Evaluating Eden Series No 9 STORIES FROM EDEN Case studies of Community- Based Wildlife Management Compiled by Dilys Roe and Margaret Jack April 2001 ii Contents 1. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................................1 Evaluating Eden ........................................................................................................................................................1 What is CWM? ..........................................................................................................................................................2 2. CENTRAL AND WEST AFRICA................................................................................................................................5 Case Study 1: Kilum-Ijim Forest Project, Cameroon ................................................................................................6 Case Study 2: Okapi Wildlife Reserve and Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo ........................7 Case Study 3:Transition Zone to the West Region Biosphere Reserve, Niger............................................................8 Case Study 4: Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria ............................................................................................10 3. EAST AFRICA............................................................................................................................................................12 Case Study 5:Western Serengeti,Tanzania ..............................................................................................................13 Case Study 6: Mount Kenya Forest, Kenya ..............................................................................................................16 Case Study 7: Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda ................................................................................................18 4. SOUTHERN AFRICA ................................................................................................................................................20 Case Study 8: Communal Conservancies, Namibia ..................................................................................................21 Case Study 9: CAMPFIRE, Zimbabwe....................................................................................................................23 Case Study 10: Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa............................................................................................25 Case Study 11: Mkambati Nature Reserve, South Africa........................................................................................26 Case Study 12:The Makuleke Land Claim, South Africa ........................................................................................28 Case Study 13: Dwesa and Cwebe Wildlife and Marine Reserves, South Africa ....................................................29 Case Study 14: Okavango Region, Botswana ..........................................................................................................31 5. SOUTH ASIA..............................................................................................................................................................33 Case Study 15: Forest, Soil and Water Conservation in Bhaonta-Kolyala Villages, Rajasthan, India ......................34 Case Study 16: Forest Conservation at Jardhargaon, Uttar Pradesh, India ............................................................36 Case Study 17: Natural Resource Management at Mendha (Lekha) Village, Maharashtra, India ..........................38 Case Study 18: Bird Conservation in Kokkare Bellur,Karnataka, India ..................................................................40 Case Study 19:The Ibex Conservation Plan, Hushey Valley Conservation Area, Pakistan ......................................42 Case Study 20: Prawn Farming at Rekawa Lagoon, Sri Lanka ..............................................................................44 Case Study 21: Annapurna Conservation Area Project, Nepal ................................................................................45 6. SOUTH EAST ASIA ..................................................................................................................................................48 Case Study 22: Participatory monitoring in Lao P.D.R...........................................................................................48 Case Study 23: Co-Management of Mekong River Inland Aquatic Resources, Lao P.D.R. ....................................50 Case Study 24: Community-Based Fisheries Co-Management and Protected Areas Management, Lao P.D.R......52 7. CENTRAL AMERICA................................................................................................................................................54 Case Study 25: Management of Turtle Eggs in Ostional, Costa Rica ......................................................................55 Case Study 26: Management of Green Iguanas in Nicaragua ................................................................................56 8. SOUTH AMERICA ....................................................................................................................................................57 Case Study 26:Vicuña Management in Peru ..........................................................................................................58 Case Study 27: Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Brazil......................................................................60 Case Study 28: The Cofan Ecotourism Project, Ecuador........................................................................................62 iii iv 1. Introduction Evaluating Eden The Evaluating Eden initiative evolved from a previous study in 1994 by IIED which reviewed mainly African wildlife management literature and CWM initiatives and analysed top-down and participatory approaches. The study was published as “Whose Eden? An Overview of Community Approaches to Wildlife Management”. Whose Eden? highlighted the fact that most donors accept CWM as the ‘right’ approach, but that this support is often based on untested assumptions and in response to a) the realisation that most countries lack the resources to enforce conservation laws; b) a generally increasing recognition that top-down approaches are morally unacceptable; c) a search for economic development options that would not result in biodiversity loss. However, the study also noted that there was very little empirical evidence demonstrating whether, in fact, such initiatives have succeeded in achieving their goals and that research was urgently required on the environ- mental, social and economic impacts of community wildlife management. For example, has the abundance of wildlife increased in a particular area as a result of a CWM initiative? Have house- hold economies improved and can this be attributed to a CWM initiative? The Evaluating Eden research programme was established to move beyond the literature, to extend the geographical scope of Whose Eden? and to provide a global perspective on the impacts and achievements of CWM. The Evaluating Eden project aims to address three overall research questions: 1. What has CWM achieved for wildlife and for people? 2. How do social, political, economic and environmental factors influence the efficacy of CWM? 3. What are the key characteristics of successful CWM and how can these be spread? The overall findings of the project are presented in the Overview Report to this series (Roe et al 2000). In the first phase of Evaluating Eden, desk-based reviews of the status of CWM were commis- sioned in eight regions: West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Central America and South America. In addition two country reviews were carried out in Australia and Canada, providing an additional and valuable perspective to the project. The regional teams then went on to explore some of the issues raised in these reviews in a series of case studies based on original fieldwork. Some of the case studies are included in the various regional reports that have been published in this series. Others have been published as discussion papers by IIED or research partners. More remain unpublished and available only as “grey” literature. The purpose of this volume is to provide the reader with detailed summaries of all the Evaluating Eden case studies and to point them in the direction of further information. 1 What is CWM? We interpret community-based wildlife management (CWM) as the regulated use of wildlife popu- lations and ecosystems by local ‘stakeholders’. Local stakeholders may be a village, or group of villages; an individual, or group of individuals with a shared interest in the resource. The important factor is not how the community is defined, but the fact that stewardship over wildlife resides at the local rather than the state level. Our definition of CWM encompasses or overlaps with a number of similar terms and approaches (Table 1.1). Table 1.1: CWM – related terms and definitions Term Definition Community-based Conservation by, for and with the local community(Western and Wright 1994). conservation Community A broad spectrum of new management arrangements by people who are not agents of the conservation state, but who, by virtue of their collective location and activities are critically placed