PCLG Digest
December 2018
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This edition of PCLG features 21 newly published resources. In other news, FFI have two new job opportunities with a closing date 3rd February, a Technical Specialist (Illegal & Destructive Fisheries) and an Enterprise & Impact Finance Specialist (Conservation Finance & Enterprise).
Also, the Duke Marine Laboratory are looking for a postdoc researcher to evaluate the social impacts of marine conservation, apply by the 31st January.
- Olivia and Francesca (pclg@iied.org)
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Community-based conservation
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1. Carson S, et al (2018) Visions from local populations for livelihood-based solutions to promote forest conservation sustainability in the Congo Basin. Human Ecology. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-018-0036-5 (Open Access)
The authors conducted interviews in forest-dependent communities in Cameroon about perspectives on and suggestions about forest resources and management. Results provide insights into commonalities and differences of perspectives within and among local populations and support the use of stakeholder engagement strategies that facilitate bidirectional communication and take into consideration diverse perspectives and priorities.
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2. Lowe J and J Tejada (2018) The role of livelihoods in collective engagement in sustainable integrated coastal management: Oslob Whale Sharks. Ocean and Coastal Management. DOI: 10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.10.018
The authors used key stakeholder interviews with artisanal fishers, their community, local government and politicians to study Oslob Whale Sharks (Philippines). They found that Oslob Whale Sharks has created alternate livelihoods for 177 fishers, and diversified livelihoods throughout the community, reducing fishing effort and changing livelihood strategies away from reliance on coral reef resources.
3. Vannelli K, Hampton M, Namgail T and S Black (2018) Community participation in ecotourism and its effect on local perceptions of snow leopard (Panthera uncia) conservation. Human Dimensions of Wildlife. DOI: 10.1080/10871209.2019.1563929
This study assessed the impact of local involvement in ecotourism schemes in Ladakh (India) on perceptions of wildlife, promotion of conservation action, types of values that communities placed on wildlife, and contexts in which wildlife are considered to be most valuable. Results indicate that ecotourism-based interventions can encourage more positive perceptions of wildlife species, in particular the snow leopard.
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Equitable / Just conservation
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4. Hockley N, Mandimbiniaina R and O Sarobidy Rakotonarivo (2018) Fair and equitable conservation: do we really want it, and if so, do we know how to achieve it? Madagascar Conservation & Development. DOI: 10.4314/mcd.v13i1.11 (Open access)
The Convention on Biological Diversity requires conservation to be “fair and equitable”, yet the authors see a gap between rhetoric and reality. The paper presents a discussion of how the notion of equity is still contested in Malagasy conservation with certain questions recurring frequently. The authors present answers to these questions.
5. Laterra P, et al (2018) Linking inequalities and ecosystem services in Latin America. Ecosystem Services. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.12.001
The authors propose and validate a conceptual model to understand the links between ecosystem services inequality (ESI) and ecosystem services (ES) supply. The study highlights that ESI may enhance the vulnerability of the socio-ecological systems, describing a self-reinforcing mechanism that differentially affects the well-being of the most economically disadvantaged beneficiaries (ESI traps).
6. Musavengane R and L Leonard (2019) When race and social equity matters in nature conservation in post-apartheid South Africa. Conservation and Society. DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_18_23
This article draws on empirical experience to assess the extent of the impact of race and social equity in conservation, with the aim of promoting sustainable and more inclusive conservation practices in South Africa. The findings suggest that conservation practices in post-apartheid South Africa are still exclusionary for the majority black population. The paper makes specific recommendations on how conservation can become more inclusive across social and race lines.
7. Zafra-Calvo N, et al (2019) Progress toward equitably managed protected areas in Aichi Target 11: A global survey. BioScience. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biy143 (Open access)
The authors survey protected area (PA) managers, staff, and community representatives to gather information against 10 equity criteria, including the distribution of benefits and burdens, recognition of rights, diversity of cultural and knowledge systems, and processes of participation in decision-making. Results show that more than half of the respondents indicated that there are significant challenges yet to be addressed for progressing towards equitably managed PAs.
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8. Marijnen E and J Verweijen (2018) Pluralising political forests: Unpacking “the State” by tracing Virunga's charcoal chain. Antipode. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12492
Peering through the lens of illegal charcoal production in the forested areas of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, this paper makes a case for disaggregating the notion of “the state” to better capture “the political” in contemporary political forests. It argues that to identify the fluctuating importance of different dimensions of “stateness”, it is crucial to acknowledge the polymorphous socio‐spatial relations that produce political forests.
9. Matusse A (2019) Laws, parks, reserves, and local peoples: A brief historical analysis of conservation legislation in Mozambique. Conservation and Society. DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_17_40 (Open access)
This article uses a short historical study of Mozambican conservation legislation to show how local knowledges have been systematically disenfranchised from legislation since colonial period through a discourse analysis of conservation legal documents. The study shows that Mozambique has favoured modernity as a framework to deal with nature conservation which clashed in complex ways with local modes of living.
10. Pittman J and D Armitage (2018) Network governance of land-sea social-ecological systems in the Lesser Antilles. Ecological Economics. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.10.013
The authors examine network governance emergence in four case studies from the Lesser Antilles. They find that governance is currently in transition towards a more networked mode within all the cases. Results suggest that participation in collaborative projects has played an important role in initiating transitions.
