of two of Africa's three latest World heritage Sites, namely the Richtersveld Botanical and Cultural Landscape in South Africa and the Le Morne Cultural Landscape in Mauritius. IKM also developed proposals for funding from the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) for sites located in Tanzania, Comoros and Malawi where local communities take centre stage.