Global benefits and local costs – The dilemma of tropical forest conservation: A review of the situation in Madagascar

Abstract

SUMMARYDeforestation is one of the most important conservation problems in tropical developing countries, even though cost-benefit analyses consistently show that forest conservation is economically beneficial. In Madagascar, deforestation continues at alarming rates despite numerous initiatives of international donors to increase incentives for local households to support forest conservation. In this literature review, we contrast cost-benefit analyses for forest conservation with: (1) the actual burdens and (2) the actual gains of forest conservation for rural households, generated mainly in the context of conservation projects. We show that approaches to generating direct benefits deliver less value than expected for rural communities; the benefit transfer mechanisms are insufficient as the majority of benefits are captured by other stakeholders, and increased benefit transfer is limited by structural and institutional limitations in local communities, valuation chains and in terms of governance failure at higher levels.

Assessing the Effects of Desertification Control Projects from the Farmers’ Perspective: A Case Study of Yanchi County, Northern China

“…For example, the Social Forestry Program (SFP) implemented in the south-west coastal region of Bangladesh did not largely increase local forest cover or improve the target population's livelihoods, thereby deviating from the original objectives [27]. The Tropical Forest Conservation Project in Madagascar had a similar problem [28].…”

Capabilities Under Telecoupling: Human Well-Being Between Cash Crops and Protected Areas in North-Eastern Madagascar

“…Many of these new PAs are largely designed, implemented, and managed by international conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs). While PAs are showing some success in preventing forest loss in the country (Eklund et al, 2016), forest conservation mostly benefits the global community, with local populations incurring large costs (Neudert et al, 2016;Poudyal et al, 2018). In terms of a more comprehensive perspective on well-being, research revealed that community forest management, and strict conservation measures may have a similar magnitude of influence on local subjective well-being, although they may have different effects on individual well-being domains such as livelihood activities or health (Rasolofoson et al, 2018).…”

Land Competition under Telecoupling: Distant Actors’ Environmental versus Economic Claims on Land in North-Eastern Madagascar

“…Due to Madagascar's high degree of endemic plant and animal species and the related high-profile interests of Western conservationists, the island saw its system of protected areas expand rapidly in the last two decades [43]. Despite claims of resulting global benefits [20], this "conservation rush" did not actually halt deforestation or biodiversity loss on the island, nor did it alleviate poverty [17,20,43,44]. Indeed, the creation of these protected areas competes with the livelihoods of local communities [17,43,45].…”