Improving Community-Based Conservation Near Protected Areas: The Importance of Development Variables

Community-based conservation in the developing world generally puts more emphasis on voluntary commitments and compliance rather than enforcement of formal laws and regulations for the governance of protected areas. However, as with other forms of organizational management, once institutions are established, they are required to comply with all relevant, legally binding regulations. Furthermore, it is broadly assumed that compliance with established regulations is critical for good governance. In this paper, we review these matters through an empirical study of Conservation Area Management Committees’ degree of compliance with regulations under Nepalese law, within the Annapurna Conservation Area—one of the best-known community-based protected areas worldwide—based on quantitative content analysis of the committees’ meeting minutes from 2008 to 2012. According to the established rules, two to four women and one to five minorities serve as committee members in each instance. On average, fewer members than expected attended meetings, and the number of decisions made per meeting showed a curvilinear relationship with the number of members present as well as their demographic diversity. Of the 13 committees selected for study, only two met the legal mandate of holding six regular meetings annually within two-month intervals. In all the other cases, non-compliance was noted for one to all five years of the committees’ terms. In general, compliance declined over the five-year terms, and some committees were significantly less-compliant than others. Although enforceable decisions were made within both compliant and non-compliant committees, several problems of non-compliance were identified that may affect conservation outcomes. We suggest several possible reasons for non-compliance and argue that these may be symptoms of institutional weaknesses. Organizations that fail to meet their commitments risk liability and may also lose the formal legal authority to govern. Regular monitoring is recommended to address compliance issues.

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Threat reduction assessment of conventional and community-based conservation approaches to managing protected areas in Uganda

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892904001432 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 233-241 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

ARTHUR R. MUGISHA ◽

SUSAN K. JACOBSON

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Additional Data ◽

Local Communities ◽

Management Approach ◽

Government Officials ◽

Community Based ◽

Community Based Conservation ◽

Management Approaches

Loss of wildlife, encroachment on wild lands and conflicts between protected areas and neighbouring communities continue to threaten the integrity of protected areas (PAs) in Uganda. To increase support from local communities and ensure long-term sustainability for Uganda's PAs, a policy of community-based conservation was introduced in 1988 as a management approach in seven PAs. The effectiveness of the community-based approach for reducing threats was compared to conventional PA management by conducting a threat reduction assessment at 16 PAs, seven with community-based approaches and nine without. Additional data collected using document reviews, interviews with government officials, and surveys of PA wardens were compared with the threat reduction assessments. Twenty-three primary threats were identified at PAs. Local game poaching was the most common threat. The threat reduction assessment indices of community-based PAs (mean=49.0±12) were not significantly different from those of conventional PAs (mean=37.96±21.6). Some specific threats, such as bush burning, logging, encroachment and unclear boundaries, seemed to be better mitigated at community-based PAs. Management approaches at all PAs mitigated fewer than half of the identified threats. Management approaches are needed that directly target PA threats, go beyond PA boundaries by involving additional government departments, link people's livelihoods to conservation efforts and strengthen PA institutions.

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A mix of community-based conservation and protected forests is needed for the survival of the Endangered pygmy hippopotamus Choeropsis liberiensis

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s003060531600020x ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 230-239

Author(s):

Annika Hillers ◽

Graeme M. Buchanan ◽

Jerry C. Garteh ◽

Solomon M. Tommy ◽

Mohamed L. Fofana ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Habitat Associations ◽

Border Region ◽

Area Network ◽

Anthropogenic Pressure ◽

Distribution Models ◽

Community Based ◽

Community Based Conservation ◽

Protected Forests

AbstractThe contribution of protected areas to biodiversity conservation is well attested but many taxa in many regions remain dependent on the unprotected wider landscape. To develop conservation plans for large mammals such as the Endangered pygmy hippopotamus Choeropsis liberiensis of West Africa's Upper Guinea Forests it is critical to understand the importance of unprotected land. Despite being a conservation priority, little is known about the habitat associations of this species, or its distribution across its range. Through a combination of field surveys, species distribution models and community questionnaires we investigated the use of unprotected areas by the pygmy hippopotamus in the Sierra Leone–Liberia border region. We found signs of the species in 128 of 525 1-km2 cells surveyed. Our analysis suggested that the species is reasonably widespread in this region and is associated with major rivers. It occurred close to, but rarely within, large areas of intact forest, and 80.4% of pygmy hippopotamus signs were recorded outside protected areas. The expansion of the protected area network in this area is unrealistic in Sierra Leone and to some extent in Liberia, mainly because of anthropogenic pressure and the overlap of proposed protected areas with mining and logging concessions. Thus pygmy hippopotamus conservation activities in the region need to include programmes on community lands while maintaining a robust network of protected forests. Community-based conservation of the pygmy hippopotamus may prove valuable for other threatened and endemic species that are not confined to protected areas in this region.

