For several decades, both academics and practitioners have fiercely debated how to reconcileconservation and development objectives. In Sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to align biodiversityconservation and livelihood goals have triggered a shift from pure protected area approaches toa hybrid scenario, including diverse partnership arrangements, that consider livelihood needsof communities neighboring protected areas. These partnerships often include tourism toprovide income and jobs. The future of the Amboseli landscape in Kenya has been an integralpart of these debates, since it has faced long-lasting conservation and development challenges.Many initiatives, often in the form of partnership arrangements, have tried to address thesechallenges. By using the Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) and a set of indicators tomeasure the contributions to conservation, we examine two of these partnerships - the AmboseliEcosystem Trust (AET) and Big Life Foundation (BLF)- with the aim of understanding theextent to which they contribute to addressing these challenges. Data were collected usingdocument analysis, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, non-participant observation,and informal conversations. Findings show that both AET and BLF have been able to addressdirect drivers of biodiversity loss (such as human wildlife conflicts, poaching, unplannedinfrastructural developments) and - to a much lesser extent - the indirect drivers, such as povertyand land subdivision. Through the workings of both partnerships, more community membershave gained access to specific community capital assets, through employment opportunities andother monetary incentives and education. However, it is not clear if and how the livelihoodbenefits transfer to real and long-term support for wildlife conservation.
Engaging multiple stakeholders to reconcile climate, conservation and development objectives in tropical landscapes
