The Problematique of Community-Based Conservation in a Multi-Level World

Abstract

"Community-based resource management or community-based conservation is not just about communities. It is about governance that starts from the ground up and involves multi-level interactions. Complexities of this multi-level world create problems but also provide opportunities to combine conservation with development. I unpack the problematique of community-based conservation and deal with four aspects of it. The first is the inability and discomfort of our conventional science and resource management to deal with multiple objectives. Many projects are either primarily about conservation or primarily about development, but rarely both. Second, community-based approaches to conservation have rarely employed strong deliberative processes. 'Conservation', as conceived at the local level, tends to be different from 'conservation' as conceived by international conservation organizations. A multi-lens approach is needed whereby communities become partners (and not the objects) of conservation projects. Third, the field of conservation has not made good use of the lessons from commons theory. Much of so-called community-based conservation of the last 10-15 years has been half-hearted, misdirected, and theory- ignorant. Finally, we can do a better job conceiving, researching and analyzing community-based conservation in terms of scale, organization, uncertainties and dynamics. Community-based conservation in a multi-level world is a complex systems problem and should use the tools and approaches appropriate for dealing with complexity."