John Schelhas

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.

FARMER PARTICIPATION IN REFORESTATION INCENTIVE PROGRAMS IN COSTA RICA

Reforestation programs are a common policy response among developing country governments in the tropics attempting to deal with environmental and economic problems caused by widespread deforestation. The objective of this paper is to examine participation by small-and medium-sized farms in two reforestation programs undertaken in recent years by one country, Costa Rica, which has been at the forefront of developing country environmental protection efforts. Analysis of a survey of 243 program participants and non-participants shows that farm households participating in reforestation programs had generally larger farm sizes, were dedicated to low labor-intensive, land-extensive agricultural activities, faced significant family on-farm labor constraints, were more heavily dependent on off-farm income sources, and had more extensive contact with local extension efforts. Logistic regression is employed to econometrically identify demographic, economic, and land use determinants of farm household participation in reforestation programs; the implications of these findings are analyzed. The limitations of reforestation programs, especially with regard to management factors and quality of reforested plots, are reviewed. Implications for improving the efficiency of reforestation programs and the merits of other policy alternatives are also discussed.

Biological diversity : balancing interests through adaptive collaborative management

Foreword, Norman Uphoff Introduction: The Challenge of Adaptive Collaborative Management, John Schelhas, Louise E. Buck, and Charles C. Geisler I. Foundations of Adaptive Collaborative Management Kai N. Lee, Appraising Adaptive Management, Jeffrey A. McNeely, Roles for Civil Society in Protected Area Management: A Global Perspective on Current Trends in Collaborative Management Sarah Christiansen and Eric Dinerstein, Ecodevelopment Perspectives in Conservation: Recent Lessons and Future Directions Jeffrey A. Sayer, Learning and Adaptation for Forest Conservation Robert J. Fisher, Experience, Challenges, and Prospects for Collaborative Management of Protected Areas: An International Perspective II. Institutions and Policies Charles G. Geisler , Adapting Land Reform to Protected Area Management in the Dominican Republic Richard Cahoon, Property in Wild Biota and Adaptive Collaborative Management Neils Roling and Janice Jiggins, Agents in Adaptive Collaborative Management: The Logic of Collective Cognition Jon Anderson, On the Edge of Chaos: Crafting Adaptive Collaborative Management for Biological Diversity Conservation in a Pluralistic World Ronald J. Herring, Authority and Scale in Political Ecology: Some Cautions on Localism, Maria Paz (Ipat) G. Luna, Tenure and Community Management of Protected Areas in the Philippines: Policy Change and Implementation Challenges III. Modeling Protected Area-Human Activity Systems Andy White, Hans Gregersen, Allen Lundgren, and Glenn Smucker, Making Public Protected Area Systems Effective: An Operational Framework John Schelhas, Ecoregional Management in Southern Costa Rica: Finding a Role for Adaptive Collaborative Management Jenny Ericson, Eckart Boege, and Mark S. Freudenberger, Population Dynamics, Migration, and the Future of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve Carol J. Pierce Colfer, Toward Social Criteria and Indicators for Protected Areas: One Cut on Adaptive Co-management Nick Salafsky and Richard Margoluis, Overview of a Systematic Approach to Designing, Managing, and Monitoring Conservation and Development Projects Eva Wollenberg, David Edmunds, and Louise E. Buck, Anticipating Change: Scenarios as a Tool for Increasing Adaptivity in Multi-stakeholder Settings IV. Case Studies: Applications of Adaptive Collaborative Management Approaches Arlyne Johnson, Paul Igag, Robert Bino, and Paul Hakahu, Community-based Conservation Area Management in Papua, New Guinea: Adapting to Changing Policy and Practice Carlos Guindon, Celia Harvey, and Guillermo Vargas, Integrating Biological Research and Land Use Practices in Monteverde, Costa Rica, Richard Ford and William McConnell, Linking GIS and Participation to Manage Natural Resources in Madagascar Paul Cowles, Haingolalao Rasolonirinarimanana, and Vololoniaina Rasoarimanana, Innovative Learning in a Participatory Ecoregion-based Planning Process: The Case of AGERAS in Tulear, Madagascar, Maria Cristina S. Guerrero and Eufemia Felisa Pinto, Reclaiming Ancestral Domains in Palawan, Phillipines: A Context for Adaptive Collaborative Management

Building sustainable land uses on existing practices: Smallholder land use mosaics in tropical lowland Costa Rica

Abstract The rapid rate of tropical forest loss in recent years has prompted efforts to develop sustainable land uses. The success of these efforts has been hindered by the lack of an operational definition of sustainable land use and the overuse of a traditional‐modern dichotomy to evaluate sustainability. To address the former problem, six dimensions of sustainable land use are identified, permitting a more objective evaluation of sustainability. In response to the latter problem, a household ecology model is proposed that views all land use as responding to the social, economic, political, and environmental context in which it occurs. A mosaic of land uses developed by smallholder colonists in Costa Rica is described, and the sustainability of its components is discussed. The mosaic includes intensive cattle raising, intensive agriculture with permanent cash crops, and forests. Steps that can be taken to further encourage sustainable elements of this land use mosaic are identified.

