ACES 2011: Conservation Conflicts: strategies
for coping with a changing world. Aberdeen
Arts Centre, August 22-25th
ABSTRACTS
Tuesday 23rd August 2011
Case studies (part 1):
– Understanding conflicts
– Protected area conflicts
1
Understanding conflicts
11.10 – 11.30 Living with schizophrenic gods
Sunetro Ghosal
This study throws up several intriguing questions on the interactions between people
and large carnivores; the impact of social relations on people’s relationship with
nature and large carnivores, the diverse interpretations of landscape and its impacts,
the role of social institutions and norms, the biology of large carnivores outside
protected areas, the politics of conservation management and conflict resolution. It
also provides a commentary on the roles played by different actors in the story,
ranging from the state, the diverse inhabitants and stake holders in the landscape
and the leopards themselves. Using this case study, the paper argues for the need to
look beyond protected areas for conservation of large carnivores. It also addresses
the growing call for inclusion of people and their contestations into bio-diversity
conservation by presenting a working template. It also highlights the advantages of
multi-disciplinary approaches over ones located within a single discipline, to
conservation research and practice, especially conflict mitigation.
2
11.30 – 11.50 Linking landscape-scale drivers and perceptions of humanwildlife conflict: case-study from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, South India
Nisha Owen, Sumin G. Thomas, Anita Varghese and M.D. Madhusudan
Human-wildlife conflict continues to undermine the conservation of large mammals
and inhibit the sustainable development of rural communities in shared landscapes.
Livestock depredation, crop raiding, and threats to life or property are major causes
of conflicts in fragmented landscapes adjoining protected areas. Compounding this,
in many conflict studies people’s perception of threat appears to have no relation to
the costs of loss; a disparity which undermines the effectiveness of conflict mitigation
tools, and often leads to problems such as retaliation and poaching.
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR), 10,000 sq. km. of the Western Ghats in South
India, characterises this anthropogenic/protected area mosaic where some of the
largest remaining populations of endangered Asian mammals interact with an evergrowing rural human population. Here, we studied the socio-ecological factors driving
both levels of loss and the perceptions of threat from wildlife conflicts at a village
level across this landscape. Village interviews were conducted from May 2009 to
August 2009, at 62 villages within the NBR region, sampling across a range of
ecological and socio-economic gradients; recording perceptions, attitudes, holdings
and losses from the previous two years. Depending on the type of conflict and the
species involved, various socio-ecological factors significantly influenced levels of
loss, and thus predicated the vulnerability of villages to conflict; results which can
enable mitigation measures to be targeted appropriately to reduce risk. However,
some of the most interesting findings regarded the linkages between perceptions of
threat compared to measures of loss. As with much of the existing conflict literature,
there was no direct correlation between actual loss and perception, but perception
was found to be significantly associated with the proportion of loss suffered.
3
11.50 – 12.10 In the shadow of conservation: exploring hidden costs of humanwildlife conflict
Maan Barua
Human-wildlife conflict is a frontline conservation issue, affecting thousands of
people across the world. Studies on human-wildlife conflict focus on the visible
impacts they have on people, i.e. loss of crops and livestock, damage to property or
physical injury.
Affects on gender, social and psychological wellbeing, and
transaction costs incurred are relatively ignored in the literature. Mitigation projects
often frame the issue along the lines of visible impacts, consequently
editing out its hidden dimensions. This paper examines how human-elephant conflict
is framed by different social actors, and the implications this has for engaging with
the phenomenon. It then draws from participant observation and qualitative
interviews conducted over a 7-month period in two villages in Assam, northeast India,
to unravel the hidden costs of conflict and the bearings they have for people living in
close proximity to elephants. Three key vignettes are presented and discussed. The
word conflict was absent from local peoples terminology, but frequently used by
conservation agencies and the media in a way that enabled mitigation & intervention
and conflict resolution targeting visible impacts. Considerable hidden costs were
incurred by people. This included loss in school attendance and working capacity as
a result of prolonged crop guarding, physical and mental health morbidity, and costs
associated with filing complaints. Moreover, conflict made individuals more
vulnerable and further exposed them to social inequity. These findings suggest that
alternative ways of understanding (and framing) the issue are needed, incorporating
the voices and concerns of people who are most affected. Conservation projects
should pay close attention to hidden dimensions of conflict, as they may jeopardize
both wildlife conservation and peoples; wellbeing. However, a paradigm integrating
both conservation and public health is currently lacking. A potential roadmap for
interdisciplinary collaboration and practical engagement with the issue is presented.
