James P. Lassoie

Community Participation in Ecotourism Benefits: The Link to Conservation Practices and Perspectives

Conservationists have increasingly turned to ecotourism to provide local economic benefits while maintaining ecosystem integrity. Research conducted in Costa Rica to examine models linking conservation and development indicates ecotourisms effectiveness as a conservation strategy has been mixed. Where ecotourism offers a viable economic alternative, tourism opportunities have induced people to abandon cultivated land, allowing forests to regenerate. Employmente in tourism, however, reveals minimal influence on conservation perspectives. Other factors, including indirect tourism benefits and education levels, show stronger associations with conservation behaviors and perspectives. Results also indicate ecotourism might be most effective as a component of a broader conservation strategy.

Agroforestry in sustainable agricultural systems.

Foreword, P. Sanchez Trees in Managed Landscapes: Factors in Farmer Decision Making, J.E.M. Arnold and P. A Dewees Ethnobotanical Perspectives of Agroforestry, D.M. Bates Contemporary Uses of Tree Tenure, J. Bruce and L. Fortmann Pest Management in Energy- and Labor-Intensive Agroforestry Systems, M.E. Dix, B.Bishaw, S.W. Workman, M.R. Barnhart, N.B. Klopfenstein, and A.M. Dix The Science and Practice of Black Walnut Agroforestry in Missouri (U.S.A.): A Temperate Zone Assessment, H.E. Garrett and L.S. Harper Sustainable Mulch-Based Cropping Systems with Trees, D.C.L. Kass, H.D. Thurston, and K. Schlather Domestication of Tropical Trees: From Biology to Economics and Policy, R.R.B. Leakey and T.P. Tomich Agro-Forests: Incorporating a Forest Vision in Agroforestry, G. Michon and H. de Foresta Asexual Propagation of Multipurpose and Fruit Trees Used in Agroforestry, K.W. Mudge and E.B. Brennan Nutrient Cycling in Tropical Agroforestry Systems: Myths and Science, P.K.R. Nair, R.J. Buresh, D.N. Mugendi, and C.R. Latt Animals and Agroforestry in the Tropics, A.N. Pell Economic and Environmental Benefits of Agroforestry in Food and Fuelwood Production, D. Pimentel and A. Wightman Water Management with Hedgerow Agroforestry Systems, S.J. Riha and B.D. McIntyre Confronting Complexity, Dealing with Difference: Social Context, Content, and Practice in Agroforestry, D. Rocheleau Silvopastoralism: Competition and Facilitation Between Trees, Livestock, and Improved Grass-Clover Pastures on Temperate Rainfed Lands, S.H. Sharrow A Utilitarian Approach to the Incorporation of Local Knowledge in Agroforestry Research and Extension, F.L. Sinclair and D.H. Walker Managing Ground Cover Heterogeneity in Coffee (Coffee arabica L.) Under Managed Tree Shade: From Replicated Plots to Farmer Practice, C. Staver

How 'eco' is ecotourism? A comparative case study of ecotourism in Costa Rica.

Ecotourisms appeal as a conservation and development tool rests in its potential to provide local economic benefits while maintaining ecological resource integrity through low-impact, non-consumptive resource use. Some, however, question its contribution to conservation and community development, citing negative impacts, such as solid waste generation, habitat destruction, and sociocultural ills. This paper, based on a comparative study in Costa Rica, explores some of these issues. Study findings were mixed regarding ecotourisms effectiveness as a conservation and community development tool. Survey respondents saw legal restrictions as more influential than tourism in prompting declines in deforestation and hunting rates. Likewise, respondents did not feel tourism operators were significant players in raising environmental awareness. The research also revealed that direct employment in ecotourism was associated with pro-conservation practices, but indirect benefits showed stronger associations in generating pro-conservation perspectives. Little evidence was found to suggest that people are investing tourism-generated income in environmentally threatening practices. Research findings also indicated that scale influences tourisms benefits and negative impacts and that, where ecotourism dominates local economies, towns may become economically vulnerable. The paper concludes by recognising that ecotourism would be most effective as a component of a broader conservation strategy and offers suggestions to improve ecotourisms potential.

