Standardizing the evaluation of community‐based conservation success

Abstract

Community-based conservation, which strives to simultaneously improve nature conservation and alleviate poverty, must provide biological and socioeconomic benefits that are linked through effective resilience mechanisms. To date, few community-based conservation initiatives have published comprehensive assessments that track performance in these elements of success. With 45% of the world's protected areas in comanagement with local communities, standardized measures to effectively evaluate the dual goals of community-based conservation are needed. We here introduce SPECCS, a user-friendly Standardized Protocol for Evaluating Community Conservation Success that incorporates an appraisal of data quality to responsibly assess progress over time or to compare effectiveness among different initiatives. We illustrate SPECCS's use by evaluating the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary (WCHS) of northern Ghana 10 and 20 yr after its inception. The WCHS has the dual objective of protecting one of Ghana's few remaining hippopotamus populations while alleviating poverty in the surrounding communities through the creation of economic opportunity and infrastructure development. Results suggest stable project performance in the 10-yr (76%) and 20-yr (76%) evaluation, with an improvement in evaluation quality from 30% to 34%. The project is currently stronger in socioeconomic (performance 86%; quality 30%) than biological (60%; 32%) outcomes and in benefits (83%, 42%) than resilience (63%, 21%). Biological resilience is challenged by poor connectivity and limited project control over threats, whereas socioeconomic resilience is affected by a decision balance that continues to favor external stakeholders. SPECCS helps pinpoint strengths and weaknesses for timely adaptive management, strategic investments, and evidence-based recognition of community-based conservation successes.

Regionally unique ant assemblages associated with community‐based conservation in northwestern Ghana

“…The sanctuary comprises three main habitat types: riparian forest along the Black Volta, the adjacent floodplains, and inland Guinea savannah. The riparian zone is characterized by closed‐canopy dense vegetation; the floodplain composed mainly of water‐tolerant plants; while the Guinea savannah habitat is mostly grassland and scrubland, with some small farmland interspersed (Brichieri‐Colombi et al., 2018; Sheppard, 2011).…”

“…The riparian zone is characterized by closed-canopy dense vegetation; the floodplain composed mainly of water-tolerant plants; while the Guinea savannah habitat is mostly grassland and scrubland, with some small farmland interspersed (Brichieri-Colombi et al, 2018;Sheppard, 2011).…”

“…Characterized by Guinea savannah, flood plains and native sub‐Saharan riparian forest, the sanctuary's core zone has been designated as strictly protected, with limited human disturbance since 1998. It is a community‐based conservation initiative, initially started to protect the habitat of one of the last populations of Hippopotamus amphibius in Ghana, that has become an exemplar for enabling and evaluating synergies between biodiversity conservation and human livelihood (Brichieri‐Colombi et al., 2018; Sheppard et al., 2010). Understanding the hippo sanctuary's ant assemblage will be useful in determining the effectiveness of community‐based conservation for insect diversity while improving knowledge about insect diversity in native habitats of West Africa.…”

Anotaciones sobre la noción de pobreza desde el desarrollo sostenible

“…• Diseño de metodologías y protocolos que permiten medir la efectividad de los mecanismos de resiliencia de la población en términos de la conservación de la naturaleza y alivio de los niveles de pobreza; por ejemplo, el protocolo estandarizado SPECCS que evalúa el éxito y la efectividad de las iniciativas de conservación de las comunidades (Brichieri-Colombi, McPherson, Sheppard, Mason & Moehrenschlager, 2018); o análisis de la curva de Kuznets ambiental descompuesta (EKC) para demostrar la relación entre prosperidad económica, social y ambiental (Liu, 2012).…”

The Implications of Community Forest Income on Social and Environmental Sustainability

“…To fill this research gap, we conducted expert elicitation interviews with CF administrators responsible for implementing the rules and managing finances. We used the Standardized Protocol for Evaluating Community Conservation Success (SPECC) to evaluate the CF's ability to meet biological and socioeconomic objectives [40]. SPECC surveys may shed light on the benefits and resilience of CFs between varying levels of timber income and forest-restoration expenditures.…”