4
12.10 – 12.30 Approaching conservation conflict with anthropological methods:
a case study of a Tibetan Buddhist community in the People’s Republic of
China
Emily Woodhouse, E.J. Milner-Gulland, Martin Mills and Philip Mcgowan
The failure of and conflict related to conservation projects have been attributed to a
lack of attention to the social and cultural systems of the communities involved. In
Western Sichuan, China, on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, Tibetan
Buddhist pastoralists and agriculturalists inhabit a landscape of grasslands and forest
recognized by conservation organisations as holding high levels of biodiversity and
endemism. Tibetan religious life and the rural subsistence economy are now
increasingly linked in different ways with secular modernity within the Chinese state
and the global economy. Increased demand for caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps
sinensis) on the Chinese and international markets has led to rapid commodification
of the rural Tibetan economy and it is now the biggest source of cash in Tibet.
China’s ‘Open up the West’ development policies have resulted in large scale
infrastructure projects, increased tourism and environmental policies including forest
protection and tree planting. At the same time, there is growing interest by
international conservation organisations in setting up culturally maintained protected
areas around sacred land connected to Tibetan religious traditions. Using a case
study of one valley in Dabpa (Daocheng) county, the research aimed to study the
changing relationship between religious culture and the environment in the context of
new development and environmental policies in China. Household surveys,
interviews, mapping exercises and participatory observation provided data on
people’s religious and environmental notions and actions. Key informant interviews
were used to understand the environmentally related discourse of different actors at
the field site including farmers, herders, local government and the monastic
community. Local gods and spirits in the landscape are part of the lived experience of
Tibetans, so that nature is not something external but part of the social world.
People’s representations of the landscape are expressed in ritual actions and their
norms towards it, and these ideas are complex; boundaries of the sacred are
uncertain, potentially dynamic and there is differential ritual attention within one
valley. Although the presence of deities is related to a norm of non-extraction of
natural resources, it is not connected to land governance which is politically
orientated. This suggests that sacred sites cannot be simply translated into protected
areas and a more nuanced understanding of changing cultural connections with the
landscape by conservation practitioners is needed. The booming commodity market
in caterpillar fungus is increasing cash wealth and resource needs, and also
5
changing norms regarding resource use on sacred land. Chinese environmental
policies are seen as an enabling mechanism in fulfilling religious obligations towards
the environment but state discourse regarding restoration and material incentives
given for tree planting are at odds with local understandings and values. The
research highlights how ethnographically based understandings of social
relationships with the environment could support locally appropriate conservation
policies, and exploring environmental discourses between different actors could build
collaboration and address conflict.
6
12.30 – 12.50 Using ‘Q method’ to understand conflicting social discourses of
conservation on the Galapagos Islands
Rose Cairns
Namibia and South Africa with its unique post apartheid challenges.
Given the excellent reputation of South Africa’s conservationists, wildlife managers
and scientists and their record of creating protected areas with large numbers of
white and black rhino, black wildebeest, bontebok and many other species brought
back from the brink of extinction in the last century and the re-building of
conservation in neighbouring countries. At the same time population growth, land
restitution and negative socio-economic conditions require innovation to maintain
South Africa’s conservation reputation whilst maintaining and expanding protected
areas and integrating the private sector’s approximately 17% of land under game
ranching into the biodiversity conservation fold.
In this presentation some of the conservation history of the country, paradigm shifts
in conservation and wildlife management philosophies, the current status of
programmes, organizations, people and threats will be presented as well as the
unique future for conservation and wildlife management in the sub region
7
16.40 – 17.00 Boundary crossing knowledge – looking at large carnivores –
human conflicts from the inside and the outside
Nicolas Lescureux, Aleksandra Majić, Aleksandër Trajçe and John Linnell
Conflicts between humans and large carnivores are often viewed by conservationists
as the result of local populations’ beliefs and misconceptions concerning large
carnivore ecology and behaviour. As a consequence, considerable focus is spent on
information campaigns designed to change the perceptions of large carnivores by
local populations. These education campaigns, in the context of large carnivore
conservation, are not really a success, especially towards the stakeholders that are
generally the more involved in the conflict, i.e. shepherds and hunters.
Although the human aspects used to be neglected in conservation research, they are
now the subject of numerous studies, the most common being within the framework
of Human Dimension Surveys. These surveys have many advantages, allowing the
collection of large samples of quantitative data. However, they have some
weaknesses when it comes to the understanding of the mechanisms explaining local
people knowledge and perceptions. Indeed, they often test the accordance of local
knowledge and perceptions with scientific ones instead of gathering the local
knowledge in its original form and context, thus partly missing the cultural
background of the conflict and the interactive nature of human-large carnivores’
relationships.
