Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
BOX 3.3
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES THAT ARE
WHOLLY CONSISTENT WITH FOREST
CONSERVATION OBJECTIVES
Activity
Benefi t
Tree planting
Reduces dependence on extraction
from natural forest
Community management
Empowers local populations to protect
forest (generally outside reserves)
Agricultural improvement
Reduces shifting cultivation, con-
trols soil erosion and reduces loss of
natural forest
Ecotourism
Provides a value to the natural forest
resource
Sustainable extraction
Provides a value to the natural forest
resource
Small animal husbandry
Can reduce hunting pressure in
natural forest (but care has to be
taken to maintain these links)
Alternative incomes
Can take pressure from forest (but
care has to be taken to maintain the
benefi cial links between the utilization
of the resource and the conservation
of the habitat and species of concern
Assumptions about threats need to be validated before the project
starts, or at least early in its lifespan. Targeted studies using appropriate
specialists can explore dif erent assumptions, and in cases where assump-
tions are shown to be false, this can be a painful experience. Failure to
understand assumptions is another major cause of project failure. Linked
to understanding assumptions is the idea of undertaking better analyses of
the threats to the natural resource value in question. Methodologies exist
to analyse both the surface and 'root-cause' threats that are impacting on
a system.
A number of development actions are entirely consistent with the objec-
tives of, for example, forest conservation (Box 3.3). These and activities
like them form suitable interventions for future ICDPs.
One of the best ways to ensure that project targets are well structured
and logically arranged is to use the Logical Framework Approach,
3
a
methodology that is popular in both government development agencies
