WIREDGOV

Recent research in Africa highlights the need for ways of assessing the impact on local communities of conservation programmes.

Uganda is the home to about half of the world’s mountain gorillas. They live mainly in the Bwindi rainforests that were declared a National Park in 1993. In efforts to conserve the gorillas and other endangered species, indigenous people were relocated from the forest and access to the park was restricted.

This led to conflict with local people and, in an effort to alleviate tensions, integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) were introduced to share the benefits and income from gorilla-tourism. However, research has shown that the benefits have not been shared equally and, as a result, the contribution of ICDPs to material and social entitlement has been uneven.

The investigation was carried out by researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and was supported by the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)programme, which is part-funded by the ESRC. An assessment of the outcomes of conservation projects on local people was made using a ‘justice framework’ that the researchers developed.

Key findings

• People (especially the poor) in non-tourism areas had the least access to the benefits of tourism, including employment opportunities
• Even though roads and schools had been improved, many people had to change their livelihoods and become less dependent on the forest
• Access to spiritual sites and traditional foods and medicines from the forests was restricted, having an adverse impact on wellbeing, nutrition and health for the indigenous Twa community
• Without widespread access to the park, traditional livelihood skills and practices were lost
• Local people were concerned that their children did not have any opportunity to see the forest and its wildlife
• The authorities were seen as having set the agenda for the way the park was run, ignoring issues that were important to local communities.

"In general terms, I think the significance of our investigation is that sustainability requires us to find ways of reconciling social justice with ecological justice," says Dr Adrian Martin of UEA.

"The greater good of biodiversity conservation for humankind as a whole has to be balanced with the rights of individuals and local communities to live dignified lives."

Fieldwork for the investigation was carried out in the Bwindi rainforests over a six-month period in 2011. Expert panel meetings were held to identify local issues about fairness, household surveys were conducted in areas at varying distances from the national park, and focus groups were held along ethnic lines with the Bakiga and Batwa peoples.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that future conservation and development projects should carry out more consultations with local communities and involve them in decision-making, ensure that financial benefits were shared equally with people living in tourism and non-tourism areas, and target access to a national park’s resources for people in non-tourism areas.

"The premise of our research was that the conservation community needs to take justice issues seriously," says Martin.

"It cannot claim to be doing this until it has developed ways of assessing the justice impacts of conservation interventions."

Further information

• Towards an Explicit Justice Framing of the Social Impacts of Conservation (Conservation & Society)
• Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme