Brian Child

Local Participation in Natural Resource Monitoring: a Characterization of Approaches

The monitoring of trends in the status of species or habitats is routine in developed countries, where it is funded by the state or large nongovernmental organizations and often involves large numbers of skilled amateur volunteers. Far less monitoring of natural resources takes place in developing countries, where state agencies have small budgets, there are fewer skilled professionals or amateurs, and socioeconomic conditions prevent development of a culture of volunteerism. The resulting lack of knowledge about trends in species and habitats presents a serious challenge for detecting, understanding, and reversing declines in natural resource values. International environmental agreements require signatories undertake systematic monitoring of their natural resources, but no system exists to guide the development and expansion of monitoring schemes. To help develop such a protocol, we suggest a typology of monitoring categories, defined by their degree of local participation, ranging from no local involvement with monitoring undertaken by professional researchers to an entirely local effort with monitoring undertaken by local people. We assessed the strengths and weaknesses of each monitoring category and the potential of each to be sustainable in developed or developing countries. Locally based monitoring is particularly relevant in developing countries, where it can lead to rapid decisions to solve the key threats affecting natural resources, can empower local communities to better manage their resources, and can refine sustainable-use strategies to improve local livelihoods. Nevertheless, we recognize that the accuracy and precision of the monitoring undertaken by local communities in different situations needs further study and field protocols need to be further developed to get the best from the unrealized potential of this approach. A challenge to conservation biologists is to identify and establish the monitoring system most relevant to a particular situation and to develop methods to integrate outputs from across the spectrum of monitoring schemes to produce wider indices of natural resources that capture the strengths of each.

Attitudes and opinions of local and national public sector stakeholders towards Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana

Local and national public sector stakeholders are considered to be primary stakeholders and their knowledge and support for conservation initiatives of transfrontier parks are important for sustainable management of resources. Hence, it is critical to assess the attitudes and opinions of a major stakeholder group in order to establish partnerships between protected areas (PAs), adjacent communities and other management agencies. This study employed a qualitative inquiry to identify and assess factors that influence public sector stakeholder support for community-based ecotourism (CBE) development and for conservation of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP). In-depth semi-structured interviews were used to solicit data from 15 local and national representatives who have worked or resided in the Kgalagadi region for a period of at least 6 months. Findings revealed variations in opinion between local and national representatives in relation to collaboration and partnership initiatives, conservation projects, park management, tourism development and park benefits to local communities. There was overall uncertainty with respect to the designation of the KTP, since it had generated unfavourable conditions for adjacent local people, local authorities and village leaders. Nearly all local representatives indicated an imbalance with regard to resident collaboration and partnership in KTP conservation-related projects, and the general management activities. The contentions included concerns about land ownership and control, human–wildlife interactions, perceptions about communication with park authorities, lack of transparency with respect to activities and inequality of park benefits. Two major policy concerns were a low level of community participation in park activities and a lack of collaboration and communication between management and residents.

Quantitative assessment of a Tanzanian integrated conservation and development project involving butterfly farming.

Scientific understanding of the role of development in conservation has been hindered by the quality of evaluations of integrated conservation and development projects. We used a quasi-experimental design to quantitatively assess a conservation and development project involving commercial butterfly farming in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Using a survey of conservation attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and behavior, we compared 150 butterfly farmers with a control group of 170 fellow community members. Due to the nonrandom assignment of individuals to the two groups, we used propensity-score matching and weighting in our analyses to control for observed bias. Eighty percent of the farmers believed butterfly farming would be impossible if local forests were cleared, and butterfly farmers reported significantly more participation in forest conservation behaviors and were more likely to believe that conservation behaviors were effective. The two groups did not differ in terms of their general conservation attitudes, attitudes toward conservation officials, or knowledge of conservation-friendly building techniques. The relationship between butterfly farming and conservation behavior was mediated by dependency on butterfly farming income. Assuming unobserved bias played a limited role, our findings suggest that participation in butterfly farming increased participation in conservation behaviors among project participants because farmers perceive a link between earnings from butterfly farming and forest conservation.

The conceptual evolution and practice of community-based natural resource management in southern Africa: past, present and future

This paper reviews the concept and practice of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) as it has evolved in southern Africa, with a particular focus on Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and, to a lesser extent, Zambia. It recognizes that, like democracy, CBNRM is both an imperfect process and a conceptual goal. The governance of economic processes, property rights and local political organization lie at the heart of CBNRM. The first challenge is to replace fiscal centralization, fees and bureaucracy (and the subsidization of alternative land uses) that have historically undervalued wild resources, so that CBNRMs comparative economic advantage is reflected in landholder and community incentives. Second, devolving property rights to communities shifts resource governance, responsibility and benefit appropriately to the local level. This necessitates accountable, transparent and equitable micro-governance, which in turn is linked to effective meso-level support and monitoring and cross-scale linkages between central government and local communities. This paper outlines the evolution of current models of CBNRM in the region and suggests core strategies for the next generation of CBNRM.

Livelihood activities in a Namibian wildlife conservancy: a case study of variation within a CBNRM programme

Approaches to community-based natural resource management tend to vary among programmes based on the needs and characteristics of the communities in which the programmes operate. Variation also exists within individual programmes, creating the potential for conflict if management does not recognize that these differences can indicate competing interests and needs. In this study we examine livelihood activities at the household level in a wildlife conservancy along the Kwando River in the Caprivi region of Namibia. We ask how people in the conservancy make their livelihoods and what differences exist between the conservancy’s riverside and inland populations. The study finds that the inland population, c. 20 km from the river on slightly heavier soils, engages in fewer livelihood activities and has greater food security than does the riverside population. We further establish that differences between the two populations are significant enough to indicate two distinct combinations of livelihood activities with different environmental interactions. These findings suggest that any management action taken by the conservancy will affect household livelihoods differently based on location and that these differences must be considered if the conservancy is to make a successful transition from a subsistence-based agricultural system to a wildlife-based economy.