Still viable despite criticism: complexities of evaluating the performance of ICDPs

Abstract

Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) are widely used in countries of the Global South to link conservation with rural socio-economic advances. Notwithstanding, ICDPs face much criticism. A dominant complaint is that ICDPs fail to provide evidence concerning the very purpose they were established for, namely, to erase poverty and institutional capacity barriers, which invariably lead to the reduction of adverse human impacts on nature. Here, I explore the challenges that ICDPs face in seeking to provide empirical proof for positive long-term effects at the local level. I highlight certain specific difficulties in monitoring and evaluating ICDPs, and also examine the role that performance evaluation may play for ICDPs as instruments leading to transformative change. Besides the fact that a diverse set of stakeholders, through negotiations of power, constantly challenge the implementation of ICDPs, I argue that the goals and values of donor parties ultimately drive the overall evaluation and long-term sustainability of ICDPs and will govern transformative change. Future research is needed to explore this relationship more fully.