Our ethno-ecological surveys in Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia and Bulgaria have allowed
us to explore the importance of social, historical, and cultural contexts on the
relationships between humans and large carnivores and the influence of large
carnivore behaviour and ecology on local peoples’ knowledge, practices, and
perceptions through numerous direct and indirect interactions. Thus, what is
sometimes considered as beliefs appeared to be integrated knowledge built from
direct interactions with large carnivores in a particular cultural context. Therefore,
education campaigns are unlikely to be effective, firstly because they address people
who already possess knowledge about large carnivores – even if different from the
scientific one – and secondly because the discourse of objective scientific knowledge
does not always fit into cultural context due to different epistemological backgrounds.
8
17.00 – 17.20 The endless loop of biodiversity conflicts: the potential for social
science to reduce conflict iteration
Rehema White, Anke Fischer, Hans Peter Hansen, Riku Varjoparu and Juliette
Young
Biodiversity conflicts appear to be escalating globally. Is this apparent escalation an
increase in the number of biodiversity conflicts or the increased amplitude of a
continuous loop of conflict? Interdisciplinary science which includes social science
has the capacity to enhance understanding and improve management of biodiversity
conflicts. In this paper we suggest there is an iterative aspect to the endless loop of
biodiversity conflicts and we explore how some social science theories could be used
to reduce this iteration. In particular, we examined how conceptual frameworks using
‘participation’, ‘social learning’, ‘attitudes’ and ‘behavioural change’ and their potential
linkages could inform conflict understanding and management. A number of practical
biodiversity conflict management strategies exist, drawing on tools from, for example,
participation and stakeholder engagement. However, an alternative strategy would
be to focus more broadly on relationship building and development of common
understanding to avoid or reduce conflicts. Citizens of our contemporary democratic
society will feel responsible for realisation of conservation goals if they participate – if
they are involved in interpretation and implementation. Deliberative decision making
can assist when peoples’ livelihoods are influenced by conservation actions. Social
learning occurs when people engage and share perspectives in order to develop a
common framework for action – as in a participatory process. It can be seen as both
a process and an outcome. However, whilst social learning can be a result of
participatory processes and contribute to conflict reconciliation, it may not be
sufficient to alter peoples’ behaviour with respect to conservation. An understanding
of attitudes as antecedents of behaviour is important to realise the complexities of
altering practices in relation to the environment. The Theory of Planned Behaviour
postulates that behavioural intentions are influenced by attitudes, subjective norms
and perceived behavioural control. Attitudes consist of both cognitive (beliefs and
knowledge) and emotional (influenced by values) elements. Whilst these individual
social factors have been well studied, there have been few attempts to link them. A
holistic perspective was thus explored in this study, and a mental map to illustrate
potential linkages between conflict management, participation, social learning and
attitudes was drawn. The complexity of feedback loops and impacts of additional
external factors were highlighted.
It was concluded that biodiversity conflict management will be more effective if it is
implemented with the recognition of the needs of contemporary democratic societies
9
and with an understanding of the ways in which people interact, develop and
change. This approach requires not only the use of tools borrowed from social
science fields but also an appreciation of the theories underpinning the fields
concerned. Increased dialogue between natural and social scientists and
conservation managers is required to achieve this goal. Research and practice using
this approach could reduce the iteration of biodiversity conflicts.
10
17.20 – 17.40 Applying Systems-Thinking to Predator Conflict Management
Tim Snow
In South Africa, the management of predation of livestock by a wide suite of
predators is primarily done in an ad hoc manner by farmers and unskilled staff. The
methods used are often archaic and flawed, as they do not resolve the conflict in the
long term, but merely offer an ongoing “quick fix” or a perpetual repetition of short
term, ineffective actions towards stopping predation. The study comprised a systemsthinking based analysis, or a critical review of the cause and effect of the problem,
linked to the cause and effect of the solution; of the management and control of
predators as practiced in South Africa since the advent of Europeans. Predation
control and management systems have not kept pace with contemporary thinking or
technology, and which by simply killing predators fail to address the crux of the issue
of predator – livestock conflict. Because of random environmental factors, many of
the lethal methods used cannot specifically remove an individual damage-causing
animal in a target specific manner. Considerable collateral ecological damage is
inflicted by killing innocent bystander animals, coincidentally active in the area of
conflict. The study objective was to highlight the futility of temporary solutions which
fail to resolve the conflict in the long term. These quick fixes frequently perpetuate an
ecological imbalance which consequently exacerbates conflict.
