Assessing community reforestation projects for biodiversity improvement and poverty alleviation

Abstract

Biodiversity loss through deforestation and poverty are major global issues and their combined mitigation has become an important political objective. Integrated conservation and development projects (ICDP) like community-based reforestation projects aim to both conserve biodiversity and alleviate poverty. It is debatable, however, whether ICDP, and in particular community-based reforestation projects, achieve this effectively and systematic assessment of multiple studies using a common organisational framework is still missing. The Conservation Excellence Model (CEM) allows analysis of the linkage between biodiversity management, community interventions, and their influence on both community outcomes and biodiversity improvements, so could be a suitable framework for ICDP. CEM assessment provides field-based evidence from multiple and balanced perspectives and an understanding of organisational processes to inform understanding of ICDP effectiveness. This review calls for CEM assessment and comparison of community-based reforestation projects in areas that are biodiversity hotspots and also characterised by high levels of rural poverty. There is a strong argument that the assessment of such community-based reforestation projects would provide a globally-relevant model for effective ICDPs and give insight into effective practices.