Journal Article

Effect of Local Cultural Context on the Success of Community-Based Conservation Interventions

MILNER-GULLAND, E. J., THIRGOOD, SIMON J., FISCHER, ANKE, WAYLEN, KERRY A., MCGOWAN, PHILIP J. K.

2010

Overview

Conservation interventions require evaluation to understand what factors predict success or failure. To date, there has been little systematic investigation of the effect of social and cultural context on conservation success, although a large body of literature argues it is important. We investigated whether local cultural context, particularly local institutions and the efforts of interventions to engage with this culture significantly influence conservation outcomes. We also tested the effects of community participation, conservation education, benefit provision, and market integration. We systematically reviewed the literature on community-based conservation and identified 68 interventions suitable for inclusion. We used a protocol to extract and code information and evaluated a range of measures of outcome success (attitudinal, behavioral, ecological, and economic). We also examined the association of each predictor with each outcome measure and the structure of predictor covariance. Local institutional context influenced intervention outcomes, and interventions that engaged with local institutions were more likely to succeed. Nevertheless, there was limited support for the role of community participation, conservation education, benefit provision, and market integration on intervention success. We recommend that conservation interventions seek to understand the societies they work with and tailor their activities accordingly. Systematic reviews are a valuable approach for assessing conservation evidence, although sensitive to the continuing lack of high-quality reporting on conservation interventions.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc,Wiley-Blackwell,Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subject: Animal, plant and microbial ecology / Applied ecology / Biodiversity conservation / Biological and medical sciences / Communities / community conservation / Community involvement / Community organizations / Community Participation / Community Participation - methods / community service / Community-Institutional Relations / conservación comunitaria / conservación y desarrollo / conservation and development / Conservation biology / Conservation education / Conservation movement / Conservation of Natural Resources / Conservation of Natural Resources - methods / Conservation of Natural Resources - statistics & numerical data / Conservation organizations / Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife / covariance / Culture / Ecology / Economics / Education / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / General aspects / Habitat conservation / ICDP / instituciones / Institutions / Interventive conservation / markets / methods / Natural resources conservation / Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking / participación / participation / PICD / Protected areas / Socioeconomic factors / statistics & numerical data / Success factors / Wildlife conservation