This study also sought to identify the root cause of the conflict by applying systems
thinking, which added the dimension of cause and effect interrogation. The study
categorised predator conflict management methods, then sought to identify leverage
points, or small changes which have profound effects to stimulate a change in
approach to human-predator conflict management. Through evaluation of predator
conflict management methods, and by probing learning processes, the shortcomings
or failure of inappropriate management responses to conflict situations were shown
to exacerbate conflicts. Contrarily, it was illustrated that application of systems
thinking to analyse cause and effect of management actions, and consequences of
such actions; and addressing the root cause of conflict pro-actively, offered longer
term solutions. The study illustrated that long term proactive prevention and conflict
avoidance principles can offer long term solutions for predator conflict managers.
11
17.40 – 18.00 Ignorance and uncertainty in conservation conflicts: solutions
from the EU-Court of Justice
Volker Mauerhofer
Conflicts in conservation often include aspects of ignorance and uncertainty. This
paper concentrates on conservation conflicts dealing with at least one of these
aspects and occurring in connection with the Birds Directive and the Fauna-FloraHabitat-Directive of the European Union. It shows practical solution examples of such
conflicts regarding species conservation as well as habitat conservation based on
several judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The methodology
applied is an in-depth analysis of more than hundred judgements of the Court of
Justice of the European Union released since 1984. The judgements are in particular
assessed with regard to situations where the Court had to decide based on a total
lack of information about future developments as well as on withstanding opinions on
technical matters. The analysis shows regarding ignorance in habitat conservation
that the Court applied the precautionary principle on conflicts inside and even outside
of protected areas in order to prevent any deterioration of the species and their
biotopes. Concerning ignorance in species conservation no such application could be
found yet. Regarding uncertainty, the Court applied in habitat as well as species
conservation the instrument of the distribution of the burden of proof while - by doing
so - he also partly refers to the precautionary principle. The Court uses existing
formal rules as well as – if there are no such rules available – creates innovative new
rules in order to distribute the burden of proof and its extent among conflicting
parties. This is done based on criteria such as the narrow interpretation of
exemptions, the general availability of scientific proof concerning the asserted theme,
the effectiveness of conservation and the absolute lack of any possibility to prevent
damage.
12
18.00 –18:20 Land-use changes in French mountainous areas: What does the
protest against the public decisions to protect wolves mean?
Philippe Jeanneaux and Gilles Brunschwig
Land-use conflicts reveal the contemporary evolution of rural areas. Over the past 50
years, rural landscapes and communities have undergone tremendous changes.
While farming was once characterized by diversified family farms and supported by
nearby rural communities, it is now dominated by large farms, monoculture cropping,
and consolidated livestock operations, with an increasing proportion of abandoned
land. Additionally, various groups are demanding alternative land uses, like
biodiversity conservation, nature protection, and improving the attractiveness of rural
areas for recreation and tourism. Due to the multiple functions of rural areas and the
diverse stakeholders (such as farmers, nature conservationists, tourists, and
inhabitants) involved, collisions between human demands and the capacity of rural
areas to satisfy them are becoming daily events. Species conflicts are interesting
situations to highlight the meaning of the land-use conflicts. Species conflicts can be
characterized by emerging in two dimensions in our framework. First, a group
receives a negative technological external effect when another group uses the land
resource. This is, for example, the case when farmers are faced with environmental
activities like wolves conservation (e.g. due to biodiversity protection). Newly
occurring environmental restrictions, which are suspected to affect the use of the
local collective good farming environment, are also part of the causes arousing
species conflict. Secondly, a species conflict introduces a situation that has a
negative political external effect if, for instance, the public decision maker has agreed
on the 'disturbing' activities (e.g. due to administrative protection of the species).
Conflict points out farmers don't want to be affected by the decisions made by the
decision-maker. The collective action of the opponents creates informal pressure on
the decision maker to consider their property rights: pastoralism rights versus species
(biodiversity) conservation rights.
