6.31 Zoning to separate incompatible land uses
See option 2.4.11, Volume 1
31a. Zones to provide a safe haven for indigenous people
Brazil and Venezuela
The survival of the Yanomani people and their habitat in Brazil and Venezuela has been increasingly in danger. In Brazil, in particular, the encroachment of gold miners into their territory caused disastrous impacts on local health, the socio-cultural fabric of communities and the natural environment. Road construction and mining operations caused significant deforestation, game population displacement, soil erosion, mercury contamination and other forms of pollution in the Yanomani territory. In addition, previously alien forms of social problems, including poverty, alcoholism and prostitution, are becoming common. Epidemic diseases introduced into the area by miners had a devastating impact on the populations in the villages. In 1993, a massacre of Yanomani villagers (reportedly at the hands of disgruntled miners) was made known around the world.
In order to preserve the Yanomani's culture and land tenure system as well as the integrity of their natural environment, UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme has proposed a Biosphere Reserve based on three concentric zones: a central core area which is strictly protected; a buffer zone in which research, educational and recreational activities are allowed; and transitional areas designated for sustainable economic development. The zoning was decided through consultation among scientists, park managers and local populations. In the proposal, the Yanomani would occupy the core and non-Yanomani people would be prohibited from entering it. The buffer zone would be used in part for assistance programmes to the Yanomani. Regulated, small-scale mining would be allowed in the transitional zone with rotation of mining fields and progressive restoration. Royalties would be paid to the Yanomani by the mining companies for the temporary use of their land. The programmes would be monitored by an outside organization in collaboration with scientists familiar with the Yanomani and their ecosystems.
Abridged from: Sponsel in Lewis, 1995.
31b. Sustainable use protected through zoning
Uganda
The Mount Elgon Conservation and Development Project is being implemented in Mount Elgon National Forest Park by Uganda's Department of Environmental Protection with assistance from IUCN. Within the park are the bamboo plantations that are an essential resource for the surrounding villagers. As part of the management strategy for the forest park, a zone system is to be introduced. Certain areas will be designated "strict protection zones". These will include a considerable area of bamboo, both as a safeguard against possible future over-exploitation in the remaining areas, and as a control for the bamboo monitoring programme. "Community use zones" will include the rest of the bamboo stands (about 50 per cent of the total) and, within this area, controlled harvesting will be officially authorized.
A researcher who conducted a study about the zoning system emphasized the importance of the community use zone being useful to the people, and not simply degraded land that was not valuable enough to be included within a high protection zone. She also stressed that it is meaningless to allocate areas for use which are not preferred and pre-utilized by the community, and that it is much easier to control a "no-use" zone which is originally under minimal utilization pressure. The researcher emphasized that the zones should not be defined before there was a clear understanding of use patterns. The user maps undertaken as part of the socio-economic survey provided important information for the zoning, as they show the trails most commonly used for bamboo harvesting and the preferred areas of collection.
Abridged from: Scott, 1994.
31c. Combining biodiversity with human enjoyment
Australia
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest marine park in the world. Biologically it supports one of the most diverse ecosystems known. The unique environment of the reef and its size and diversity have been recognized worldwide; in 1981 the reef became a World Heritage Site. It is not a national park, but a multiple-use protected area. Zoning is one of the fundamental mechanisms to separate and provide for widely diverse and sometimes conflicting activities. Levels of protection within the park vary from an almost complete absence of restriction to zones within which almost no human activities are permitted. The only activities prohibited throughout the park are oil exploration, mining, littering, spear-fishing with scuba and the taking of large specimens of certain species of fish. There are three main categories of zones: Preservation or Scientific Research; Marine National Park; and General Use. The zones are complemented by generally smaller areas that give special protection from time to time to animal breeding or nesting sites, to allow an appreciation of nature free from fishing or collecting, or to carry out scientific research. There are also "no-structures" sub-zones to ensure that portions of the reef close to urban centres and therefore subject to heavy human use do not become dotted with permanent or semi-permanent buildings.
