Lessons on local participation in biodiversity conservation

Insights from field research presented at a Poverty and Environment Seminar

Tuesday the 30th of September, around 40 practitioners and researchers met to discuss the opportunities and constraints of local participation in protected area management. The seminar was the first of two dedicated to this theme as forms part of the Poverty and Environment Seminar Series.

The two seminars have been motivated by the following questions:

What are the pros and cons of different protected area management regimes involving different roles and degrees of local participation?
Can the declaration and management of protected areas form a positive part in local communities’ efforts to protect their livelihoods? And, if yes, under which circumstances?
Which are the lessons from protected area management – positive as well as negative – which should be brought to bear on current initiatives to include forest conservation as part of the efforts to mitigate climate change?

Following an introduction from Iben Nathan, (link to Iben Nathan's presentation, pdf, 66 KB) member of the Poverty and Environment working group, the seminar featured three presentations. Together these three presentations covered a wide range of situations of local participation in protected area management.

The efficiency of community-based natural resource management

In the first of the three presentations, Melissa de Kock explored the efficiency of community-based natural resource management the Salambala Conservancy in Caprivi Region, Namibia (link to Melissa de Kock's presentation, pdf, 5 MB). The Salambala Conservancy is a wild life conservancy, and through community participation, enabled through the Namibean legislation, in decision-making, full revenue retention at community level, and community-based wildlife monitoring and management, efficient wildlife protection has been achieved.

Conservation Politics in the Galapagos

In the second presentation, entitled Struggling for the Golden Egg: Conservation Politics in the Galapagos (link to Lucia Stacey and Vlada Fuks's presentation, pdf, 1 MB) Lucia Stacey and Vlada Fuks illustrated how protection per se and the funds and images of pristine nature associated with a flagship protected area like the Galapagos with its strong symbolic importance fuel conflicts between unequal both local, national and international parties. Thus, sustainable management of the Galapagos Marine Reserve requires that power relations between users as well as issues of equity in participation and decision making be addressed. More information on Lucia Stacey’s and Vlada Fuks’ research on the Galapagos Marine Reserve can be found here.

Communal reserves, natural resources and social conflict

The third and last presentation given by Søren Hvalkof brought us to the Sira Communal Reserve in Peruvian Amazonas. In the presentation entitled From Government to Governance? Communal reserves, natural resources and social conflict in the Peruvian Amazon, Søren Hvalkof described how the efforts of indigenous communities succeeded in mobilizing support first internationally and later nationally for the declaration of what today has become the Sira Communal Reserve. While formally recognized as a protected area in an area of high biodiversity, the declaration of the Sira Communal Reserve has been a way for the indigenous population to consolidate their territories and defend their resources and livelihoods. More information on Søren Hvalkof’s research in the Sira Communal Reserve can be found here.

Group and plenary discussions

The presentations were followed by group and plenary discussions. Among the points that were raised as part of these discussions were:

That we should be aware of the limits to what local people can and should be expected to do. Defending protected areas, containing valuable e.g. timber resources, may sometimes involve taking – too – great personal risks!
Care should be taken not to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in current efforts to focus on forest conservation as a climate mitigation measure. A lot is already known in the context of protected area management on the risks and opportunities associated not only with local participation but also with the role of national governments. Thus, lessons on ensuring local peoples’ resource rights, on mechanisms for ensuring transparency and on sharing of roles and responsibilities between different actors should be brought to play in current climate initiatives.
Protected areas are not only about protecting ecosystems and biodiversity but also serve as the pretext for securing own or blocking others’ access to valuable culturally and/or economically valuable resources. Not being aware of these aspects associated with protected area management may significantly limit the effectiveness in terms of biodiversity protection.

Next seminar on Local participation in Protected Area Management with Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, IUCN

The second seminar on Local Participation in Protected Area Management will take place on October 28, 2008, where Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, who is the vice chair Vice-chair of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), IUCN, will give a presentation and participate in the discussions.

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