13
Protected Area Conflicts
11.10 – 11.30 The establishment of a marine protected area network in Scotland
Cristina Pita
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are increasingly used as tools for fishery
management and marine ecosystem conservation. MPAs directly affect the local
economy and welfare of coastal communities, particularly of those with traditional
links to fishing. The performance of MPAs depends, at least partly, on fishers’
responses to these management tools and the participation of these stakeholders in
the planning, development and management of MPAs is fundamental for their
success. There are numerous advantages of including fishers in the MPA decisionmaking process, such as increasing their responsibility and accountability, enhancing
the perceived legitimacy of the MPA process, increasing the acceptance of these
management tools and, ultimately, obtain support for, and compliance with, the rules
and regulations of the MPAs. Scotland has in place a number of conservation MPAs
under the Habitat Directive, the marine Special Areas of Conservation. In addition,
Scotland has developed the “Scottish MPA project” to select further nature
conservation MPAs in order to respond to national and international commitments to
establish an ecological coherent network of MPAs. The present document will
discuss the participation of the fishing industry on the development of MPAs in
Scotland and the implications for management. It is apparent that the Scottish
Government aims to have fishers’ participating in the establishment and
management of the Scottish MPA network. However, several studies carried out in
Scotland in order to investigate fishers’ perceptions about their participation in the
MPA development process show that fishers feel alienated from the MPA decisionmaking process. Regarding the important role MPAs will play in the long-term
conservation and fisheries management plans in Europe, understanding fishers’
attitudes towards MPA and the factors which increase their participation in the
decision-making process will facilitate successful planning and management of
MPAs.
11.30 – 11.50 Environmental conflicts and social acceptance in the national
Alpine parks in France: does losing mean winning?
14
Lionel Laslaz
This presentation proposes a critical approach to environmental conflicts in the
protected areas in the French Alps, notably the national parks (Vanoise, Ecrins,
Mercantour). The aim is to better understand why their creation took place in an
atmosphere of conflict between 1950 and 1970. Indeed, although the demand to
create protected areas emerged as early as the end of the 19th century in France,
when proposals were made to transpose the American model, it was only thanks to
the law of 1960 that the first projects actually came to life. This process was
extremely painful, in a context of resistance against a centralized State (in the
Pyrenees, Cevennes and Alps) and the massive development of tourism during the
"glorious thirty" years of the golden age of "French-style" land use planning (the
Snow Plan). It impossible to understand the French national Alpine parks without
taking into account in synchrony and in synergy the arrival of mass tourism via the
large so-called 3rd generation ski resorts, considered as a form of extreme
artificialization of the mountains, against which the national parks were meant to
represent a rampart and save what remained of mountain "wilderness". In reality,
these mountain areas were already being used for pastoralism and hunting, and their
local inhabitants wanted both to pursue their former activities and to benefit from the
new prosperity ushered in by the ski resorts. Secondly, several factors were specific
to the French national park experience, including the fact that local expectations were
taken into account very late, leading to certain reorientations only in the 1990s.
Parallels can be drawn with many other protected areas around the world, but the
French specificity lies in the highly dispersed municipalities, the strong influence of
private ownership rights and the extremely humanized character of these "nature"
reserves. Lastly, while for many years they embodied a very de Gaullian, centralizing
vision of land use planning, the French national parks were the subject of intense
debate during the preparation of a new law on April 14, 2006 governing the national
parks, natural marine parks and natural regional parks. The purpose of this law was
to allow the creation of new parks, since a certain number of projects initiated in the
early 1990s had been suspended since then (Reunion Island, French Guyana, Mer
d’Iroise). While France now boasts 10 national parks (including the upcoming
Calanques National Park), it was suggested that their management should be
modelled on that of the natural regional parks, much more numerous (46) and more
easily accepted. The implementation of charters (inspired by the latter) is an attempt
to create new conditions for social acceptance in the older national parks created
between 1960 and 1970. The opposition encountered by these parks has thus
contributed to improve the protection and management tool that they represent, and
15
perhaps even partially modify its missions and objectives. Our polemogeographic
approach consists in proving that, far from weakening the territories in which they
arise, environmental conflicts can actually reinforce structure and support the latter.
11.50 – 12.10 Do people move to parks?
Lucas Joppa
16
What impacts do human populations have on nearby protected areas, and what
impacts do protected areas have on rural development? Answering these questions
is important for both human welfare and biodiversity conservation. Historically these
questions have been asked at the level of an individual protected area, yet with the
advent of globally available data, there has been a surge of interest in scaling these
questions up beyond the case-study. Two recent global analyses of human
population growth near protected areas do exactly that. I here use a combination of
theoretical expectation and empirical data to argue for a change in focus. I believe
we need to turn away from any search for global patterns in the context of human
migrations to protected areas. The data available for such a search are insufficient,
and will likely be so into the future. Moreover, the complexities of human migrations
operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales, ensuring that any hope for a globally
coherent signal will be met with frustration. I use several recent case studies from
around the world to highlight this point, and provide several potentially generalized
conclusions about the way protected areas and human populations may interact at
large scales.
12.10 – 12.30 Regional identity as mediator in protected area conflicts?
