PCLG Digest
November - December 2018
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This edition of PCLG features 22 newly published resources.
In other news, the University of Cambridge Geography Department have a fantastic PhD opportunity, as do Bangor University – please spread through your networks!
- Olivia and Francesca (pclg@iied.org)
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1. Sene-Harper A, Matarrita-Cascante D and L Larson (2018) Leveraging local livelihood strategies to support conservation and development in West Africa. Environmental Development. DOI: 10.1016/j.envdev.2018.11.002
The authors assessed the efficacy of the alternative occupations and pre-existing livelihood strategies approaches to livelihood-centred conservation projects (LCP) using two case studies of adjacent protected areas along the Senegal River. In places where alternative occupations have not succeeded in delivering positive conservation and development goals, this paper presents an alternative strategy that is rooted in the social and environmental realities of local communities.
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Biodiversity and development
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2. Bull J, Baker J, Griffiths V, Jones J and E Milner-Gulland (2018) Ensuring No Net Loss for people as well as biodiversity: good practice principles. SocArXiv DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/4ygh7 (Open Access)
This document outlines good practice principles for addressing the social impacts that arise from all losses and gains in biodiversity from a development project and its No Net Loss/Net Gain activities.
3. Parathian H (2018) Understanding cosmopolitan communities in protected areas: A case study from the Colombian Amazon. Conservation and Society. DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_18_49
This paper considers the impact of community-based conservation within Amazonian societies, discussing how Western human-centred ideals of conservation can be made complementary to existing indigenous belief systems. The author suggests that acknowledging indigenous populations as changing groups with dynamic, practical understandings of humans and nonhumans is a vital step towards identifying solutions to socioecological problems.
4. Roe D, Seddon N and J Elliott (2018) Biodiversity loss is a development issue: A rapid review of the evidence. IIED. Available online (Open Access)
This report summarises findings from a rapid review of the evidence on the impacts of biodiversity loss on development, led by IIED and FFI. It highlights why, if we’re serious about development, we need to invest in conserving biodiversity now.
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Community-based conservation
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5. Calva J (2018) Community-based organisations: Role on coastal resource management in the Sarangani Bay Area. Journal of Health Research and Society. Available online (Open Access)
This study documents the community-based initiatives of various organisations among municipalities and barangays along Sarangani Bay (Philippines) that support its role in the coastal resource management in the area. Findings show that crucial to the success of the community-based organisations is support and funding from local and international agencies in order to initiate marine protected areas and introduce alternative livelihood projects, alongside other projects.
6. Dean A, Fielding K and K Wilson (2018) Building community support for coastal management – What types of messages are most effective? Environmental Science & Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2018.11.026
The authors conducted an experimental study examining the effectiveness of different messages about benefits of sustainable coastal management. The findings serve as a reminder to avoid simple assumptions about message content, and that groups less supportive of conservation goals are likely to require more specific strategies to enhance communication effectiveness.
7. Redmore L, Stronza A, Songhurst A and G McCulloch (2018) Which way forward? Past and new perspectives on community-based conservation in the Anthropocene. Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.09838-9 (Open Access)
Recently, conservationists have a new paradigm, one that characterises the planet as being in the “Anthropocene,” an ecological era shaped inexorably by humans. This recognition has focused conservation priorities on climate change and other global trends. Though conservation problems are defined differently in the Anthropocene, the authors argue that the basic principles of community-based conservation still apply and can be expanded to match demands of the era.
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8. Asher K (2018) Fragmented forests, fractured lives: Ethno‐territorial struggles and development in the Pacific Lowlands of Colombia. Antipode. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12470
Based on long‐term fieldwork, this paper examines the ongoing and contentious co‐production of the Colombian Pacific region amidst the increasingly violent forces of neoliberal governmentality in the 21st century. It shows that the Pacific lowlands are an example of “political forests” in the sense that they are a contested site and product of Afro‐Colombian cultural politics and state territorialisation.
9. De Pourcq K, Thomas E, Elias M and P Van Damme (2018) Exploring park–people conflicts in Colombia through a social lens. Environmental Conservation. DOI:
10.1017/S0376892918000413
Drawing on interviews with people living in or near fifteen Colombian national protected areas (NPAs), the authors examine the socio-economic and geographical variables that are most influential in people’s experience of conflict related to restricted access to natural resources. They find that the experience of this type of conflict is largely explained by the NPA where a person resides, pursuit of productive activities, previous employment, gender and ethnicity.
10. Hein, J (2018) Political ecology of REDD+ in Indonesia: Agrarian conflicts and forest carbon. Routledge. Available online
Indonesia’s commitment to reducing land-based greenhouse gas emissions significantly includes the expansion of conservation areas, but these developments are not free of conflicts. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of agrarian conflicts in the context of the implementation of REDD+ forest carbon offsetting in Indonesia, a country where deforestation is a major issue.
11. McClanahan T and C Abunge (2018) Demographic variability and scales of agreement and disagreement over resource management restrictions. Ecology and Society DOI: 10.5751/ES-10544-230433 (Open Access)
The authors hypothesised and tested a series of propositions about how the demographic scale and context of common restrictions influence coral reef fisheries of 4 African countries. Findings indicate potential conflicts between neighbouring communities for most, but particularly the strongest, restrictions.