Influence of low concentrations of ozone on growth, biomass partitioning and leaf senescence in young hybrid poplar plants

Chronic exposure to low concentrations of ozone (O3) reduced growth and dry matter accumulation and increased leaf senescence in hybrid poplar Populus deltoides × trichocarpa. Plants were grown in controlled environment chambers and for 10 weeks were exposed daily for 5·5 h to 0·025, 0·050, 0·085 or 0·125 μl litre−1 O3. No treatment effects were observed during the first 6 weeks of exposure, except for accelerated leaf senescence in the highest O3 treatment. In contrast, during the final 4 weeks elevated O3 treatments resulted in reduced relative height and diameter growth rates as well as increased leaf senescence. By the end of the study O3 exposure had resulted in decreased plant height and diameter and number of leaves per plant, and in decreased leaf, stem, root and total dry mass per plant. Dry weights of plants in the 0·125 and 0·085 μl litre−1 treatments were 10–15% lower than in the 0·025 and 0·050 μl litre−1 treatments. Ozone treatments had no effect on partitioning of dry matter. The effects of O3 were linear with respect to treatment concentration.

Perils and Promise of Privately Owned Protected Areas

G have long been the principal force behind the establishment of protected areas worldwide. The quality of governmental protection, however, has often proven inadequate, with many parks existing only on paper (Van Schaik et al. 1997, IUCN 1999). Even if publicly owned parks were well protected, more than 93% of the Earth’s land area and most of its biodiversity would still remain vulnerable (WRI et al. 1998). Given ongoing habitat destruction, especially in the tropics (World Bank 1998), it is imperative that the conservation community develop additional approaches for in situ biodiversity protection. Privately owned protected areas have emerged as one option. Private parks are proliferating throughout much of the world, yet little is known about them. Research has begun to address private parks, but only indirectly (Sayer 1991, Schelhas and Greenberg 1993). A few case studies highlighting various aspects of specific preserves have been completed (Horwich 1990, Alyward et al. 1996, Langholz et al. 2000a, Reid 2001), and three researchers have conducted international mail surveys revealing private parks’ activities, problems, profitability, and other attributes (Alderman 1994, Langholz 1996, Mesquita 1999). Additional studies have verified the private sector’s increasing role in biodiversity conservation (Edwards 1995, Merrifield 1996, Krug 2001). In effect, what Dixon and Sherman (1990) called a “small but important development in protected area management” a decade ago has evolved into a pronounced new direction in conservation. Despite their recent proliferation, and studies of them, private parks remain largely a mystery. Even experienced conservationists are hard pressed to name more than a few of the world’s privately owned parks, let alone place them in a larger conservation context. As public resources for conservation dwindle and interest in private sector initiatives grows, it is increasingly vital that a systematic examination of this conservation approach be undertaken. The rise of modern private parks Privately owned protected areas have existed in various forms for centuries (Runte 1979, Alderman 1994). The first scholarly reference to them occurred approximately 40 years ago, when the First World Congress on National Parks acknowledged that many nature reserves throughout the world are “owned by private individuals, but are nevertheless dedicated in perpetuity to the conservation of wildlife and of natural resources”(Adams 1962). Since then, the private park niche has expanded rapidly. This growth remains largely undocumented, with virtually no information available on the

Ecophysiological investigations of understory eastern redcedar in central Missouri.

Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) is a sun—adapted, drought—resistant pioneer species common to pastures, abandoned fields, fence rows, and calcareous rock outcrops throughout the eastern United States. However, it is also a frequent component of the understory in mature oak—hickory forests in central Missouri, where light levels are typically <10% of full sunlight during much of the growing season. This is below eastern redcedars reported optimum for photosynthesis. The competitive survival of understory eastern redcedar under such environmental conditions was apparently due to it being an evergreen conifer in a deciduous forest. Hence, its foliage was able to maintain a positive carbon dioxide balance throughout much of the year, with maximum net photosynthetic rates occurring during periods when the overstory was leafless. The greatest daily average net photosynthetic rates (Phn) occurred during overstory leaf emergence when temperatures were moderate and light levels to the understory trees wer...

Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) links biodiversity conservation with sustainable improvements in livelihoods and food production

In the Luangwa Valley, Zambia, persistent poverty and hunger present linked challenges to rural development and biodiversity conservation. Both household coping strategies and larger-scale economic development efforts have caused severe natural resource degradation that limits future economic opportunities and endangers ecosystem services. A model based on a business infrastructure has been developed to promote and maintain sustainable agricultural and natural resource management practices, leading to direct and indirect conservation outcomes. The Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) model operates primarily with communities surrounding national parks, strengthening conservation benefits produced by these protected areas. COMACO first identifies the least food-secure households and trains them in sustainable agricultural practices that minimize threats to natural resources while meeting household needs. In addition, COMACO identifies people responsible for severe natural resource depletion and trains them to generate alternative income sources. In an effort to maintain compliance with these practices, COMACO provides extension support and access to high-value markets that would otherwise be inaccessible to participants. Because the model is continually evolving via adaptive management, success or failure of the model as a whole is difficult to quantify at this early stage. We therefore test specific hypotheses and present data documenting the stabilization of previously declining wildlife populations; the meeting of thresholds of productivity that give COMACO access to stable, high-value markets and progress toward economic self-sufficiency; and the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by participants and other community members. Together, these findings describe a unique, business-oriented model for poverty alleviation, food production, and biodiversity conservation.

