Managers' perceptions of protected area outcomes in Madagascar highlight the need for species monitoring and knowledge transfer

Abstract

Considerable effort has gone into assessing the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in preventing biodiversity loss, and PA impacts on local communities. However, little is known about how pressures are being perceived and dealt with by local PA managers and what perceptions managers have of biodiversity trends and human-induced pressures in the PAs they manage. We surveyed and convened a workshop with PA managers in Madagascar asking about the impacts of PA establishment. The managers reported that PAs have been successful in reducing threats. However, managers lacked specific knowledge of trends in species abundance, reporting the need for more species monitoring and knowledge transfer from scientific researchers. We argue that greater collaboration and exchange of knowledge between researchers, managers, and local communities is necessary to ensure that PA effectiveness research is of practical value and contributes to improved PA outcomes.

What constitutes a useful measure of protected area effectiveness? A case study of management inputs and protected area impacts in Madagascar

“…Our results are somewhat in line with previous research: the few studies that have looked at correlations between management inputs and PA impacts in avoiding forest loss have reported no or weak links Nolte & Agrawal, 2013;Schleicher, Peres, & Leader-Williams, 2019). It may be that the observed patterns correspond with reality, and that there is a true disconnect between PA management actions and effectiveness, and that other factors, such as wider governance quality, are more important in determining PA performance (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017;Pyhälä, Eklund, McBride, Rakotoarijaona, & Cabeza, 2019;Schleicher et al, 2019). However, we identify at least three further alternative interpretations that could help to explain the lack of statistical association between levels of management and avoided deforestation.…”

“…Finally, the PAME data ignores aspects related to the wider quality of governance, such as for example law enforcement and corruption (Eklund & Cabeza, 2017). Previous studies have shown that PA managers often report such issues as being main obstacles for carrying out effective management (Pyhälä et al, 2019;Schleicher et al, 2019), as the mandate of a local manager is quite limited in the face of such powerful drivers.…”

Threats and their relative severity and driving forces in the African Elephant range wildlife protected areas of Ethiopia

“…It is therefore apparent that, given the actual and potential valuable role of PAs in fostering biodiversity conservation, understanding whether and why PAs are achieving success is essential to maintain, or improve, the way PAs are managed by investigating the relationship between management actions and biodiversity condition (Timko and Innes, 2009;Pyhälä et al, 2019). However, only limited attempts have been made in Ethiopia to regularly evaluate the status and threats of the PAs (e.g.…”

“…This limits the analysis of how management interventions relate to PA outcomes (Carranza et al, 2014). On the other hand, most PAs lack resources (expertise, finance and/or time) to collect intensive field-based ecological data needed to relate management interventions to threat level and/or to state of biodiversity (that is, to evaluate the effectiveness of past and present management interventions made in reducing the threats and their impacts) (Asefa et al, 2015;Pyhälä et al, 2019). To overcome such limitations, in this study we used "The Theory of Change Model" tool to assess severity of threat factors in five PAs of Ethiopia and to explore potential management interventions required.…”

“…To overcome such limitations, in this study we used "The Theory of Change Model" tool to assess severity of threat factors in five PAs of Ethiopia and to explore potential management interventions required. This tool is more appealing to researchers/ conservationists because information used for rigorous impact evaluation of PA effectiveness could easily be obtained from researchers' and/or PA managers" perceptions (Cvitanovic et al, 2014;Pyhälä et al, 2019). In addition, this tool also enables one to investigate and create linkages between threat factors, biodiversity affected, underlying causes of the threats, remedial actions needed and how to monitor impacts (outcomes) of management interventions (Laing and Todd, 2015;Pyhälä et al, 2019).…”