Seminar: Lessons on local participation in biodiversity conservation

The two seminars have been motivated by the following questions:
What are the pros and cons of different protected area management regimes involving different roles and degrees of local participation?
Can the declaration and management of protected areas form a positive part in local communities’ efforts to protect their livelihoods? And, if yes, under which circumstances?
Which are the lessons from protected area management – positive as well as negative – which should be brought to bear on current initiatives to include forest conservation as part of the efforts to mitigate climate change?

Part II: October 28, 2008

Biodiversity conservation in developing countries is often seen as the responsibility of the state, undertaken through the establishment of National Parks and other formally recognized protected areas. In recent years, there has furthermore been a trend towards involving local communities and other stakeholders in the management of such areas. But to what extent have these approaches actually worked, and are there other ways of governing protected areas that have been ignored so far? This was the subject of a DIIS seminar on October 28, attended by Danish and international practitioners and researchers working with poverty and environment in developing countries.

To read more about the presentations and discussions from this seminar, please visit the website of DIIS.

Part I: September 30, 2008

Around 40 practitioners and researchers met to discuss the opportunities and constraints of local participation in protected area management. The seminar was the first of two dedicated to this theme as forms part of the Poverty and Environment Seminar Series.
 
Following an introduction from Iben Nathan, member of the Poverty and Environment working group, the seminar featured three presentations. Together these three presentations covered a wide range of situations of local participation in protected area management.

Read more about the presentations and discussions on the website of DIIS.