11. Wang J-H (2018) National parks in China: Parks for people or for the nation? Land Use Policy. DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.10.034
This paper considers the politics of the proposed national park (NP) system in China. The author argues that the top-down approach prioritised in the planning and management of the NP system, and the involvement of civil society groups in the making of NPs, does not guarantee an inclusive and bottom-up approach. They believe this may eventually undermine the rights of local communities and threaten to hamper the conservation goals that the NPs aim to achieve.
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Human wellbeing and conservation
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12. Endamana D, et al (2018) Rapid assessment of the value of forest income for people in central Africa. Journal of Sustainable Forestry. DOI: 10.1080/10549811.2018.1549499
This paper assesses the value of forest resources on livelihoods in Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Central Africa Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study reveals that forest resources account for 48% to 63% of the total revenue of rural households. The paper concludes by considering the importance of the findings for policy-making in central Africa and the Congo Basin, and more widely.
13. Lau J, Hicks C, Gurney G and J Cinner (2019) What matters to whom and why? Understanding the importance of coastal ecosystem services in developing coastal communities. Ecosystem Services. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.12.012 (Open access)
The authors examine how people ascribe and explain the importance of a range of marine and terrestrial ecosystem services in three coastal communities in Papua New Guinea. They find that people uniformly ascribe the most importance to marine and terrestrial provisioning services that directly support their livelihoods and material wellbeing.
14. Malkamäki A, et al (2018) A systematic review of the socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations, worldwide. Global Environmental Change. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.09.001 (Open access)
The authors reviewed literature examining the impacts of large-scale tree plantations on local communities. They corroborate that costs of large-scale tree plantations for residents tend to be front-loaded, especially when plantations have displaced customary land uses. They also find that possible benefits accrue over time, moderated by the emergence of local processing and complementary livelihood activities.
15. Selig E, et al (2018) Mapping global human dependence on marine ecosystems. Conservation Letters. DOI: 10.1111/conl.12617 (Open access)
The authors created a new conceptual model to map the degree of human dependence on marine ecosystems based on the magnitude of the benefit, susceptibility of people to a loss of that benefit, and the availability of alternatives. They show that dependence was highest for Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations and several west African countries.
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16. Togoch K, Irandu M and T Thuita (2018) Human wildlife conflicts and livelihood diversification among Kamnarok National Reserve adjacent communities in Baringo County, Kenya. African Environmental Review. Available here
The Kamnarok National Reserve (NR) resources have supported livelihoods for adjacent communities as well as adversely affecting their lives and livelihoods through human wildlife conflicts. This paper discusses how the communities have diversified livelihood portfolios for varied reasons including; for risks aversion associated with wildlife conflicts, for increasing income, for food security and for meeting household needs.
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Interesting methodological approaches
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17. Hermans, A (2019) Folk Filmmaking: A participatory method for engaging Indigenous ethics and improving understanding. Conservation and Society. DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_17_123
The author developed a form of participatory video production, ‘Folk Filmmaking’, in which indigenous communities located at Cross River gorilla conservation sites in Nigeria and Cameroon present their own stories of wildlife, conservation, and environmental values. This paper shares an account of lessons learned during the project and describes the methodology and the films produced.
18. Kiik L (2018) Conservationland: Toward the anthropology of professionals in global nature conservation. Critique of Anthropology. DOI: 10.1177/0308275X18821177 (Open access)
This paper contributes to building the anthropology of professionals in global biodiversity conservation. It locates and reviews disparate material on conservationists from across the ethnographic literature. It argues for attending to the perspectives and diversity of conservation professionals and institutions, their transnational social worlds, naturalist worldviews and emotional lives.
19. Moon K, et al (2018) Expanding the role of social science in conservation through an engagement with philosophy, methodology, and methods. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13126 (Open access)
The authors draw in a discussion on social science research philosophy, methodology and methods. They provide worked examples of how social science research can be designed to collect qualitative data that not only understands decision-making processes, but also the unique social-ecological contexts in which it takes place.
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Payments for ecosystems services
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20. Ola O, Menapace L, Benjamin E and H Lang (2018) Determinants of the environmental conservation and poverty alleviation objectives of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs. Ecosystem Services. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.10.011 (Open access)
The authors synthesise the outcomes of 56 payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs to identify key factors that inform the “win-win” performance of PES programs for environmental conservation and poverty alleviation. They discover that monitoring of program activities to ensure ecosystem services are supplied, and providing sufficient payments to ecosystem services providers, enhance the performance of PES programs.
21. Tamasang C and G Ngwome Fosoh (2018) REDD+ implementation in Cameroon’s environmental law: the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities. In Ruppel O and E Kam Yogo (eds) Environmental law and policy in Cameroon - Towards making Africa the tree of life. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Germany. Available online (Open access)
This chapter offers a new approach to assessing the legal framework for REDD+ implementation with respect to the participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs). The authors put forward an array of opportunities that the government can use to overcome current legal hurdles affecting IPLCs effective participation in the implementation of REDD+ in Cameroon.
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