THINKING beyond the canopyTHINKING beyond the canopy

Alternative livelihoods and conservation:

A systematic review

Bogor, Indonesia3rd September 2013

THINKING beyond the canopy

What are alternative livelihoods?

Projects that seek to alleviate a human threat to biodiversity through:•Providing or encouraging the use of an alternative resource•An alternative occupation•An alternative method of exploitation (lower impact)

THINKING beyond the canopy

Livelihood initiatives intended to support conservation

1. Incentives:

2. Compensation:

3. Alternative livelihoods:

“Leave that animal alone and we’ll make it worth your while”.”

“That animal is worth more alive than dead now so leaving it alone will be worth your while.”

“Here’s a new job.” [Goodness, I hope they leave that animal alone now.]

THINKING beyond the canopy

Alternative livelihood projects• Appeal to our intrinsic sense

of fairness• Requested by stakeholders • Required by donors• Much liked by the public• Have become standard fare

in conservation project delivery

• Found in many projects in many places (often duplicated)

THINKING beyond the canopy

However…

• There are very few compelling examples of an alternative livelihood project that have effected net conservation gain

• Measured as healthier wild populations or at least markedly less total effort to damage populations.

THINKING beyond the canopy

Primary research question

• Are alternative livelihood projects effective at reducing local threats to defined elements of biodiversity and/or improving or maintaining the conservation status of those elements?

• “Effective” defined as: Threat alleviation through changes in human attitude, behaviour or well being and (ultimately) improvements in the conservation status of the specific element of biodiversity under threat.

THINKING beyond the canopy

Progress thus far

• Identification of review partners

• Institutional agreements in place

• Completion of scoping study

• Hire of two research assistants to compliment review team

• Preliminary workshop (June)

THINKING beyond the canopyTHINKING beyond the canopy

The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is one of the 15 centres supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

Thank you! www.cifor.cgiar.org