Assessing a nationwide policy reform toward community-based conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem services in the Alpine North

Vera Helene Hausner,Sigrid Engen,Lorena Muñoz,Per Fauchald

doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101289

Abstract

Many attempts have been made worldwide to implement community-based conservation to gain a more inclusive protection of biological diversity and ecosystem services. In a recent national reform, the management of protected areas was devolved from the Norwegian government to local conservation boards. The main goals were to reduce local resistance toward conservation and ameliorate threats to biodiversity. We assessed the attainment of these goals a decade after implementation. We synthesized literature published since the onset of the reform and results from a survey (N = 936). Despite the limited inclusion of stakeholders and experience-based knowledge by local conservation boards, survey data show that community-based conservation arrangements are supported by residents. Conservation has been tailored to the local context by balancing sustainable use and protection, but there are some discontent with the opportunities for rural development. Managers report that biological diversity is threatened in 27% of the protected areas. Climate change and increased visitation are major conservation challenges that need to be addressed by the boards, but their mandate and capacity appear inadequate to cope with these challenges. Few studies have evaluated the conservation impact of the reform and we therefore suggest this as a priority for future research.

Highlights

Community-based conservation is based on the premise that con servation success can be obtained by providing benefits to local com munities and increasing local participation in decision-making (Berkes, 2004)
A survey among conservation board and advisory council members showed that conservation board members have a more favorable eval uation of the functioning of advisory councils compared with the stakeholders that serve on them (Lundberg and Hovik, 2017)
We found that more than 50% of the local residents were satisfied with the conserva tion boards and the management of natural areas in their municipality (Fig. 3) with less than 15% dissatisfied

Summary

Introduction

Community-based conservation is based on the premise that con servation success can be obtained by providing benefits to local com munities and increasing local participation in decision-making (Berkes, 2004). It recognizes that granting local people management re sponsibility for biological diversity and ecosystem services could create a sense of ownership and an incentive to protect areas of high conser vation value (Brown and Mitchell, 2000). Community-based conserva tion can bolster support by reconciling conservation with rural development and by tailoring management of protected areas to the values, knowledge, needs and preferences of local people. Community-based conserva tion differs from most co-management models where governance is shared between government and stakeholders (Hovik and Hongslo, 2017)

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