Securing protected area integrity and rural people's livelihoods : lessons from twelve years of the Kibale and Semliki conservation and development project

This book describes the 12 years of Kibale and Semliki Conservation and Development Project, and how in the project’s early days conservation and development activities tended to be separate and discrete activities. With lesson learning the project gradually became more integrated in terms of linking livelihood activities such as tree planting, bee keeping, improved agricultural practice, with conservation interventions (protected area management, and problem animal management). Both Collaborative Management agreements and local level environmental management planning provided the “glue” for this approach and have resulted in improved livelihoods and livelihood security of the people who live close to the protected areas, and improved conservation security of the protected areas as communities have a more demonstrated ownership of, and commitment to the conservation of the protected area. This book has been written, in the main, by project staff and offers some very interesting insights into the linkages between conservation and livelihoods.