Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Implementation:
Implement public awareness campaign to garner public support
for conservation actions. Tie hunting ban to livelihood assistance for key hunters,
for example, involvement in monitoring and research programmes. Develop a par-
ticipatory monitoring programme to track changes in status.
Assumptions:
Public awareness does lead to willingness to conserve the species. It
is possible to discriminate between species when hunting without increasing
hunting cost, and hence avoid killing this species. Opportunistic killing is the key
threat to the species, now and in the future. Funds for local monitoring and
research continue, rather than being short-term start-up only.
Note
: Thanks to Lucy Rist and Kerry Waylen for the systems on which these
examples are loosely based.
In the end, successful conservation comes down to getting the
incentives
right
for all concerned. The
context
within which the conservation intervention takes
place is crucial—what alternatives to wildlife use do people have? What are their
opportunity costs of refraining from overexploiting their natural resources, what
are the direct costs that they are incurring? The context extends up the governance
chain—to what extent do local people have control over their natural resources and
their land? What political will exists, or can be generated, at the local, national and
international levels? Are corruption or inertia likely to sap the vitality of the
project?
As we have seen in this chapter, incentives come in many forms. They can be
positive or negative, and they can be use-based (providing people with economic
benefits from conservation) or rely on promoting people's spiritual or cultural
connections with nature. Some interventions, particularly ICDPs and projects
that aim to distract people from wildlife exploitation, can lead to complex incen-
tive structures for both individuals and communities. This may then give perverse
signals that are not easy to anticipate, such as enabling people to invest in equip-
ment that increases their hunting efficiency. Other projects rely on goodwill
gestures, in which conservationists are not aiming to cover people's opportunity
costs from conservation, but instead simply to demonstrate that they do care about
the local community (Box 6.4). Direct positive incentives to conserve come in
many forms. These might include bonuses to rangers (Box 6.2), benefits obtained
through sustainable use of the resource (Box 6.3), or direct payments for conserva-
tion services rendered (Box 6.6). Negative incentives can be tangible, such as the
probability of being captured and punished (Box 6.2), or more subtle through
social disapproval and ostracism. The majority of mature and successful conserva-
tion interventions apply all these different types of incentives in a coherent package
(e.g. Box 6.10).
In this chapter we have discussed the main types of management approach, their
strengths and weaknesses, and how an understanding of the system and of the
range of tools available can be combined to produce a management plan. The
