Lower Mekong Conservation and Development Project
Losing less and winning more: building capacity to go beyond the trade-offs between conservation and development
A project implemented by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) with funding from the MacArthur Foundation (July 2006-June 2009)
Background
Conservation practitioners are aware that biodiversity is threatened due to increased human activity and unsustainable socioeconomic development (Naughton-Treves et al. 2005). Nevertheless, local people in or near protected areas are at a disadvantage because institutional arrangements regarding tenure and access are often weak or ineffective, hence they often have little control over their immediate area and its resources (Sunderlin et al. 2005). To successfully conserve biodiversity while improving local livelihoods, it is crucial to understand the factors driving land use change, policies influencing landscape dynamics, and the synergies, links and tradeoffs between development and conservation (Adams 2006; Adams et al. 2004; Barrett et al. 2005; McShane & Wells 2004; Naughton-Treves et al. 2005).
Integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) are often based on the assumption that poverty is a cause of forest degradation, and thus poverty alleviation will benefit biodiversity conservation (Hughes & Flintan 2001; Wunder 2006). An approach to linking conservation and development is to expand the spatial extent of projects, so they address issues at the multifunctional landscape scale, taking into account external driving forces and policies (Sunderlin et al. 2005; Wondzell et al. in Press). While integrated initiatives (ie. ICDPs) may be a fitting approach to addressing the issues of development in a conservation landscape, other approaches are often warranted. These approaches include tools such as payments for environmental services, sustainable forest management, ‘protectionist’ approaches and community-based conservation (Wunder 2006; Wunder 2007).Project workshop reports from Vietnam and Cambodia:
The Project
This research project is implemented by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It is titled “Losing less and winning more: Building capacity to go beyond the trade-offs between conservation and development” and funded by the MacArthur Foundation. As part of this, a PhD project through Charles Darwin University has been implemented in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, titled “Synergies and tradeoffs between local development and biodiversity conservation in the Lower Mekong countries.” The overall project proposes to analyse the processes within landscapes (infrastructure developments, land-use change etc.) and external influences (policies, regulations, market opportunities etc.) that influence conservation landscapes. The study will also attempt to provide an insight into the strategies and tools employed by conservation organisations. The intended outcome is to foster learning amongst conservation organisations and government departments, to better recognise and critically appraise the trade-offs that exist between conservation and development in forested landscapes, to plan better on-ground interventions, and to learn from the current intervention experiences
Methods
This study focuses on 15 landscapes across the region (in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) and compares conservation initiatives. Three of these landscapes, one in each country, have been selected for more detailed site analysis. The study uses a range of research methods and techniques to collect and analyse data, including participatory methods (e.g. stakeholder analysis, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders), annual workshops, remote sensing data, systems modelling (using the software program STELLA (Isee-systems 2006) for in-depth scenario building), and qualitative and quantitative data analysis. Four key questions underpin this study.
1. Lessons learnt:
What strategies have contributed to the achievements of landscape scale integrated conservation and development projects in the Lower Mekong countries?
An assessment of environmental and development benefits from project approaches will provide a basis for deriving lessons for best practice in integrated conservation and development initiatives. To do this, the fifteen selected landscapes will be compared using c. 30 variables. These consist of indicators to describe landscape context (local people, institutions and political arrangements) and the projects (management, challenges and strategies). The involvement of key people from a range of conservation organizations will lead to mainstreaming of the lessons learnt. In addition, best practices will be scaled up through innovative dissemination involving media and events at global forums for conservation and development practitioners.
2. Landscape trends:
What are the current trends in landscape change, what are the driving forces
and how are they likely to influence conservation of biodiversity and
livelihoods?
This question focuses on the major influences of land-use change at the three
main landscape sites: national institutions, organisations, large-scale
developments and external threats. This involves exploration of remote sensing
data and information from interviews and focus groups to examine the spatial
distribution of natural and anthropogenic land cover types, institutional
factors and organisations that affect conservation and livelihoods in three
selected landscape sites. A series of discussion sessions with representatives
from stakeholder organisations will be set up to explore the history of the
landscape and the trends of the processes affecting conservation, development
and local livelihoods. The results from interviews and remotely sensed data will
be modelled in STELLA, where internal and external variables of social,
political and physical processes are linked to form a dynamic flow diagram.
STELLA will be used as a visioning tool to explore ideas about landscape
interactions and change to analyse processes that affect conservation and
development. Each model and the results from discussions will be compared to
those of the other sites. Cross-site learning will be facilitated through
participatory modelling exercises conducted at workshops in each country.
3. Local livelihoods:
What factors have contributed to changes in the livelihoods of local people in and around protected areas and how have local people affected biodiversity?
This question explores the history, activities and economic situation of local people and what factors they believe are affecting their livelihood. It also seeks to determine the impact of local people on the forest and how important the forest is for their lives. The information collected from each village will be compared to that of other villages. This information will be included in the STELLA models and compared to other site models.
Approximately six to eight villages in each of the three landscape sites will be selected using criteria based on proximity to the protected areas and market access. Approximately half of the selected villages will be used to conduct a detailed study including focus groups and interviews. The other half will be used to compare the villages using interviews only. Villages where a detailed study will be conducted, participatory rural appraisal methods will be used, similar to anthropological and NRM approaches outlined in Ellis (2000), Mahanty and Stacey (2004), and Russell and Harshbarger (2003). These techniques include brainstorming on forest protection and management, historical trends analysis, seasonal calendars, visioning, mapping and livelihood ranking. Approximately fifteen villagers, representing as wide a range of local interests as possible (e.g. women, youth etc) will also be invited to participate in semi-structured interviews.
4. Models for conservation:
What approaches to conservation have been attempted in the region and which are appropriate?
The procedure for data collection for this key question is similar to those used to identify lessons learnt. The analysis of ICDPs (Q1), landscape trends (Q3) and local livelihoods (Q3) will form the basis for exploring this question; to examine the initiatives that produced the most benefits from their approach. Models will be used to build possible scenarios for conservation in three landscape sites and to assess what effect each approach has on local development. These scenarios, developed using STELLA, will explore ICD and other conservation approaches such as community-based conservation, protectionist approaches and payments for environmental services. The creation of these models will commence at modelling workshops and the results will be presented and discussed in the annual workshops, discussed and revised for synthesis.
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