Through this zoning system, which is subject to review every five years, a large marine ecosystem has been able to provide for use, appreciation and enjoyment while protecting a range of specific areas and organisms: a balance between human need and environmental protection has been struck!
From: Kelleher and Craik, n.d.
31d. Zoning supported but its not what you think!
Burkina Faso
The Gestion des Terroirs programme is implementing a system of zoning to separate areas used for agriculture, grazing, wood collection, fallow, etc. There is increasing support from villagers who claim that the zoning helps to avoid grazing animals in the fields. But the original inhabitants, concerned about land scarcity, see the zoning as an opportunity to control the number of plots and to halt further immigration. Under the traditional land distribution system, the chief automatically granted newcomers land if they agreed to obey the customs and rules in the village. This system was coming under increasing pressure due to the recent increase in the volume of immigration. Zoning was therefore welcomed in the villages.
The project offered at the right moment an arrangement that suited the interests of the most powerful people in the villages. A halt to immigration has occurred, although when pressed many believe that there is sufficient space for more people. The real opposition to immigration is that the original ethnic group feels their monopoly on decision-making at the village level is being threatened by the increasingly large number of immigrants. Thus, the reason why zoning works is tied to the struggle for power rather than a recognized need to protect natural resources.
Abridged from: Engberg-Pedersen, 1995.
6.32 Primary environmental care (PEC) projects
See option 2.4.12, Volume 1
32a. A perfect PEC example
Costa Rica
In the region of Talamanca in the last decade a group of 12 immigrant peasant families created a small association called ASACODE. The association is involved in a variety of activities, but one in particular represents a perfect PEC example. The families own some forest land and wish to obtain economic benefits from its timber. One way would be to sell the trees to a large company, which would come, open up a road and harvest in a destructive and usually inefficient way. The families would get little and would inherit a patch of severely degraded land. The alternative chosen by ASACODE has been to harvest the timber themselves in a highly selective way, followed by replanting. They process the timber locally and carry it away by water buffalo (so they do not damage the soil or other trees). Importantly, they fully process the timber themselves before selling it, thus maximising their revenues from the timber. The PEC components (community organizing, protection of the environment and meeting of local needs) are all satisfied!
32b. Conservation action grants
Madagascar
PACT/GMU (a local NGO) is mandated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to manage two types of grants: the Protected Area Development Grant (PADGS) and the Conservation Action Grants (CAGS). The second type of grant is used to fund community-initiated activities that link conservation and development in the buffer zones adjacent to any of Madagascar's 50 protected sites.
The types of activities which can be funded (when linked to conservation) include:
32c. Different projects for different groups
Tanzania
Several PEC initiatives were established in the village of Siginos as part of the Forest, Trees and People (FTP) project. Most of the households became involved in the activities, and all villagers benefited to at least some extent. The projects included:
By the time the FTP project was terminated, Sigino villagers were active and experienced in requesting many kinds of support. Villagers compared their problems with those in other villages, and land-use issues were much debated.
Abridged from: Johansson and Westman, 1992.
32d. Saving the ducks provides protein and jobs
El Salvador
In the 1970s the biological importance of Laguna El Jocotal attracted the attention of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. In particular, El Jocotal supports a large diversity of plants and animals and is the most important area of freshwater in El Salvador. As such, it provides a vital resting place for migratory birds from North America. The National Parks Service took over responsibility for Laguna El Jocotal in 1976. At the time, the area was used by a tourist company as a hunting reserve catering for foreign hunters. With the establishment of a wildlife refuge, hunting and the cutting of trees were forbidden.
The Wildlife Service established a small team of wildlife guards who were responsible for the protection of the lagoon and its resources. The guards were recruited from among the local population; many had worked in the past as guides for foreign hunters. As a result of the guards being hired, the incidence of illegal hunting declined significantly. Surveys carried out by the Wildlife Service confirmed the importance of the wildlife resources of the lagoon and their critical condition. In particular, years of hunting had almost totally wiped out the populations of tree-nesting ducks. In addition, their nesting sites had been almost totally lost as the tree cover declined.
