Catalyzing success in community‐based conservation

Abstract

Efforts to devolve rights and engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation have increased the demand for evidence of the e cacy of community-based conservation (CBC) and insights into what enables its success. We curated a diverse sample of 128 projects reporting both human well-being and environmental outcomes and coded 57 national-level, community-level, project-level, and control variables. We found that over 80% of CBC projects had some positive human well-being or environmental outcomes, but only 32% achieved positive outcomes for both. Applying random forest classi cation, we found that the best predictors of combined success could be distilled to 17 variables representative of various policy levers and actionable opportunities for conservation practitioners related to national contexts, community characteristics, and the implementation of various strategies and interventions informed by existing CBC frameworks. We found that CBC projects had higher probabilities of combined success when they occurred in national contexts supportive of effective local governance, partnered with communities inclined toward collective action, acknowledged con ict or trust issues that could undermine it, promoted economic diversi cation, and invested in various capacity-building interventions, providing important insights into how to encourage greater success in CBC.

Indigenous knowledge and natural infrastructure resilience to climate change in developing countries: a bibliometric analysis

“…Ayaa and Waswa, 2016 decision-making process in Indigenous communities. By pooling their collective knowledge, Indigenous communities adapt their practices to changing weather conditions to protect and conserve their natural infrastructure (Fariss et al, 2023). An important attribute of collective action lies in its contribution to preserving cultural traditions and practices that are closely linked to the effective management of natural infrastructure.…”

“…An essential ingredient of collective action is trust-building, hinged on social capital. Studies highlight that trust-building activities in Indigenous communities such as folklore tales stories, among others, which are crucial to concretize the ideology of shared identity and purpose, have contributed to increased cooperation and willingness to use natural infrastructure sustainably (Fariss et al, 2023). These findings suggest that increased attention to collective action can help scale up the effective management of natural infrastructure (Fariss et al, 2023).…”

“…Studies highlight that trust-building activities in Indigenous communities such as folklore tales stories, among others, which are crucial to concretize the ideology of shared identity and purpose, have contributed to increased cooperation and willingness to use natural infrastructure sustainably (Fariss et al, 2023). These findings suggest that increased attention to collective action can help scale up the effective management of natural infrastructure (Fariss et al, 2023). Overall, collective action is a cornerstone of Indigenous community resilience, enabling them to adapt to changing circumstances while maintaining the balance between their cultural traditions and the management of their natural infrastructure.…”

Challenges and opportunities in human dimensions behind cat–wildlife conflict

“…Outside wilderness areas, community‐based conservation (CBC) has gradually become an effective complement to PAs (Norris et al., 2018); an example includes the protection of snow leopards ( Panthera uncia ) by Buddhist herders on the Tibetan Plateau outside nature reserves (Li et al., 2014). CBC devolves rights to Indigenous peoples and local communities, engages local residents in related biodiversity management, and coordinates the social demands of local communities and environmental conservation in certain ecosystems (Fariss et al., 2023).…”