Protected area management

Conventional approaches to managing protected areas have often seen people and nature as separate entities. They preclude human communities from using natural resources and assume that their concerns are incompatible with conservation. Protected area approaches and models that see conservation as compatible with human communities are explored. The main themes are co-managed protected areas and community conserved areas.

This publication, which contains 23 papers selected from several regional and national meetings, including the 2003 Regional Preparatory Meeting held in Dhaka, tries to capture many pioneering works in participatory conservation in the region and also tries to identify gaps in ecosystem representation in South Asia. It brings out many contemporary issues related to conservation while pooling national experiences in managing protected areas.

Mountains are special places. For many they are sacred; to most they bring an uplifting of the spirit and refreshment; to all they bring water, and rich biodiversity. Many of them have received legislative recognition by designation as parks or reserves of various kinds, and it is for the planners and managers of this estate that this book has been written.

Poverty has become the central concern for development agencies, and because many of the areas that are most important for conserving biodiversity are occupied by poor people, or have poor people living around them, the relationship between poverty and protected areas can no longer be ignored. The relationship between poverty and protected areas is a complex one, but this book presents a balanced perspective on how protected areas relate to poverty, in both positive and negative ways.

There is increasing recognition of the value that local, indigenous and mobile communities can bring to the process of conserving biodiversity, and of the need for a range of conservation types from strict protection to multiple sustainable use. Such a paradigm shift is reflected in the outcomes of two recent global events: the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress (Durban, September 2003) and the 7th Conference of Parties of the Convention of Biological Diversity (Kuala Lumpur, February 2004).

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).