A decision was made to establish a pilot project to provide nesting boxes for tree-nesting ducks. At the end of the 1970s an analysis of the preliminary results revealed that a huge number of eggs were being laid — so many that the females could not cover them all and many were lost. Accordingly it was decided to offer the eggs to the local community for consumption. Duck eggs and meat have traditionally been a food source. By providing eggs, the project sought to increase protein consumption in the desperately poor communities of El Jocotal. It was felt that this direct benefit would increase support for the conservation of the lagoon by local people.
Between 1981 and 1985, 300 new nest boxes were established and, from these, more than 30,0000 eggs were harvested and 12,000 chicks hatched. More than 80 people from the local community were contracted to carry out the work, including the harvesting of eggs and maintaining the nest boxes. Several of these people have now built and erected nest boxes around their own homes. Overall the project has contributed to a substantial increase in the local awareness of the importance of the lagoon and the benefits that can be obtained from it, as well as to an increase in local support for protecting the lagoon from the external pressures it faces.
In this project, linking local benefits with a conservation initiative is well established. In order to make it a better PEC initiative, however, the local organizing and empowerment around the management of the Laguna should be improved.
Abridged from Benitez in Davis, 1993.
32e. Trees for drainage and timber
Pakistan
Ahsan Wan village in Sindh province lost one third of its land due to land degradation caused by seepage from a canal. Community discussions promoted by Oxfam resulted in a comprehensive community initiative to reclaim the lands by engineering and biological means of drainage. The initiative also involved a community forestry programme to absorb the drainage between the canal and the land. By using the trees, the community does not have to pay for mechanical or tubewell drainage and, in addition, it obtains supplementary income from the sale of timber. Thus, this is an 'exemplary' PEC project: it is beneficial for the local environment, beneficial for the local people (income!) and it is planned and managed by a local group.
32f.When participation succeeds...
India
In the Indian state of Haryana, north of New Delhi, are the Shivalik hills: a natural ecosystem of luxuriant vegetation of broad-leafed and coniferous species. Unfortunately, since the middle of the last century, the hills have suffered the effects of wrong policies and unchecked exploitation of resources, in particular timber and grass. Watershed erosion became so persistent and severe that the topography of the region was profoundly affected. Deep gullies carved the denuded hills while the downstream lakes and reservoirs slowly filled up with fertile silt and sediments.
The Haryana Forest Department attempted to stop this destructive process by constructing check dams, palisades and silt detention structures. It even erected barbed wire fences along the boundary of the areas to be protected and reforested: all attempts were frustrated. As soon as the stones and wooden posts used to build the check dams and palisades were in place, the local villagers removed them for their own domestic use. Within a few days of the setting of a fence, passages were opened to allow the goats and cattle access to what was left of the hills' pasture. It was a battle with no end and no winners. People and foresters fought one another while the environment got increasingly degraded and the people got increasingly poorer.
The people of the Sukhomajri village were major contributors to and victims of this state of affairs. In the late 1970s, after the latest baffled attempt at fencing a severely degraded area, a concerned forestry offi-cer went to talk directly with them and pleaded that they stop grazing and foraging the watershed. The villagers replied that they were prepared to do so, but only if alternative means of survival could be found for them, since they were totally dependent on the hills' fodder and fuel.
The solution was to capitalize on an unused resource: rainwater. Previously, rainwater was left to run downstream with its load of fertile soil. With some outside support, the people of Sukhomajri built a small earth dam above a gully head, thus collecting rainwater that could be used for irrigation. This brought a dramatic increase in local crop yields and provided a strong incentive to maintain the supply by protecting the watershed. The impounded water was distributed equally, irrespective of land ownership, meaning that some could make use of it and others could sell it: everybody shared in the common interest. Slowly but steadily the number of goats raised locally decreased, and the number of stall-fed buffaloes and the local milk production increased.
