Title
WCS Working Paper No. 06 - Projets integres de conservation et de developpement: Un cadre pour promouvoir la conservation et la gestion des ressources naturalles
Author(s)
Paul Ferraro, Richard Tshombe, Robert Mwinyihali, John Hart
Published
1996
Abstract
This report summarizes the proceedings of a workshop held at the Centre de Formation et de Recherche en Conservation Forestière (CEFRECOF) at Epulu, in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Zaire from 15 - 18 August, 1996. The general problem dealt with was “How effective are Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) at furthering nature conservation objectives?” Specifically, the workshop presented an analytical framework to assist project leaders to foresee and evaluate the impact of ICDPs on protected areas and natural resource use. Over thirty individuals participated in the workshop. They represented both governmental departments, and non-governmental organizations involved in nature conservation and development activities in eastern Zaire. It is increasingly appreciated that rural residents living within or adjacent to protected areas are major agents of destructive change to the biodiversity and natural resources of these protected areas. The long term sustainability of protected areas will depend upon the support of rural communities. The design of projects that generate behaviors supporting protected areas and favoring management of their natural resources is not well understood. The framework presented in this report identifies those interventions that link the wellbeing of rural communities with the objectives of biodiversity conservation. The analysis focuses on the level of the household and the specific ways in which interventions can affect household behaviors. These include interventions that encourage investment of labor and capital to reduce negative impacts on biological resources; interventions to enhance the use of biological resources in ways that are nondestructive; interventions that educate households in the benefits of conservation, and interventions that alter preferences. To successfully promote conservation, the choice by a household for behaviors favorable to conservation must exclude options to invest labor or capital in behaviors that have a negative impact on nature conservation. The workshop applied the analytical framework to case studies drawn from the literature as well as to projects presented by the non-governmental organizations collaborating with the Zaire National Parks Institute.

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