Franziska Solbrig and Susanne Stoll-Kleemann
17
Biosphere reserves are meant to take into account areas around strictly protected
zones where human uses are present. Thus, first of all it is crucial to explore and
consequently to integrate the view of the local population on their surroundings in
protected area management. This kind of social monitoring can help to inhibit
conflicts that are potentially caused by protected areas. With the help of a survey as
one social monitoring tool, the present study presents firstly, to which extend
inhabitants of protected areas have a sense of connectedness or even identity with
their region. Secondly, it is elucidated how they perceive their natural surroundings.
Thirdly, the connection of the regional identity with the inhabitants’ willingness to
contribute to biodiversity conservation is illustrated. In the above mentioned survey,
the local population of four biosphere reserves in Eastern Germany was interviewed
in November and December 2010, more than 1400 people in total. This number
allows drawing conclusions representative for the entire population of each biosphere
reserve. The analysis was conducted with the help of the computer programme
PASW statistics. Regarding the people´s sense of connectedness with their region,
the analysis of the survey revealed that natural surroundings are equally important to:
lifetime spent in the region, family and friends that live in the area as well as the
mentality of the people. In all cases, natural surroundings are more important than
hobbies that generate a relation with the region. A comparison of appreciated
attributes of the natural surroundings with the aims of the biosphere reserves reveals
a certain potential for protected area conflicts to arise. The mediating and conflict
preventing potential of the introduced social monitoring tool is discussed here.
12.30 – 12.50 Sharing of revenues from protected areas in Ethiopia :
Implemented in managing use conflict
18
Yitbarek Weldesmaet, Girma Timer and Anke Fischer
Local people often bear the cost of conservation, as they forego income from
alternative land uses. Based on the assumption that local communities will support
protected areas if they benefit from them, the regional government of southern
Ethiopia implemented revenue sharing policies. In this study, local conditions and the
regional policies that shape the success of the revenue sharing scheme were
examined by comparing the experiences of both implementers and (supposed)
beneficiaries. Data were collected in an iterative process. First, legal documents were
gathered and exploratory interviews conducted. Based on these, we designed
interview guidelines and carried out semi-structured interviews with (i)
representatives of the different governmental levels, (ii) members of the communities
involved and (iii) protected area managers. Our results suggest that three years after
the introduction and implementation of the regulation, hardly anyone of the supposed
beneficiaries understood the scheme, or had seen any of the benefits promised by
the district administration. Revenues were shared in a complex process that aimed to
be fair, but resulted in a thin spread of resources. Overall, revenue distribution was
poorly communicated which jeopardises the assumed positive effects and
sustainability of the scheme, and severely compromises the conservation objective of
reducing conflict between pastoral communities and protected areas management.
14.30 – 14.50 Reconciling divergent priorities for buffer zone management in
the Knuckles Forest Conservation
19
Michelle Pinard
Most protected areas in the tropics now exist as islands within a mosaic of land-use
types that are required to sustain the livelihoods of resident human populations.
These landscapes represent a challenge for conservation and restoration because of
the complexity of the landscape and governance structures and multiple socioecological drivers of change. Using a case study of research on montane forest
conservation in the buffer zone of the Knuckles Conservation Area (KCA) in central
Sri Lanka, we illustrate how ecological and social research can be integrated and
examined across spatial scales to inform strategies for landscape management. The
buffer zone of the KCA is a mosaic of degraded grasslands, plantations of exotic
timber trees, abandoned cardamom plantations, tea plantations, home gardens and
forest fragments. The priorities for restoration differ across the landscape because of
variability in the historical patterns of fragmentation and degradation and current
threats to high conservation value forest. The degraded lands that are available for
restoration and development differ in terms of their potential to support local
development priorities and to deliver conservation objectives through restoration
because of varying biophysical and socio-economic conditions. Lessons learned
from this case study, in relation to understanding ecological variation, supporting
local innovation and identifying opportunities for institutional support provide ideas for
addressing some of the challenges to protected area management.
Dr Michelle Pinard is a Senior Lecturer in Tropical Forestry in the Institute of
Biological and Environmental Sciences at the U Aberdeen and is a member of the
Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES). She has more than 20
years of research experience in tropical forests, including work in Bolivia, Brazil,
Ghana, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Her main research interests are in natural
forest management for conservation and production and the interplay with rural
livelihoods.
14.50 – 15.10 Conflict in the Białowieża Forest, a European biodiversity
hotspot.