A village society was formed and was soon assigned responsibility for forest protection by the Forest Department. The society provided for contour trenches to improve the moisture regime in the hills, and planted local tree species and much bhabbar grass. The grass provided excellent fodder, which was hand collected and sold following the society's own rules and equally benefiting all village households. Soon another check dam was built in the area of Sukhomajri; by the early 1980s the Haryana Forest Department had become the leading implementing agency in building dams, providing communities with grass leases and helping organize management societies in a variety of villages in the Shivalik hills. The barbed wire fences could be permanently removed: people's participation had successfully replaced them with much more effective 'social fencing'.
From: Borrini, 1993.
6.33 Jobs for local people
See option 2.4.13, Volume 1
33a. Jobs essential to offset impact on local economy
India
In the Keoladeo Ghana (Bharatpur) National Park in western India, famous for its immense bird diversity, an attempt has been made to provide jobs to local people living around the park. A few positions in the park management are held by local people; local youth are employed as nature guides after undertaking training courses provided by the management. Others are employed as cycle rickshaw-pullers, ferrying tourists into the park. Now the authorities are offering them some crash courses to improve their bird identification skills so that they can supplement their earnings by guiding.
A common complaint from villagers is that many of the rickshaw-pulling jobs have been cornered by residents of Bharatpur town. The park authorities are trying to redress this imbalance. Training of village youth has been stepped up in the last few years. Local NGOs are active in trying to identify ways in which villagers could be given greater benefits from the park. This is critical, for the park has witnessed one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of Indian conservation. In the early 1980s, seven villagers were killed while protesting an arbitrary ban on buffalo grazing imposed by park authorities. The ban has severely affected the local animal husbandry economy, and alternatives are urgently needed if villagers' support for the park is to be regained.
33b. Employment plus community facilities
Uganda
Project staff helped a local community living near the Bwindi National Park headquarters to establish a camping ground for tourists at the entrance to the gorilla tourism zone. The Buhoma Community Camp was opened in 1993. As well as providing employment for the local people, the venture brings benefits to the wider community. Profits from the use of the facilities are being used to help local people (e.g., women's groups) and to build a school and dispensary.
33c. Djoudj people pay a high price for national park
Senegal
The Djoudj National Park operation provides an example of a national park opening up job creation opportunities which can help to compensate a community for loss of livelihood. It is also an example of a private operator profiting from a national park for many years while the livelihood needs of the local people, who had paid a high price for the park, were neither acknowledged nor consulted.
To many observers the ecotourism potential of the Djoudj National Bird Park is under-utilized. One of the reasons for this is a conflict between the operator of the Djoudj Hotel and hotel operators on the mainland. The government of Senegal has granted a monopoly concession to the Djoudj Hotel operator, who now requires hotel owners from nearby Saint Louis to use the boat and other services of the Djoudj Hotel when they bring visitors to Djoudj. These services are charged out at such a high rate that hotel owners in Saint Louis are boycotting Djoudj and advising their tourists to visit alternative sites in the region. In the meantime, the local people of Djoudj, who lost a great deal as a result of the conservation initiative, receive no benefits at all. They were expelled from the park, which was their traditional land, and their rice fields are being destroyed by birds and wild pigs. Yet, they are not involved in the management of the site and receive no portion of the fees collected by the private hotel operator from those tourists who still come to the bird park.
It is now proposed that villagers be involved in the initiative and derive benefits from it. Projects being considered are the transporting of tourists through the Djoudj waterways, and encouraging tourists to visit the periphery of the park to view cultural activities and purchase traditional crafts.
33d. Permits for forest exploitation create jobs
Mali
In 1990, the ILO and the Forest and Water Department of Mali, with financial support from the Norwegian government and UNDP, initiated a project in the Kita District of the Republic of Mali, which had three interrelated objectives:
By the end of 1995, 34 village associations had taken up permits. Together the associations debate common problems and interests, such as developing a common price system and hiring private forest technicians. In the areas surrounding the forests, the project helps agricultural producers to increase their productivity and thus reduce their need to clear forest land. More than 300 compost heaps have been introduced. Women's associations engage in agro-forestry, apiculture and commercial shea-butter-nut processing through the use of a revolving fund provided by the project. In these ways, additional jobs have been created.
From: ILO, 1995b.
