Open access, freely available online Feature The Conservation Business Henry Nicholls he language of conservation organisations, national governments, ‘The costs of conservation fall is changing: protecting and international bodies, and there disproportionately on local people, Tbiodiversity is no longer just need to be better ways to spend this whereas the benefi ts are dispersed,’ about ethics and aesthetics; the latest money if conservation is to be effective, says Andrew Balmford, a conservation buzzwords are commodities and they say. Biodiversity is a commodity biologist at the University of Cambridge consumers. Traditionally, conservation that can be bought and sold. We are in the United Kingdom. National initiatives have talked up the consumers and must pay. and global communities stand to benefi ts they will bring to the global benefi t from conservation of tropical community—saving species, habitats, Costs and Benefi ts biodiversity, but they must pay if they ecosystems, and ultimately the planet. Kenya boasts one of the world’s want to realise that benefi t, he says. But conservation also has its costs, most spectacular networks of national Conservation expenditure in the and these are usually borne by local parks and reserves covering around developed world is only about a third of people prevented from exploiting the 60,000 km2 of the country (Figure what is needed for effective protection resources around them in other ways. It 1). But devoting such a vast area to of 15% of the earth’s terrestrial is unfair to expect a localised minority conservation has its drawbacks. It has to pick up costs that ultimately benefi t a been estimated that were this land Citation: Nicholls H (2004) The conservation business. dispersed majority, argue conservation developed it would be worth around PLoS Biol 2(9): e310. biologists. There has to be more $270 million to the Kenyan people money made available by concerned every year. Similarly, two national parks Copyright: © 2004 Henry Nicholls. This is an open-ac- cess article distributed under the terms of the Cre- individuals, non-governmental in Madagascar are estimated to have ative Commons Attribution License, which permits reduced the annual income of local unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in villagers by around 10%. Of course, any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. protected areas do bring some benefi ts to neighbouring communities, most Abbreviation: PSA, Programa de Pago de Servicios ‘The AK47 automatic Ambientales notably through tourism. But in many assault rifl e has replaced the cases the rewards are not great, they Henry Nicholls is a freelance science writer based in are rarely distributed evenly among London, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected] bow and arrow.’ individuals, and do not necessarily outweigh the costs. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020310 PLoS Biology | www.plosbiology.org 1256 September 2004 | Volume 2 | Issue 9 | e314 | e310 investing more than $2 billion a year ‘Direct payment, very boldly in 105 conservation projects with an ecotourism component. Similarly, speaking, is paying people between 1988 and 2003, the World Bank funded 55 development projects in rural areas not to bugger that supported protected areas in up their environment.’ Africa, 32 of which placed an emphasis on ecotourism. However, an absence of quantitative data and analysis has made it hard habitats, an area just large enough to to judge whether these projects preserve a representative sample of actually achieve their dual purpose species, habitats, and ecosystems in the of preserving biodiversity and medium to long term (Balmford et simultaneously reducing rural al. 2003). The developed world must poverty. ‘Much of the information make up this funding shortfall, argues about community-based ecotourism Balmford. What’s more, there need to is anecdotal and subjective,’ says be smarter ways to spend the money Agnes Kiss of the Environment and that’s available, he says. Social Development Unit at the World Bank. The real contribution of these DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020310.g002 Conservation by Distraction initiatives to biodiversity conservation is In recent years, many funding bodies debatable, she says. ‘Many community- Figure 2. Ecotourist Paradise in the Galápagos Courtesy of Catriona MacCallum. have taken an indirect approach to based ecotourism projects cited as conservation, investing in projects that success stories actually involve little encourage people to take up alternative change in existing local land- and practices that are compatible with resource-use practices, provide only Research Institute at the University conservation rather than investing modest supplement to local livelihoods, of Pretoria in South Africa is also in conservation itself. Perhaps the and remain dependent on external critical of this kind of indirect best example of this ‘conservation support for long periods, if not approach to conservation. At the by