Impact of Local Empowerment on Conservation Practices in a Highly Developed Country

Engen, Sigrid; Hausner, Vera Helene

doi:10.1111/conl.12369

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These threats also correspond to standard threat categories known to affect conservation targets [63]. The priority questions were developed to elicit differences in perceptions among the participants about what should be protected along the nature-culture continuum and perceptions of the acceptable degree of human use (i.e., use vs protection) based on previous work on Norwegian protected areas [13,17,24,55].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholders’ perceptions of protected area management following a nationwide community-based conservation reform

2019

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People’s perceptions can point to reasons for conservation support or lack thereof. In this study, we surveyed the perceptions of conservation among local stakeholders who participated in protected area (PA) management following a reform towards community-based conservation in Norway. We analyzed the link between perceptions of threats to conservation values, prioritized management actions and trust in PA governance, and assessed how these perceptions aligned with the stakeholders’ preferred overarching conservation approach and their support for PAs. Conservation perceptions differed mostly between property owners and representatives of nature conservation (such as NGOs). Property owners perceived modern farming, grazing and hay making, and securing the interests of rights holders as a priority. They had a lower support for PAs and favored a conservation approach focusing on “people and nature”. Representatives from nature conservation prioritized management actions to increase biodiversity and reduce land development, had higher trust in environmental authorities and identified motorized vehicle use as a threat to conservation values. They had a high support for PAs and favored a conservation approach that mitigates threats from human activity (i.e. “nature despite people”). The nationwide reform aimed at increasing support for PAs, but 31% of the members of the stakeholder advisory councils were willing to downgrade or degazette PAs for the benefit of economic development, which is much more than general population surveys. However, the level of trust in local governance was less polarized among the members of stakeholder advisory councils compared with the former state governance, which suggests that that the community-based conservation reform has the potential to improve collaboration and conflict mitigation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholders’ perceptions of protected area management following a nationwide community-based conservation reform

2019

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“…This view of agency is important since, "empowerment is part of nearly everything social in conservation, at all scales from project development to policy implementation" [77]. When scientific, traditional, or local knowledge is valued, reinforced, and applied by stakeholders and rights holders with the capacity to implement on-the-ground improvements or influence policy decisions, conservation successes can occur at large and small scales [78][79]. Empowerment of individuals and communities is often driven by factual yet hopeful messaging [80][81][82], by documenting and celebrating conservation successes (e.g.…”

Section: E = Empoweringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconceptualizing conservation

Cooke

Michaels

Nyboer

et al. 2022

PLOS Sustain Transform

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Early definitions of conservation focused largely on the end goals of protection or restoration of nature, and the various disciplinary domains that contribute to these ends. Conservation science and practice has evolved beyond being focused on just issues of scarcity and biodiversity decline. To better recognize the inherent links between human behaviour and conservation, “success” in conservation is now being defined in terms that include human rights and needs. We also know that who engages in conservation, and how, dictates the likelihood that conservation science will be embraced and applied to yield conservation gains. Here we present ideas for reconceptualizing conservation. We emphasize the HOW in an attempt to reorient and repurpose the term in ways that better reflect what contemporary conservation is or might aspire to be. To do so, we developed an acrostic using the letters in the term “CONSERVATION” with each serving as an adjective where C = co-produced, O = open, N = nimble, S = solutions-oriented, E = empowering, R = relational, V = values-based, A = actionable, T = transdisciplinary, I = inclusive, O = optimistic, and N = nurturing. For each adjective, we briefly describe our reasoning for its selection and describe how it contributes to our vision of conservation. By reconceptualizing conservation we have the potential to center how we do conservation in ways that are more likely to result in outcomes that benefit biodiversity while also being just, equitable, inclusive, and respectful of diverse rights holders, knowledge holders, and other actors. We hope that this acrostic will be widely adopted in training to help the next generation of conservation researchers and practitioners keep in mind what it will take to make their contributions effective and salient.

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“…Many prioritization schemes collapse at this stage (Game et al 2013). The complexity involved mainly stems from the importance of acceptability to the public (Rose et al 2018) and the institutional context (Ostrom 1990, Engen & Hausner 2018. Value or decision trees, influence diagrams (Bower et al 2018) and companion modelling (Barreteau et al 2003) are standard approaches to support problem definition.…”

Section: Promises Of Constraints Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing constraints to improve conservation decision-making: a theoretical framework and its application to the Northern Vosges, France

2021

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Summary Key to bridging knowing–doing gaps is analysis of the constraints binding interactions between decision-makers and conservation biologists to clarify the problems they address. We apply this analysis to decision situations in the Northern Vosges (France), which illustrate three kinds of constraints: governance, framework and initiative. We explore how conservation biologists can mitigate constraints so as to foster more ambitious conservation actions in each case. The first case explores attempts at reintroducing the lynx (Lynx lynx). In this case, we show that governance plays a key role, in the sense that conservation actions should focus on improving the acceptability of reintroductions to key stakeholders. The second case refers to water monitoring schemes. Here we show that framing is the dominant constraint. This means that conservation actions are tightly limited by the use of a restrictive scientific apparatus. The last case study, fish stock protection, is constrained by initiative. Here, decision-makers have too much leverage to implement solutions they favour, even if they are not the best options in conservation terms. Exploring how our framework relates to the existing literature allows us to highlight its usefulness for rationalizing conservation problem framing and for strengthening the ambitions of conservation actions.

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Impact of Local Empowerment on Conservation Practices in a Highly Developed Country

Cited by 6 publications

References 23 publications

Stakeholders’ perceptions of protected area management following a nationwide community-based conservation reform

Stakeholders’ perceptions of protected area management following a nationwide community-based conservation reform

Reconceptualizing conservation

Analysing constraints to improve conservation decision-making: a theoretical framework and its application to the Northern Vosges, France

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