Incentives for Biological Conservation: Costa Rica's Private Wildlife Refuge Program

The alarming pace of tropical biodiversity loss requires development of innovative approaches for in situ biodiversity conservation. Incentive-based approaches have emerged as one possible option. We interviewed 68 private nature reserve owners to learn more about one of Costa Rica’s incentive programs. The interview group included all reserve owners participating in the government’s Private Wildlife Refuge Program ( n 5 22) and a control group of nonparticipating owners ( n 5 46). Quantitative and qualitative data led to seven main conclusions on the use of incentive programs: (1) a developing country can expand and enhance its formal park system through conservation incentives; (2) insufficient promotion, and resulting information gaps, can prevent an incentive program from realizing its full potential; (3) landowners enter a program not only in response to the intended incentive package, but also for several powerful and hidden incentives such as publicity and marketing purposes; (4) underutilization of official incentives by participants, in part due to sporadic delivery of incentives by the government, can undermine program effectiveness; (5) biodiversity protection goals can be accomplished by means of a wide range of incentives; (6) programs that require only a short-term commitment by landowners can still lead to long-term biodiversity protection; and (7) a program can produce unanticipated negative consequences at the national level, including putting conservation at odds with social justice. These and other lessons on the use of incentives should be of interest wherever biodiversity is threatened, wherever new conservation partners are being sought, and wherever incentive-based approaches are being considered. Incentivos para la Conservación Biológica: el Programa de Refugios Privados de Vida Silvestre de Costa Rica Resumen: El alarmante ritmo al que se pierde biodiversidad tropical requiere del desarrollo de estrategias innovadoras para la conservación in situ. Las estrategias basadas en incentivos han emergido como una posible opción. En este estudio entrevistamos a 68 dueños de reservas naturales privadas para conocer más acerca de los programas de incentivos de Costa Rica. El grupo entrevistado incluyó a todos los dueños de reservas que participan en el Programa de Gobierno de Refugios Privados de Vida Silvestre ( n 5 22) y un grupo control de dueños que no participan en el programa ( n 5 46). Los datos cuantitativos y cualitativos conducen a siete conclusiones principales sobre el uso de programas de incentivos: 1) un país en desarrollo puede expandir y mejorar su sistema formal de parques mediante incentivos para la conservación; 2) la promoción insuficiente y los resultantes huecos en la información pueden impedir la realización del potencial total de un programa de incentivos; 3) los dueños de tierras entran a un programa no solo en respuesta al paquete de incentivos proyectado, sino también por diversos incentivos poderosos y ocultos como lo son la publicidad y objetivos de mercadeo; 4) la baja utilización de incentivos oficiales por los participantes, debida en parte al envío esporádico de incentivos por el gobierno, puede socavar la efectividad del programa; 5) la metas de protección de biodiversidad pueden ser alcanzadas usando un amplio rango de incentivos; 6) los programas que requieren únicamente de compromisos a corto plazo por parte de los propietarios de tierras pueden también conducir a una protección de la biodiversidad a largo plazo; y 7) a nivel nacional, un programa puede producir consecuencias negativas no anticipadas, incluyendo el poner a la conservación en disparidad con la justicia social. Estas y otras lecciones sobre el uso de incentivos deben ser de interés donde la biodiversidad está amenazada, donde se han visualizado nuevos partícipes para la conservación, y donde los métodos basados en incentivos están siendo considerados. Paper submitted January 28, 1999; revised manuscript accepted March 15, 2000. 1736 Conservation Incentives in Costa Rica Langholz et al. Conservation Biology Volume 14, No. 6, December 2000 Introduction The alarming pace of habitat destruction in the tropics necessitates development of innovative approaches for in situ conservation of biodiversity (e.g., Wilson 1989; McNeely et al. 1990; Food and Agriculture Organization 1997). Evidence suggests that current approaches to biodiversity protection are more difficult and less successful than was originally hoped (Wells & Brandon 1992; Western 1993; Kramer et al. 1997; Sanjayan et al. 1997; Larsen et al. 1998; Langholz 1999 b ). Even worse, a shockingly high percentage of parks in the tropics are underprotected “paper parks” that exist only as lines drawn on maps (Machlis & Tichnell 1985; Amend & Amend 1992; van Schaik et al. 1997; Brandon et al. 1998). Even if public parks were well protected, they still leave 93% of the world’s land area and most of its biodiversity unprotected (World Resources Institute et al. 1998). We need to fortify current approaches and explore new conservation strategies for protecting the vast amount of land that is unlikely to be protected in public parks. Fortunately, the conservation community has been developing new approaches and partnerships to protect lands outside government-owned reserves (e.g., Western et al. 1993; Edwards 1995; McNeely 1995; Schelhas & Greenberg 