Abstract
The coalescing of development and conservation has recently given rise to community-based conservation. Under this framework, sustainable livelihood strategies are incorporated into conservation goals on the basis that the integration of local priorities into management guidelines benefits rather than impedes conservation efforts. Consistent with this approach, the Community Nature Reserve of Dindéfélo in Kédougou, Senegal endeavors to protect biodiversity without jeopardizing local people’s reliance on natural resources. In this article we provide evidence that sustainable resource conservation is a very powerful mechanism in redirecting labor and capital away from ecosystem-degrading activities. To do this, we present three examples of projects, aiming to illustrate different ways in which local people’s management and sustainable use of natural resources can be beneficial in terms of biodiversity conservation, socioeconomic development, and human well-being.
Highlights
Instituto Jane Goodall España (IJGE), Zoo de Barcelona, Parc de la Ciutadella, s/n, Réserve Naturelle Communautaire de Dindéfélo (RNCD), Dindéfélo, Kédougou, Senegal
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) Spain, which collaborates with the Rural Community of Dindéfélo for the execution of the RNCD strategic management plan, designed and constructed a municipal washing facility in Dindéfélo (Figure 9) to put an end to the increasing levels of water pollution caused by washing points in the Reserve
The conservation model of the RNCD began as an experiment to enhance the conservation of African chimpanzees, which are highly endangered, from a community-based perspective
Summary
Biodiversity erosion is currently recognized as one of the burning topics of study in the recent scientific literature [1,2,3]. The most commonly cited figure shows that up to 38% of the world’s total number of species could be threatened with extinction [7], it is widely recognized that this appraisal is a serious underestimation, taking into account that biodiversity in many parts of the world, especially in tropical latitudes, remains poorly studied and that the conservation status of only 2.7% of the world’s described biodiversity is currently known [7,8]. It is crucial to ascertain local people’s reliance on biodiversity as a first step towards sustainable resource conservation. This is due to two assumptions: (1) people’s well-being in many parts of the world is highly dependent on wild resources; and (2) local people have an important role in the success of biological conservation strategies
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