distraction’ is ploughing money indefi nitely’ (Kiss 2004). heart of the argument for community- into community-based ecotourism For example, communities involved based ecotourism is the idea of projects. Such initiatives aim to bring in the Infi erno Community Ecotourism the ‘ecologically noble savage’, he the benefi ts of tourism to local people, Project in Peru have received nearly says—the notion that those living thereby encouraging them to preserve $120,000 from their share in a tourist closest to nature will know what’s best the biodiversity they have. lodge and wages for providing services for it. ‘It’s a wonderful idea, but it just It’s an attractive idea. In the mid to visitors. This may have increased the doesn’t work. Nowhere in the history of 1990s, the United States Agency income for a minority that are lodge evolution has sustainability ever been for International Development was employees, but only one family, whose naturally selected for,’ says du Toit. adult members ‘The AK47 automatic assault rifl e has were all employed replaced the bow and arrow.…Every by the lodge, could individual in a rural community that’s afford to live solely out hunting will shoot what he sees on tourism. In the when he sees it, because if he doesn’t community as a somebody else will.’ whole, the average Nowhere is this problem more annual income evident than in the ecotourist paradise from tourism was of the Galápagos Islands (Figure 2), only $735 compared where a small minority of fi shermen is with nearly $2,000 coming into confl ict with conservation earned elsewhere. aims with increasing regularity (Box 1). Most of the ‘Things are going down very quickly,’ community was still says one Galápagos guide. ‘The iceberg heavily dependent is starting to tip over, and we are going on other activities, to lose everything.’ If it still pays locals and most of those to exploit the environment rather activities are than take part in one of the world’s somewhat disruptive most buoyant ecotourism industries, of conservation it is clear that ecotourism alone DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020310.g001 goals, says Kiss. cannot solve the world’s conservation Figure 1. The Masai Mara National Park in Kenya Johan du Toit problems. Many think that ‘direct Courtesy of Charlotte Stirling. of the Mammal payment’ could be a useful tool. ‘Direct PLoS Biology | www.plosbiology.org 1257 September 2004 | Volume 2 | Issue 9 | e310 The distinction between indirect Box 1. The Cucumber Confl ict and direct interventions is artifi cial, says Thomas Lovejoy, president At the beginning of the 1990s, fi shermen in the Galápagos began collecting sea cucumbers from of the Heinz Center, a nonprofi t the waters around their islands to meet ongoing demand for these aphrodisiac ‘earthworms of the institution dedicated to improving the sea’ in Southeast Asia (Figure 3). Others intent on taking advantage of this commercial opportunity scientifi c and economic foundation began to arrive from the Ecuadorian mainland in their hundreds. In 1998, Ecuador’s president for environmental policy. ‘In some signed the Special Law of the Galápagos, which created the Galápagos Marine Reserve, protecting cases, direct payment is the only way its waters from commercial fi shing and imposed restrictions on domestic immigration. But by then, conservation can happen,’ he says. too many were already intent on reaping the fi nancial rewards the sea cucumber promised them— ‘In others, the indirect is important by the end of the decade, a single sea cucumber to reinforce a situation where there could fetch nearly $2. Conservation biologists already is conservation. In yet others at the Charles Darwin Research Station on the both are needed.’ central island of Santa Cruz worked out levels of Sjaak Swart of the Section of Science fi shing that might be sustainable. In 1999—the and Society at Groningen University fi rst season in which sea cucumber fi sheries were in The Netherlands argues that if monitored and regulated—nearly 800 fi shermen conservation is to succeed, it must collected more than 4 million animals worth be rooted in the hearts and minds more than $3.4 million in a short two-month of those involved. Direct payments window. In January 2000, fi shermen protesting create a vision of nature dominated the closure of the fi shery took over offi ces of the DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020310.g003 by calculable, monetary concerns, he Galápagos National Park Service and Charles Figure 3. The Prized Galápagos Sea Cucumber, says. This approach can only work in Darwin Research Station, holding humans and Stichopus fuscus the short term, he argues, and indirect animals hostage. Courtesy of Henry Nicholls. tools like debate and education are needed to involve communities in the long term. ‘You need the commitment payment, very boldly speaking, is paying want,’ he says, ‘but we’re not very good of the local people to save the people in rural areas not to bugger up at saying what we do want.’ biodiversity of our world,’ he says.