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12. Franks P and F Booker (2018) Governance Assessment for Protected and Conserved Areas (GAPA) Early experience of a multi-stakeholder methodology for enhancing equity and effectiveness. IIED Available online (Open Access)
This IIED Working Paper describes a multi-stakeholder approach to governance assessment where the stakeholders do the assessment. In it, the authors unpack the key concepts, review existing assessment approaches on which the approach is based, present the results of applying the assessment in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Kenya and Uganda and discuss learning from this experience.
13. Gupta D and T Koontz (2018) Working together? Synergies in government and NGO roles for community forestry in the Indian Himalayas. World Development. DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.09.016
The authors conduct a comparative analysis of the roles of government and NGOs to demonstrate synergies that emerge between the two in local forest governance. They find that while the government mainly provide technical and financial support, it is the NGOs that direct the communities to those resources, highlighting that although they work within certain constraints, their convergence can make up for each other’s limitations and synergistically facilitate community efforts in forest governance.
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Human rights and conservation
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14. Witter R and T Satterfield (2018) The ebb and flow of indigenous rights recognitions in conservation policy. Development and Change. DOI: 10.1111/dech.12456
This article reviews the suite of publications that followed the 2003 World Parks Congress, each identifying the need for rights‐based approaches in conservation. The review finds important differences in organisations’ ideas about who is responsible for protecting the environment versus who is responsible for protecting human rights.
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15. Vargas S, Castro P, Rust N and J Riveros (2018) It’s not “just beliefs”, it’s part of the solution: The livestock-guanaco conflict in Central Chile. Working Paper. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12546.53442 (Open Access)
The authors examine the conservation conflict with guanacos and ranchers using a novel approach that considers ranchers' subjective theories to better understand the origins of the conflict and identify effective conservation measures based on the participants' explanations. Results indicate that, for ranchers, the current problem derives from a shift toward an increasingly arid climate.
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Interesting methodological approaches
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16. Franks P, Booker F and R Small (2018) Social Assessment for Protected and Conserved Areas (SAPA) methodology manual for SAPA facilitators. IIED. Available online (Open Access)
This revised and expanded second edition manual provides detailed guidance for using the Social Assessment for Protected and Conserved Areas (SAPA) methodology. The second edition has an elaborated ‘taking action phase’ and a new governance scorecard.
17. Rainforest foundation UK (2018) Protected areas and community rights: using local maps to support sustainable conservation in the Congo Basin. Briefing note. Available online (Open Access)
The rainforest foundation UK briefing on how ‘mapping for rights’ data could be used to inform conservation policy and practice, and uphold community rights.
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18. Nantongo M, Vatn A and P Veldeld (2018) All that glitters is not gold; Power and participation in processes and structures of implementing REDD+ in Kondoa, Tanzania. Forest Policy and Economics. DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2018.10.011
This paper explores local participation in the various stages of establishing REDD+, using a case-study from Kondoa, Tanzania. The authors find that even when local people seem to be generally in control of decision making, one may seriously question if there is true empowerment and real citizen control.
19. Sherpa P, Rai T and N Dawson (2018) Indigenous peoples' engagement in REDD+ process: Opportunities and challenges in Nepal. In Dhungana S, Poudel M and T Bhandari (eds) REDD+ in Nepal: Experiences from the REDD Readiness Phase. REDD Implementation Centre, Nepal. Available online (Open Access)
The Indigenous Peoples of Nepal have a symbiotic relationship with nature and play a crucial role in the sustainable management of forests, natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystems. With the emergence of the concept of REDD+ Mechanism in 2009, this chapter looks at how Indigenous Peoples have been speculating on how REDD+ will address their issues and concerns in relation to their rights over their resources, land, forest and safeguards.
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Social impacts of protected areas
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20. Ma B, Cai Z, Zheng J and Y Wen (2018) Conservation, ecotourism, poverty, and income inequality – A case study of nature reserves in Qinling, China. World Development. DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.11.017
By surveying households residing inside and outside of six giant panda nature reserves (NR) in the Qinling Mountains (China), this study evaluates the impacts of NRs and ecotourism on the poverty and income inequality of local communities. Results suggest that the local communities of NRs show higher poverty and lower income levels compared to the national average.
21. Specht M, et al (2018) Socioeconomic differences among resident, users and neighbour populations of a protected area in the Brazilian dry forest. Journal of Environmental Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.101
The authors assess the relationship between poverty and conservation goals in dry forests within a Brazilian National Park (Caatinga biome). They find that failures in the protected area’s inception and implementation have driven people towards a mutually reinforcing and declining situation in which negative socioeconomic outcomes are associated with nature degradation.
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Wildlife trade (legal and illegal)
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22. Hübschle A and C Shearing (2018) Ending wildlife trafficking: Local communities as change agents. The Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. Available Online (Open Access)
The authors argue that current measures implemented to protect rhinos are bound to fail, as they do not engage with the most important change agents in conservation: local people who live in or near protected areas and game reserves. The report aims to provide a better understanding of why African rural communities participate in wildlife economies, both legal and illegal, and how alternative, community-oriented strategies can help build a more resilient response to organised wildlife crime than has hitherto been achieved.
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