Malgorzata Blicharska
20
The Białowieża Forest in Eastern Europe is the largest remnant of Central European
broadleaved forest, having at present only about 0.2% of its original area in
undisturbed condition, and provides a habitat for almost a complete assemblage of
species characteristic for natural dynamic forests of this type. For centuries its values
have been maintained due to a status of a royal game reserve. However, the
changes introduced during the 20th century have affected the forest’s ecological
status. Management allowing forestry to operate in most of the Forest has caused
decline in biodiversity of this unique area. During last two decades there has been a
struggle in the Polish part of the forest between two main opinions, either keeping the
status quo of the present management, or reducing wood harvesting and improving
protection of the forest, through enlarging the existing national park.
The background to the on-going discord and the assumptions behind the claims of
opponents have been investigated through a literature and document review, and
semi-structured interviews in 2006 and 2008 with the main stakeholders in this
debate (Blicharska & Angelstam 2010). The results showed that persistent tension
between the stakeholders was fostered by mutual lack of trust, incompatible
appreciation of factual data, local vested interests and overall economic insecurity of
local stakeholders. Moreover, neither of the opposing groups favoured management
options that appear to be optimal for long-term maintenance Białowieża Forest’s
biodiversity. Based on the results, two complementary strategies for managing the
situation in this area have been proposed (Blicharska & Angelstam 2010). First, when
dealing with small remnants of once widespread ecosystems, conservation efforts
should aim at both preservation of these remnants and restoration of the more
disturbed areas. Second, an attempt to combine a current top-down approach to
conservation with bottom-up strategies of stakeholder involvement, and provision of
proper financial incentives should be made to mitigate the existing conflict. However,
the recent developments in the Białowieża case in 2010 revealed that the bottom-up
oriented approach to conservation failed in practical implementation. A development
programme to a large extent including local communities’ needs, and promising a
considerable amount of money as a compensation for the lost development
opportunities, was rejected by local politicians after long-lasting negotiations. Neither
financial incentives nor promises of ensuring local needs for forest products made
the local communities accept the enlargement of the national park. In addition, the
negotiations over the Białowieża Forest case initiated a civil action in the whole
country aiming at collection of signatures of Polish citizens to push changes in the
legislation that would, in principle, allow the government to take top-down decisions
concerning enlargement of national parks. This leaves the case open to discussion
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whether in democratic societies the government should be able to enforce a
conservation status over an area of great ecological importance, without respecting
local people objections.
15.10 – 15.30 How to save the forest everyone wants to protect? - Political
background of the conflict around the last patch of the primeval lowland forest
in Europe
Krzysztof Niedzialkowski
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The Białowieża Forest, 600 km2 of a state owned woodland located in the Eastern
Poland, includes the last patch of the natural lowland forest of Europe. In the 20th
century, it became a subject of a dispute between those promoting its conservation
and those interested in using it for timber production. The conflict has led to a gradual
tightening of conservation rules including establishing of a small Białowieża National
Park in 1921. In the early 1990s, a proposal was put forward to enlarge the park over
the whole forest, which remains a matter of a heated debate. The case of the
Białowieża Forest offers a long-term perspective on the conflict over a biodiversity
hotspot of European importance. Using the theoretical background of Advocacy
Coalition Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium Approach, and Policy Network
Approach, the author identifies main actors of the conflict, their discourses, resources
and strategies used during almost 100 years of the “game” over the control of the
forest. The paper, based on written sources and 32 semi-structured interviews,
suggests that the conflict played between two advocacy coalitions with contrasting
visions of the forest and its use. Advocacy coalition of foresters and local
communities saw it as a place which should be managed by a human hand and
provide economic opportunities connected with wood processing and hunting.
Scientists and NGOs constructed the forest as a “nature sanctuary”, the last
European forest where the natural processes have been going on for thousands of
years, and which should be left undisturbed by human intervention. These two
visions were exclusionary and lead to a prolonged conflict. In its formative period, the
conflict concerned establishing and managing of a small protected area by scientists
which was repeatedly challenged by foresters. After the Second World War the
situation stabilised and the status quo persisted until democratic transformation of the
early 1990s. Newly created NGOs ranked with scientists demanding higher
conservation status which affected existing political equilibrium. They managed to
influence the public and lobby the central government which brought about a small
enlargement of the national park. Further attempts were undermined by a coalition of
foresters and local communities. The former played a major role in the conflict due to
their strong political support, economic position, and recognised expertise. Thanks to
the skilful “venue shopping”, they were able to change the locus of the conflict from
the central government level, which was hard to influence and susceptible to the
arguments of the opponents, to the local level, where foresters had considerable
influence and could successfully thwart conservation initiatives. Legislative changes
introduced as a result of the conflict practically stopped enlarging and establishing of
national parks in Poland. The evidence shows that the struggle over the Białowieża
Forest can be a fragment of a larger conflict over administrative control and
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management paradigm of natural areas in Poland which runs between two
competing coalitions united by shared resources and beliefs and which may
contribute to the existing perception of a crisis of nature conservation in Poland.