6.34 Local distribution of revenues from the conservation initiative
See option 2.4.14, Volume 1
34a. Revenue sharing for community projects
Uganda
Up to ten per cent of the revenue from entrance fees, guide fees, camping and gorilla-tracking in Bwindi National Park goes to support community development projects in the 21 parishes surrounding the park. Each of the local communities elects a committee which has responsibility for deciding which project proposal submitted by the local residents should be forwarded to the Park Management Advisory Committee (PMAC) for funding. The PMAC comprises the chairs of each parish committee plus women's representatives and district administrators. NGOs also attend as non-voting members. The applications from each parish are assessed in terms of viability, budget and compliance with environmental objectives. The PMAC then allocates the funds to the parishes whose projects have been approved.
34b. Wildlife revenue supports households and funds facilities
The Masoka Community of the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe, has a large wildlife population that supports a vibrant safari industry. Every year since implementing the CAMPFIRE initiative, the Masoka community has been able to distribute significant revenues from wildlife utilization to individual households and community development projects. Revenues have been used to support 140 households as well to develop and maintain the local school, health clinic, anti-poaching unit, drought relief fund, game fence, football club and women's club.
Revenue from the initiative has come to constitute a significant source of household income in the community and has enabled the development of education and health facilities at a time when government reduced its spending for such services. Masoka is located in a very marginal ecosystem where a good agricultural season comes about once every five years. By providing input to the drought relief fund, the initiative has enhanced the food security of the community.
34c. Fines and fees provide community funds The Conservation and Development Committees (CDCs) of ACAP are legally empowered
to make decisions regarding sustainable utilization of timber, fuelwood and
non-timber forest products. They are authorized to issue permits for the harvesting
of timber or non-timber forest products (e.g., medicinal plants, bamboo, etc.)
and to charge a fee. Committees can also fine people for illegal hunting, fishing,
felling of trees and collection of non-timber forest products. All the revenues
collected from these activities are kept in the CDC fund to be used for conservation
and development activities.
In addition, ACAP is authorized by the government of Nepal to collect an entry fee of US$13 per tourist trekking in the Annapurna region. A considerable portion of the revenue collected from the tourists is utilized in conservation initiatives in the region and a certain amount is deposited in an endowment fund. This fund is used for the establishment of community plantations, forest management, trail/bridge/school repairs and maintenance, improvements to drinking water, construction and maintenance of health clinics, etc. The entry fees are also the major source of funding for ACAP conservation initiatives in the region.
34d. Revenue distribution requires effective structures and processes The Administrative Management Design Programme for Game Management Areas (ADMADE)
was set up to address problems of elephant management and protection. By involving
local communities ADMADE contributed to the development of a strategy for reducing
the rampant poaching of wildlife in and around Zambia's National Parks and Game
Management Areas (GMAs). The strategy aimed to achieve this by managing wildlife
through a partnership with local communities. Two of the programme's central
features are the Wildlife Management Authorities (WMAs) established in each
area, and the Wildlife Conservation Revolving Fund (WCRF) established by a directive
of the Ministry of Finance to recycle revenue from wildlife utilization.
All earnings generated from wildlife management within the areas are paid into the Wildlife Conservation Revolving Fund. This fund provides the money to sustain wildlife management in GMAs and the neighbouring national park; the balance is allocated quarterly to the GMAs in proportion to the income that each one generated. These funds are used for community development projects. Decisions regarding their allocation are made by the local WMA. The WMA has to account to the fund for all expenditures in the quarter, prior to the release of further funds.
The ability of some communities to benefit from the scheme is severely limited by the poverty of their wildlife resource and the ban on elephant trophy hunting. In 1994, 54 per cent of the fund was earned by the top five GMAs and 83 per cent was earned by the top ten (of 34 GMAs). Capital investment in non-consumptive tourism and the commercial use of veld products as part of the ADMADE programme could substantially increase the benefits available to the other participating communities.
Apart from the disparities in community revenues there have been problems with the fund's administrative structures. Until recently the fund experienced substantial management problems, which caused major delays in financial distributions and raised concerns about its sustainability. These problems appear to have been largely resolved with the appointment of a professional accountant as fund manager. The key constraint to disbursement now seems to lie with the WMAs, which are struggling with their management and reporting obligations.