1996; Langholz et al. 2000). Many of these partnerships are with the private sector (e.g., Endicott 1993; Bennett 1995; Cohen 1995; Cox 1995; Murray 1995) . A related trend is toward greater use of conservation incentives (McNeely 1988; Gardner & Stern 1996; Ferraro & Kramer 1995). In a world increasingly influenced by market economies and where the state continues to withdraw support for conservation efforts, incentive-based conservation is likely to continue increasing in importance. Despite growing interest in incentive-based conservation, it is a relatively new and untested approach. Ferraro and Kramer (1997) correctly note that there is a paucity of good examples from the field of the successful use of incentives. Conservationists desperately need to evaluate new incentive programs to assess what works and what does not work and, equally important, to assess unintended consequences of incentives. We attempted to fill that knowledge gap by examining an incentive program for promoting tropical rainforest conservation in Costa Rica. We asked whether a government can use incentives to expand its system of formally protected natural areas. Our specific questions included the following: To what extent, if any, has the incentive program led to expansion of the formal park system? Has the program been reaching its intended audience? What motivates landowners to sign up for the program? What additional incentives do landowners want and what tradeoffs would they make to get them? Does the program offer only a short-term fix, or is there evidence that its effects will persist? Answers to these questions should offer valuable information on incentive-based conservation and should be of use worldwide. The Private Wildlife Refuge Program Privately owned conservation areas continue to proliferate throughout the tropics (Alderman 1994; Barborak 1995; Langholz 1996; Langholz 1999 a , Mesquita 1999), occurring in a variety of types and locations (e.g., Echeverria et al. 1995; Alyward et al. 1996; Borrini-Feyerabend 1996; Brandon 1996; Yu et al. 1997; Uphoff & Langholz 1998). Whereas many public parks are managed by private organizations, truly private nature reserves are owned completely by nongovernmental entities. Many of them are protected informally, with no legal sanctioning or other involvement by the state. Consistent with this global trend, in 1992 Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly approved a law providing legal designation of private wildlife refuges (Government of Costa Rica 1992; Boza 1993). Private wildlife refuges consist of informally protected private nature reserves that qualify for designation as officially recognized national wildlife refuges. Under this program, landowners must develop and adhere to a government-approved management plan specifying restrictions on land and resource use. In exchange, refuge owners receive three incentives: (1) an exemption from property taxes for land declared as a refuge, (2) access to technical assistance for managing the protected area, and (3) assistance in the event of a squatter invasion. In the squatter incentive, the government agency responsible for protected areas (Ministry of Energy and Environment) formally requests that the agency responsible for the police (Ministry of Security) remove the squatters from the premises. Initially, refuge owners were required to enroll in the program for a minimum of 5 years, which was extended to 10 years in 1996 for all new enrollees. Renewals of equal time periods occur automatically until either the landowner or the government decides to terminate the arrangement. The Private Wildlife Refuge Program (PWRP) fits within the larger context of Costa Rican efforts to promote biodiversity conservation on private lands. Several other programs for private lands exist. For example, landowners recently began receiving cash payments for environmental services provided by their standing forests, such as watershed protection and carbon sequestration. Payment amounts differ for primary forest, secondary forest, and recently reforested lands, the maximum being (U.S.)

The Interdependence of Ecosystem and Community Viability: A Theoretical Framework to Guide Research and Application

50/ha/year. Conservation easements, too, have gained a foothold in Costa Rica, with more than 20 in place at the time our fieldwork took place.

Farmer Perceptions of Crop Damage by Wildlife in Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, Bhutan

The effectiveness of efforts that integrate ecosystem conservation and community development is the focus of debate. This disagreement stems from the different values and expectations people place on this integration. While some people put priority on ecosystem viability and use development as a means to enhance conservation, others put priority on community viability and consider conservation a means to that end. The absence of a common theoretical framework for ecosystem and community viability has made the design, monitoring, and evaluation of integrated projects difficult and has contributed to the current disagreement. In this article we propose a theoretical framework, which is based on the hypothesis that ecosystem conservation and community survival are interdependent and should be given equal emphasis if both are to benefit. By outlining specific factors that enhance ecosystem and community viability, the framework can aid the design and evaluation of integrated projects.