15.30 – 15.50 Conservation conflicts between German UNESCO-biosphere
reserves and local authorities
Clara Buer and Susanne Stoll-Kleemann
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Conflicts between local people and protected areas exist almost since protected
areas have been established because of the restrictions local people experience
living close to strictly conserved areas. The concept of UNESCO-biosphere reserves,
which includes different spatial use zones, fosters regional sustainable development
along with nature conservation. However, due to diverging interests conflicts between
residents and biosphere reserve management easily arise. Equally, local authorities
are often in conflict with biosphere reserve management, because they represent
local interests. Based on the presented background the qualitative social science
case study introduced here addresses following research questions: (1) how can
conflicts between local authorities and biosphere reserve management be classified?
(2) What are influencing factors that help to resolve these conflicts and to enhance
collaboration between local authorities and biosphere reserve management? In four
German UNESCO-biosphere reserves (Middle Elbe, Schaalsee, Schorfheide-Chorin
and Southeast-Rügen) mayors and district administrators have been interviewed with
semi-structured interview guidelines. Interviews have been recorded, transcribed
verbatim and analysed by the means of the software tool ATLAS.ti. Several types of
conflicts between local authorities and biosphere reserve management could be
identified and classified. Most conflicts arise because of a perception of constrained
planning sovereignty for local authorities. For any construction projects out of
residential areas, the Biosphere Reserve Act and other nature conservation laws like
Natura 2000 have to be considered. These construction projects include
infrastructural investments, like road constructions, cycle ways and foot paths, next to
any private and corporate construction projects. Therefore, in many cases planning
processes take more time and construction projects become more expensive
compared to those outside of biosphere reserves. As a consequence, biosphere
reserve management is often considered as nature conservationist rather than
initiator for regional sustainable development. But implementing the vision of
biosphere reserves cannot be solely a task of one administration, it is a chance for all
regional actors. This is why initiatives for collective projects are needed to engage
local authorities for collaboration.
15.50 – 16.10 Toward an understanding of the factors that influence humanwildlife conflict : a case study of the Selous Game Reserve and its bufferzone .
Benson Kibonde and Aderjan Botha
25
The ecological integrity (conservation or biodiversity status) of protected areas is a
function of various factors. These factors are varied and could be grouped as the
ecological natural drivers (climatic such as rainfall), protected area managerial
actions (burning; water provision; culling; etc) as well as the external influence from
neighbouring communities (“illegal” activities including poaching and harvesting of
natural resources). The “illegal” activities of communities living in close proximity to
protected areas or in some cases in buffer zones results into human-wildlife conflict.
This conflict between humans and wildlife can be grouped into two scenario’s: One,
where wild animals threaten the livelihood of communities (crop damage; predation
on domesticated animals and threats to the lives of people – problem animal control)
and two, where local communities are involved in activities of harvesting animals,
animal products and or natural resources in order to sustain themselves (subsistence
poaching) or for commercial gain (commercial poaching). The “illegal” activities then
often leads to conflict between the communities and wildlife authorities. Against this
background, the behaviour of communities bordering the Selous Game Reserve and
the factors or precursors of this behaviour, have been investigated in order to identify
the actual causes for this behaviour. This was done by assessing the needs,
perceptions and knowledge of the communities. In collecting the required data, a
total of 421 respondents from a population of 43,000 in 83 villages were interviewed.
In addition, the incidences of human-wildlife conflict were recorded in five villages
(Liwale District). It was found that, needs of the communities, their perceptions and
knowledge on wildlife and wildlife conservation were the fundamental drivers of the
human-wildlife conflicts. On the other hand only 15.21 hectares (0.004%) for 454
households (18%) were damaged by problem animals. This represents 0.001% (USD
3,378) of the total value of crops (estimated at USD 2,414,990). The results further
indicate that the perceptions of the communities on the number of wild animals and
their importance are different from those of the wildlife officers. The perception,
knowledge on wildlife conservation and the needs of the communities were found to
be key factors for the low motivation for communities to participate in conservation of
wildlife in their areas. The human-wildlife conflicts are to a great extent a reflection of
dissatisfaction of the communities on the benefits they get from utilisation of wildlife
abounding in their areas. Recommendations are presented to resolve the lack of
community involvement in the management of wildlife as well as to ensure
communities benefit from sustainable utilisation of wildlife in nearby protected areas.
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