Engaging with Communities on Freshwater Protected Area Establishment and Management

Summary

This report was prepared by David Groenfeldt for The Nature Conservancy’s Freshwater Community-Based Conservation program, and contributes to the knowledge base needed for developing TNC's program on freshwater community-based conservation and particularly in the context of Indigenous or traditional communities collaborating with government conservation agencies and/or conservation NGOs in co-managing protected areas. The term "Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities" (IPLC) is used to refer to culturally distinct communities in close interaction with local land and water resources. A guiding principle embedded in the study's approach is that IPLCs should ideally serve as the direct managers or co-managers of protected areas, with conservation scientists playing a support role in establishing the PA; developing governance structures; monitoring ecosystem health, species status, and water quality; and other technical activities.

The rationale in forging partnerships between IPLCs and conservation organizations is a common interest in healthy freshwater ecosystems. The advantages of healthy ecosystems to IPLCs include a stronger subsistence base (e.g., more fish and more secure irrigation), safer drinking water, new income opportunities (ecotourism and new markets for crafts, crops, and non-timber forest products), protection of their biocultural heritage, and enjoyment of territorial sovereignty. The interest of conservation organizations focuses on conserving aquatic and riparian biodiversity and habitat to meet the needs of nature and people. Conservation advocates have come to appreciate both the ethical and practical arguments for engaging with IPLCs in protecting freshwater ecosystems for different but overlapping reasons, and IPLCs have come to view protected areas as an overall benefit (when they are co-managed) rather than a threat. This paradigm of an alliance of interests, rather than a competition over resources, is a new development within the world of conservation policy. Co-management which was once considered radical, has become the new norm. Fortress conservation, which formerly served as justification for evicting local communities from protected areas, has become the rare exception.

There are three reasons for this policy reversal. One reason is that co-management seems to bring better conservation outcomes, and if it does not, the cause can usually be attributed to faulty implementation rather than to the concept itself. The second reason is that co-management brings powerful incentives on both sides to seek new opportunities and solve problems as they arise; there is a healthy, creative dynamic that is engendered which itself is important for sustainability. And the third reason is that co-management is consistent with the unfolding human rights agenda which embraces cultural diversity as a fundamental right, the "right to culture".

Citation

Groenfeldt, D. (2018). Engaging with Communities on Freshwater Protected Area Establishment and Management. Arlington, VA, USA: The Nature Conservancy.

Keywords: community-based conservation; community-based management; freshwater; biodiversity; human well-being; outcomes; Indigenous Peoples; protected areas; co-management