Rethinking Tropical Forest Conservation: Perils in Parks

Abstract

According to some conservationists, large, pristine, uninhabited parks are the defining criterion of success in conserving tropical forests. They argue that human residents in tropical forests inevitably deplete populations of large animals through hunting, which triggers a chain reaction of ecological events that greatly diminish the conservation value of these forests. Hence, they believe that removal of people from tropical forests is an essential step in the creation of successful parks and in the conservation of nature in the tropics. This approach can lead to undesirable consequences, however. Forest residents—and rural people generally—are potent political actors in tropical forest regions and an essential component of the environmental political constituencies that are necessary for the long‐term conservation of tropical forests. In Amazonia and elsewhere, rural people are defending far bigger areas of tropical forest from unfettered deforestation and logging than are parks, thereby conserving the ecological services provided by these forests and the majority of their component plant and animal species. Moreover, the data are too sparse to judge the effects of forest peoples on populations of large forest animals. The establishment of pristine, tropical forest parks is an important conservation goal, but the exclusive pursuit of this goal undermines the broader objectives of conservation when it identifies forest residents and other rural people as the enemies of nature.

Assessment of the effectiveness of nature reserve management in China

“…Community co-management must be applied in the process of reserve management. Many studies have indicated that management plans and management activities have been carried out successfully in many reserves because of the participation of local communities (Borrie et al 1998;Hayes 2006;Schwartzman et al 2000). Thirdly, improvement of living standards in surrounding communities is an important component of the resolution of conflicts between reserves and their surrounding communities (Jim and Xu 2002;Zhang et al 2006), and also an important criterion for nature-reserve management.…”

Ethnobotany of rural people from the boundaries of Carlos Botelho State Park, São Paulo State, Brazil

“…It is not by a chance that some native populations remain near the last fragments of Brazilian Atlantic Forest, often overlapping conservation areas. The conservationist debate over areas free from people versus areas where conservation and use could be coupled is not a new one (Zube & Busch 1990;Schimink et al 1992;Kemf 1993;Schwartzman et al 2000;Peres & Zimmerman 2001). Ethnobotany studies can contribute to this debate, analyzing how local people identify and use the forest resources, and which areas and which species are used most intensively (La Torre-Cuadros & Islebe 2003; Dalle & Potvin 2004).…”

Interdisciplinary progress in approaches to address social-ecological and ecocultural systems

“…Emerging partnerships between faith groups and conservation science present another powerful opportunity (Dudley et al 2006). Policies emphasizing political empowerment, self-governance and territorial control at the grass-roots level have the potential to provide a solid platform from which communities can play a central role in biodiversity conservation at the same time as retaining their own cultural distinctiveness and connectedness to the land (Colchester 2000;Schwartzman et al 2000;Peres & Zimmerman 2001;Heckenberger 2004;Athayde et al 2007).…”