South-South exchanges enhance resource management and biodiversity conservation at various scales

Williamd Heyman,Amanda Stronza

doi:10.4103/0972-4923.83724

Abstract

International conservation organisations have invested considerable resources in fostering biodiversity conservation programs in the humid tropics, the most biologically diverse areas on earth. Recent approaches to conservation have centered on integrated conservation and development projects and participatory resource management programs, co-managed between governments and local communities. But these programs have had only mixed success and often suffer from insufficient quantity or quality of participation by local communities. We pose that participatory resource management is more likely to succeed when community members, 1) gain a global perspective on how their social, economic and environmental conditions compare with peer communities in other similar areas of the world, and thus better understand issues of relative scarcity and the benefits of sustainable resource management, and 2) engage as decision-makers at every stage of the conservation process up to reflective program evaluation. This paper examines the role of South-South exchanges as a tool to achieve these intermediate goals that ultimately foster more effective and participatory conservation and support sustainable local livelihoods. The data are extracted from the initiatives of the authors in two different environments- marine and coastal communities in Central America and the Caribbean, and lowland rainforest communities in the western Amazon of South America. We conclude that the exchanges are effective ways to build stakeholder comprehension about, and meaningful engagement in, resource management. South-South exchanges may also help build multi-local coalitions from various remote areas that together support biodiversity conservation at regional and global scales.

Highlights

The conservation of biological diversity has become an international imperative
We discuss the merits of ‘South-South exchanges’ as tools for fostering greater and more effective participation among local peoples in resource management. We argue that such exchanges support participatory resource management in at least three ways: 1) they provide people in local communities the opportunity to talk to their counterparts about the needs, strategies, and potential benefits of sustainable resource management, 2) they provide broad-scale context information on ecological and socio-economic trends to people who are often highly knowledgeable of their own local environments but less aware of conditions in other places, and 3) they enable people to become more critical evaluators of their own projects and to offer evaluations and critiques to their peers’ community-based conservation projects in other areas
We evaluate the implementation of participatory resource management programmes in the humid tropics with particular focus on South-South exchanges as experienced and/or led by the authors

Summary

Introduction

The conservation of biological diversity has become an international imperative. Development [USAID], the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development [DFID], etc.), and multi-national banks (e.g., World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank [IADB], etc.). Much of the capital that finances economic development (e.g., agriculture and tourism) in low latitude areas originates from more temperate regions Local communities in lower latitudes are often caught between both these external pressures. A pervasive challenge has been balancing the needs and rights of local communities with international conservation and development priorities (Brechin et al 2002; West & Brockington 2006).

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Conclusion