From: Steiner and Rihoy, 1995.
34e. Clans take turns at running businesses
Rural economic ventures in PNG are often troubled by the problem of sharing benefits among the many independent clans in a village. This problem has been neatly addressed in two villages in different parts of the country.
At Lae, on the east coast of PNG, the Village Development Trust (VDT) provides training for village-based portable sawmill owners. Many of these mills are owned on a village basis and the VDT helps its clients to develop a system where each clan in the village takes turns managing the mill. A clan will operate a mill for a month, taking all profits and costs, and then pass management on to the next clan. Although the system initially required a fairly large training investment, it ensures fair income distribution, spreads skills through the community and provides the basis for further enterprise development.
34f. Integrating conservation with tourism and community development
The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) devised a management strategy to integrate tourism, resource conservation and community development for the benefit of both the local communities and international visitors. This was an innovative and bold approach and was tried for the first time in Nepal's protected areas. The approach emphasized three main principles:
35a. Apiculture in Andranomalaza Andranomalaza is a village in the peripheral zone of Zahamena Integral Natural
Reserve in Madagascar. In addition to the slash-and-burn rice cultivation (tavy)
which provides the largest part of their income, the people also collect wild
honey in the reserve's forest, which they sell for supplementary cash.
In 1993, agents of the Dette Nature Project (established to support the Waters and Forests Department) decided that the honey-collecting technique used by the villagers induced forest fire, and suspected the villagers of conducting other undesirable activities in the reserve while they were collecting honey. They ordered the villagers to stop collecting honey in the reserve. The villagers replied; "We are already not allowed to practice tavy in the reserve, now you tell us not to collect honey. All you tell us are forbidding orders. Are there not some activities we may undertake?". After some discussion it was jointly decided that the villagers would stop collecting honey in the reserve and, in return, project staff would help them to develop beekeeping techniques outside the reserve. A contract to this effect has been signed between the project and the villagers.
35b. Replacement land as compensation One of the major activities of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP)
is to increase the green cover either by managing the natural forest area or
by carrying out community plantation in the fallow community or public land.
Indigenous, fast-growing tree seedlings are planted in these areas. Traditionally,
however, these lands were used by local people for livestock grazing. Once the
area is designated as plantation, access to free grazing of livestock is lost.
In such cases, the CDC usually designates another appropriate area for grazing
or gives priority to harvest grasses as compensation to those who are directly
affected by the initiatives. The ACAP does not encourage financial compensation.
Fuelwood is the major source of energy for cooking and heating both for the local people and for the more than 45,000 trekking tourists who come into the region every year. To minimize the growing pressure on the forest resources, the project is focusing on alternative energy programmes and introducing various appropriate technologies. One of the technologies adopted is micro-hydro technology which has been successfully implemented in a few critical areas. During the construction of one of the micro-hydro sites, a patch of private land had to be used for construction of the power house. The local construction committee decided to compensate the landowner by providing another piece of land of the same quality and size. He was quite happy with the decision. After the decision, however, a few other people politicized the issue and started demanding compensation even though they had experienced no serious losses. This unnecessarily delayed the programme by two months. The situation was resolved by the local people after a series of village meetings.
35c. Trust fund and jobs The Richtersveld National Park plan provides for the establishment of a community
trust whereby the parks board deposits a set fee per hectare per year and channels
the net profits from its nursery. The residents of Northern Richtersveld can
use the funds for local projects. In addition they are to be given preference
as employees in the park.
Zimbabwe
Nepal
Zambia
Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Wagu village in the Hunstein Range has set up a house-stay arrangement where tourists are lodged with a family during their visit to the village. In order to distribute the income fairly, the community has decided to allocate tourists on a rotating basis through the village families so that each family and clan has the opportunity to host a stay and to benefit from the income.
Nepal
6.35 Compensation and substitution programmes
See option 2.4.15, Volume 1
Madagascar
Nepal
South Africa
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