Conserving Wildlife in Africa: Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and Beyond

Abstract

onservationists in Africa are struggling to develop new approaches to protect the continent’s spectacular natural heritage. The challenge is to design strategies that not only will ensure the long-term viability of species and ecosystems but also will be politically and economically acceptable to local communities and governments. One approach that has gained considerable attention in recent years is the integrated conservation and development project (ICDP), which attempts to link the conservation of biological diversity within a protected area to social and economic development outside that protected area. In ICDPs, incentives are typically provided to local communities in the form of shared decision-making authority, employment, revenue sharing, limited harvesting of plant and animal species, or provision of community facilities, such as dispensaries, schools, bore holes, roads, and woodlots, in exchange for the community’s support for conservation. The ICDP approach to conservation in Africa began in earnest in the 1980s and 1990s, although efforts to link wildlife conservation with local development go back to the 1950s in a few protected areas in Africa, such as Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. Currently, much of the funding by major bilateral and multilateral donors to protected areas in Africa is in the form of ICDPs. A recent review (Alpert 1996) suggests that there have been more than 50 such projects in 20 countries. Given the popularity of ICDPs, it is discouraging that so