The USA national parks in international perspective: have we learned the wrong lesson?

A highly polarized debate has emerged in the conservation literature about whether national parks in lesser developed countries should follow a strict protectionist model or find ways to accommodate the development and livelihood needs of local people. A number of social science critiques of national park practice and policy in lesser developed countries have argued that one of the chief problems facing national parks in particular, and biodiversity conservation in general, has been the USA national park model, often termed the ‘Yellowstone model’. This model, in which local and indigenous people and uses have been excluded from parks, has been blamed for harming local people, providing benefits to developed country interests at the expense of local people, high costs of park protection, and ineffective biodiversity conservation (Machlis & Tichnell 1985; West & Brechin 1991; Pimbert & Pretty 1995). Alternatives (henceforth referred to as ‘parks and people’ approaches) seek accommodations between parks and local people, and include community-based conservation, which promotes local involvement and/or control in park decision-making, and integrated conservation and development projects, which attempt to ensure conservation by meeting social and economic needs of local people through agroforestry, forestry, tourism, water projects, extractive reserves, and wildlife utilization.

Environmental values and forest patch conservation in a rural Costa Rican community

Although conservation attention has generally focused on large forest tracts, there is increasing evidence that smaller forest patches are important for both conservation and rural development. A study of forest patch conservation in a rural Costa Rican community found that, although forest patch conservation was influenced by landholding size, material factors did not account for all the variation in forest patches conservation behavior or conservation orientations of farmers. A qualitative interpretive approach, using semi-structured interviews, found that environmental values were influenced by at least three factors. First, colonist farmers with direct experience with environmental degradation in other regions of Costa Rica were more likely to be concerned about environmental degradation. Second, childhood exposure to conservation played an important role in influencing conservation orientations. Third, the environment was frequently discussed in relation to the moral and social values present in religious doctrines. The study also found general support for forest conservation laws, and a clear indication that interest in forest conservation has grown in recent years. The study highlights the importance of environmental values, in conjunction with material factors, in influencing forest conservation in rural communities.

Book review: Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales and Whaling

Whaling represents one of the most internationally controversial and highly polarized environmental issues of recent times. Arne Kalland, in Unveiling the Whale: Discourses on Whales and Whaling, examines the whaling issue from the perspective of a pro-whaling country with an emphasis on analysis of discourse in international arenas, primarily the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The excellent and fine-grained analysis focuses on the ways that different groups think and communicate about whales and the processes that have led to extreme polarization in international whale conservation. Kalland tells the story of how the IWC, originally formed to regulate sustainable whaling, has come to be dominated by nonwhaling countries and has become a forum for opposition to whaling. Kalland argues that anti-whaling forces have drawn on a diverse set of traits that are individually found in specific cetacean species to create an image of a ‘‘superwhale’’ that is the largest animal (blue whale); has the largest brain (sperm whale), largest brain–body ratio (bottlenose dolphin), and pleasant and varied vocalizations (humpback whale); and is also friendly (gray whale) and endangered (bowhead and blue whales). Whales have come to be seen as the ‘‘humans of the seas,’’ and to serve as metonyms for all that is wrong with the human relationship with nature. The book carefully traces out the development of discourses about whales and whaling concurrent with the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and the ways in which different members of environmental and animal rights organizations have influenced these discourses and acted against whaling in the IWC specifically and in national and international arenas in general. Kalland argues that corporations and countries with no stake in whaling have joined or supported the anti-whaling movement as a low-cost way to burnish their green credentials. Ultimately, the representation of the ‘‘superwhale’’ and the ways that this has been deployed through social actions in international arenas by the anti-whaling movement have transformed the whaling issue (and discussion in the IWC) from one of scientific management and sustainable use to one of cultural issues around whaling. Whaling has been cast as a barbaric act, far worse than other hunting and domestic meat production, because this discourse sees whales as special and seeks to move them from the edible to the inedible category. Pro-whaling organizations and countries have demonstrated the ability of some cetacean species to withstand a sustainable harvest and introduced more humane killing methods, believing these actions would addresses concerns under the original framework of the IWC. But the strong protectionist discourse of environmental and animal rights advocates, Society and Natural Resources, 0:1–3 Copyright # 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-1920 print=1521-0723 online DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2012.684317

Forest patches in tropical landscapes

While tropical forests are being cleared at an alarming rate, the clearing is rarely complete and is often not permanent. A considerable amount of tropical forest exists as remnants that have significant value both for the conservation of biological diversity and for meeting the needs of local people.This volume brings together world-renowned scientists and conservationists to address the biological and socio-economic value of forest remnants and to examine practical efforts to conserve those remnants. An outgrowth of a year-long study by the policy program at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, Forest Patches in Tropical Landscapes provides a broad overview of theory and practice, and will help foster both interdisciplinary research and more effective approaches to tropical conservation and development.