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Community-based conservation and protected areas

Governance for Justice and Environmental Sustainability ◽

10.4324/9780203120880-7 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 131-155

Author(s):

Arthur Hoole

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Community Based ◽

Community Based Conservation

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Community-based conservation as a potential source of conflict around a protected area in Sierra Leone

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892916000096 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 43 (3) ◽

pp. 242-252 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

LINCOLN R. LARSON ◽

APRIL L. CONWAY ◽

KATHLEEN E. KRAFTE ◽

SONIA M. HERNANDEZ ◽

JOHN P. CARROLL

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Sierra Leone ◽

Protected Area ◽

Community Support ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Community Based ◽

Community Based Conservation ◽

Ecological Resources ◽

Local Residents ◽

Residents Attitudes

SUMMARYCommunity-based conservation efforts are designed to foster local stewardship of important ecological resources. However, inequitable distribution of costs and benefits in communities surrounding protected areas can negatively impact livelihoods, increase wealth disparities and create conflict. To examine the potential for conflict between host communities involved in a community-based conservation program and neighbouring (non-host) communities, we explored local residents’ attitudes towards conservation at Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary (TIWS) in Sierra Leone. Intercept surveys (n = 368) were conducted in 18 villages (eight host, ten non-host) within 8 km of TIWS during 2010. Results revealed significant differences between residents of the host and non-host villages with respect to attitudes towards resource use and overall support for site protection. The most substantial discrepancies centred on perceived benefits associated with TIWS, and these drastically different perspectives generated a high potential for conflict. To minimize conflict and foster broader community support for conservation, managers must carefully consider how benefits associated with protected areas are communicated and distributed across protected area-proximate landscapes.

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Household livelihoods and conflict with wildlife in community-based conservation areas across northern Tanzania

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605315000393 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 702-712 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Jonathan Salerno ◽

Monique Borgerhoff Mulder ◽

Mark N. Grote ◽

Margherita Ghiselli ◽

Craig Packer

Keyword(s):

Food Insecurity ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Well Being ◽

Local Communities ◽

Conservation Strategy ◽

Community Based ◽

Wildlife Conflict ◽

Community Based Conservation ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Household Livelihoods

AbstractConservation strategies to protect biodiversity and support household livelihoods face numerous challenges. Across the tropics, efforts focus on balancing trade-offs in local communities near the borders of protected areas. Devolving rights and control over certain resources to communities is increasingly considered necessary, but decades of attempts have yielded limited success and few lessons on how such interventions could be successful in improving livelihoods. We investigated a key feature of household well-being, the experience of food insecurity, in villages across Tanzania's northern wildlife tourist circuit. Using a sample of 2,499 primarily livestock-keeping households we compared food insecurity in villages participating in the country's principal community-based conservation strategy with nearby control areas. We tested whether community-based projects could offset the central costs experienced by households near strictly protected areas (i.e. frequent human–wildlife conflict and restricted access to resources). We found substantial heterogeneity in outcomes associated with the presence of community-based conservation projects across multiple project sites. Although households in project villages experienced more frequent conflict with wildlife and received few provisioned benefits, there is evidence that these households may have been buffered to some degree against negative effects of wildlife conflict. We interpret our results in light of qualitative institutional factors that may explain various project outcomes. Tanzania, like many areas of conservation importance, contains threatened biodiversity alongside areas of extreme poverty. Our analyses highlight the need to examine more precisely the complex and locally specific mechanisms by which interventions do or do not benefit wildlife and local communities.

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First photographic evidence of Snow Leopard Panthera uncia (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) outside current protected areas network in Nepal Himalaya

Journal of Threatened Taxa ◽

10.11609/jott.3031.10.8.12086-12090 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 12086

Author(s):

Rinzin Phunjok Lama ◽

Tashi R. Ghale ◽

Madan K. Suwal ◽

Rishi Ranabhat ◽

Ganga Ram Regmi

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Camera Traps ◽

Snow Leopard ◽

Area Network ◽

Top Predator ◽

Community Based ◽

Nepal Himalaya ◽

Community Based Conservation ◽

Photographic Evidence ◽

Panthera Uncia

The Snow Leopard Panthera uncia is a rare top predator of high-altitude ecosystems and insufficiently surveyed outside of protected areas in Nepal. We conducted a rapid camera-trapping survey to assess the presence of Snow Leopard in the Limi valley of Humla District. Three individuals were recorded in two camera locations offering the first photographic evidence of this elusive cat outside the protected area network of Nepal. In addition to Snow Leopard, the Blue Sheep Pseudois nayaur, Beech Marten Martes foina, Pika Ochotona spp. and different species of birds were also detected by camera-traps. More extensive surveys and monitoring are needed for reliably estimating the population size of Snow Leopard in the area. The most urgent needs are community-based conservation activities aimed at mitigating immediate threats of poaching, retaliatory killing, and rapid prey depletion to ensure the survival of this top predator in the Himalaya.

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