Community-focused strategy for local ecology conservation

Traditionally, communities living close to nature have developed lifestyles that honour and conserve nature. These communities have an intrinsic understanding of nature. Such innate knowledge and sensitivities give them a better chance of survival in situations such as a disaster. For example, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, the Indigenous communities could read the sea and move to safer areas when the 2004 tsunami was approaching. This event exemplifies the importance of acknowledging Indigenous knowledge and experience.  Community-focused strategies for local ecology conservation must therefore have communities at their centre.

Community-based conservation has the following benefits:

• Ecological benefits:
• • Protects habitat of native plants and wildlife.
  • Supports natural processes — for example, soil regeneration, flood prevention, waste decomposition, crop pollination, seed dispersal — which are important for the survival of all living things.
  • Effectively halts and reverses degradation.
• Social benefits:
  • Communities take ownership of conservation; use their knowledge, experience and expertise to achieve and improve conservation actions and outcomes; and learn to identify and work with experts and other groups to achieve their goals.
  • Indigenous and local communities livelihoods’ linked to the natural resource remain intact.
    
• Economic or provisioning benefits:
  • Livelihoods linked to natural resources can thrive — for example, enterprises based on non-timber forest products (NTFP) (honey, fish, bee rearing, fruit, etc.), eco-tourism enterprises and conservation area security guards, to name only a few.
  • Costs of dealing with disasters are lower when communities are better prepared.
• Cultural benefits
  • Indigenous and rural communities can integrate their traditional cultural conservation practices into their plans

Creating community reserves is one way to protect biodiversity-rich areas. They include biosphere reserves, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and sacred groves.

The following case studies illustrate what some communities’ ecological conservation actions.

Case study

Assam Hathi (Elephant) project

The Assam Hathi (Elephant) project at Goalpara in Assam, India, involved communities in developing strategies to prevent elephants from damaging standing crops in the fields and to support sustainable livelihoods. The project partners provided solar electric fences and trained certain community members to maintain them. The communities formed village committees, which helped them establish a system to maintain the fences, and raised money to help pay for the maintenance.

Adapted from Banerjee, S. (2020). Local communities and wildlife conservation stories from Northeast. ecoNE. https://www.econe.in/post/local-communities-and-wildlife-conservation-stories-from-northeast-india

Case study

Protecting birds with a community forest

In the Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, India, the Bugun community designated 17 square km of community forest as a community reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, to protect the Bugu Liocichla. This endangered bird is named after the Bugun people who live in the area. One enterprising Bugun leader launched an eco-tourism initiative with the help of a bird-watcher and conservationist. The initiative has attracted bird-watchers from all over the world. While it is a private endeavour that few Bugun community members have participated in, it is still a remarkable example of community-based conservation and nature-inspired enterprise.

Adapted from Banerjee, S. (2020). Local communities and wildlife conservation stories from Northeast. ecoNE. https://www.econe.in/post/local-communities-and-wildlife-conservation-stories-from-northeast-india

Case study

Amur Falcon Roosting Area Union

The Amur falcon roosts in Pangti, Nagaland, India, in October and November. The community-led Amur Falcon Roosting Area Union (AFRAU) patrols the area when the birds are roosting to ensure no hunting takes place. The AFRAU was established in 2013 after the Wokha District Administration and Nagaland Forest Department issued a “no hunting” order following extensive news coverage of the locals’ hunting practices.  Since the AFRAU was established, there has been no hunting of the Amur falcon (Banerjee, 2020).

Adapted from Banerjee, S. (2020). Local communities and wildlife conservation stories from Northeast. ecoNE. https://www.econe.in/post/local-communities-and-wildlife-conservation-stories-from-northeast-india

Case study

Sustainable Rangelands Initiative

The African People & Wildlife’s Sustainable Rangelands Initiative in the northern Tanzania rangelands works to protect the areas where people and wildlife interact for the long-term benefit of both humans and wildlife. “Through regular data collection, assessment, information sharing, and active management, volunteer rangeland monitors – selected in conjunction with local leaders – use a mobile-based reporting system to provide updates on pasture quality to their community networks.”

Source: African People & Wildlife. (n.d.). Sustainable Rangelands Initiative. https://www.africanpeoplewildlife.org/our-work/programs/sustainable-rangelands-initiative

Case study

Protecting marine biodiversity through eco-tourism

Fishing communities at the Kovalam beach near Chennai in India faced a problem when plastics started getting into their fishing gear and affecting their catch. A group of locals recognised that Kovalam’s location made it a prime spot for tourism and started an eco-tourism enterprise at the beach. Along with increasing awareness of ocean biodiversity and conservation, they also offer diving lessons. The group has begun collecting the plastic they find when they go deepsea diving. Their efforts at keeping the beach and the ocean floor clear of plastics have been recognised by the UNEP’s Tide Turners Plastic Challenge, a global initiative of UNEP implemented in India with CEE and WWF India.

Adapted from a conversation between Madhavi Joshi and the youth group (n.d.).

Assessment

Formative assessment:  5.1

1. Based on your reading of the case studies above, write down some of the social, economic, cultural and ecological benefits of protecting local ecosystems.
2. What are the most important points for community-based conservation that emerge from the case studies?

Many conservation practices that communities have been following for generations are being lost and forgotten. For example, keeping aside some grain from the crops produced to use as seeds in the next cropping cycle, intercropping and mixed cropping, to name only a few. Policy changes, schemes promoted through government programmes and market influences have all led to changes that bring in practices such as using pesticides and chemical fertilisers, prioritising certain crops over local varieties, etc. While sacred groves are a feature of many cultures, when governments assume land ownership, communities see the land as no longer belonging to them and the site generally begins to deteriorate. And programmes or practices that focus on forest conservation often overlooks the grasslands ecosystems where unique biodiversity thrives.

Some practices have survived, though. For example, designating certain months as no-fishing months helps to maintain the fish population — communities avoid fishing when fish are breeding during monsoon season in India. Cultural practices play an important role in conservation. In India, the whale shark has been protected by communities in coastal Gujarat, in India, who believe that female whale sharks return to where their mothers were born to give birth to their own offspring and so must be protected.

It is important to place communities’ connections with the environment at the centre of conservation efforts. Community-based conservation can happen at the individual, small group and community level. It is about following certain practices, protecting certain species from being wiped out or conserving an entire habitat and the biodiversity within it. When Indigenous and local communities are partners in conservation efforts, the ecosystem and the community both benefit.