The role of community-based wild resource management in Zimbabwe

Wildlife was in decline in Zimbabwe while the resource was being managed centrally by the State in terms of conventional protectionist legislation. The legislation was changed in 1960 and this led to cautious institutional reforms, whereby responsibility for wildlife was gradually devolved to landholders who were encouraged to use it profitably. This was achieved without the State abrogating its ultimate responsibility for the wellbeing of the resource.The CAMPFIRE programme was a response to the particular requirements of communally managed wild resources. Successful implementation required that appropriate institutions were in place. These allowed the peasants a meaningful say in the management of their wildlife and permitted them to use it profitably to generate a sufficient incentive to persuade them to conserve the resource on their land. As on large-scale commercial ranches, socio-economic factors proved more significant than ecological considerations in preserving wildlife on communally occupied land that is representative of much of Africa and the Third World.Former Director of National Parks and Wild Life Management, Zimbabwe.     

Lessons from community-based payment for ecosystem service schemes: from forests to rangelands

Climate finance investments and international policy are driving new community-based projects incorporating payments for ecosystem services (PES) to simultaneously store carbon and generate livelihood benefits. Most community-based PES (CB-PES) research focuses on forest areas. Rangelands, which store globally significant quantities of carbon and support many of the world''s poor, have seen little CB-PES research attention, despite benefitting from several decades of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) projects. Lessons from CBNRM suggest institutional considerations are vital in underpinning the design and implementation of successful community projects. This study uses documentary analysis to explore the institutional characteristics of three African community-based forest projects that seek to deliver carbon-storage and poverty-reduction benefits. Strong existing local institutions, clear land tenure, community control over land management decision-making and up-front, flexible payment schemes are found to be vital. Additionally, we undertake a global review of rangeland CBNRM literature and identify that alongside the lessons learned from forest projects, rangeland CB-PES project design requires specific consideration of project boundaries, benefit distribution, capacity building for community monitoring of carbon storage together with awareness-raising using decision-support tools to display the benefits of carbon-friendly land management. We highlight that institutional analyses must be undertaken alongside improved scientific studies of the carbon cycle to enable links to payment schemes, and for them to contribute to poverty alleviation in rangelands.     

基于熵值法的我国野生动物资源可持续发展研究

在构建我国野生动物资源可持续发展指标体系、采用熵值法确定各指标权重的基础上,研究了野生动物及栖息地的保护与资源经济协调发展情况,分析了野生动物资源可持续发展的总体运行趋势.结果表明:(1) 2001-2009年,我国野生动物及栖息地保护综合指数、资源经济综合指数和社会进步综合指数总体呈上升趋势.(2)2001-2005年、2007-2009年,野生动物及栖息地保护与资源经济的协调发展度值在0.14-0.35之间,整体协调发展水平较低,属于失调衰退类;2006年的协调发展度值为0.45,处于保护与利用协调发展的过渡阶段.(3)野生动物资源可持续发展水平呈上升趋势,但总体水平不高,2001-2005年的可持续发展综合指数在0.15-0.31之间,属于传统较落后的发展阶段,2007、2008年的可持续发展综合指数分别为0.45和0.47,属于传统较落后的发展阶段;2006年、2009年的可持续发展综合指数分别为0.55和0.56,实现了由传统发展向可持续发展的过渡.     

Community-based natural resource use and management of Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary,Uganda, for livelihood benefits

Conservation and sustainable management of wetlands requires participation of local stakeholders, including communities. The Bigodi Wetland is unusual because it is situated in a common property landscape but the local community has been running a successful community-based natural resource management programme (CBNRM) for the wetland for over a decade. Whilst external visitors to the wetland provide ecotourism revenues we sought to quantify community benefits through the use of wetland goods such as firewood, plant fibres, and the like, and costs associated with wild animals damaging farming activities. We interviewed 68 households living close to the wetland and valued their cash and non-cash incomes from farming and collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and water. The majority of households collected a wide variety of plant and fish resources and water from the wetland for household use and livestock. Overall, 53% of total household cash and non-cash income was from collected products, mostly the wetland, 28% from arable agriculture, 12% from livestock and 7% from employment and cash transfers. Female-headed households had lower incomes than male-headed ones, and with a greater reliance on NTFPs. Annual losses due to wildlife damage were estimated at 4.2% of total gross income. Most respondents felt that the wetland was important for their livelihoods, with more than 80% identifying health, education, craft materials and firewood as key benefits. Ninety-five percent felt that the wetland was in a good condition and that most residents observed the agreed CBNRM rules regarding use of the wetland. This study confirms the success of the locally run CBNRM processes underlying the significant role that the wetland plays in local livelihoods.     

Artists as Harvesters: Natural Resource Use by Indigenous Woodcarvers in Central Arnhem Land,Australia

Plant resources are used, managed and conserved by local communities in many parts of the world. However, very few studies have examined the site-specific factors and mechanisms that affect resource extraction. We apply methodology from the social and biological sciences to examine the cultural and socio-economic factors that influence the harvest practice and resource use of indigenous wood carvers in the Maningrida region of central Arnhem Land. Woodcarvers from this region use a small number of carving timbers with two species dominant, Bombax ceiba and Brachychiton diversifolius. There were many cultural differences in harvest practice, with artists from the Kuninjku/Kunibeidji language community harvesting a greater number of tree species, larger quantities per harvest trip and smaller sized stems. Socio-economic factors also played an important role in facilitating the collection of stems as artists owning a vehicle acquired more stems than those who did not. Harvest sites closest to the township of Maningrida had higher visitation frequencies than those further away. These influences on harvest practice have significant implications for the ecological sustainability of timber harvesting in this region and we highlight the need to examine such localised factors when assessing the sustainability of indigenous wildlife harvests.     

面向生态系统服务的森林生态系统经营:现状、挑战与展望

森林生态系统是地球陆地生态系统的主体,它具有很高的生物生产力和生物量以及丰富的生物多样性,对全球生态系统和人类经济社会发展起着至关重要和无可替代的作用。伴随着人口的不断增长和经济社会的迅猛发展,对森林资源和森林生态系统服务的需求不断高涨,而且人类对森林资源价值的认识也发生了很大程度的改变。推进森林资源可持续经营,增加森林总量、提高森林质量、增强生态功能,已成为中国林业可持续发展乃至推进中国生态文明建设和建设美丽中国的战略任务。本文全面综述了森林生态系统经营发展历程,分析了森林生态系统经营的现状和存在问题,在此基础上,提出整合基于生态系统管理与满足现代人类福祉对森林多重需求的新的森林生态系统经营理念,面向生态系统服务的森林生态系统经营理念是未来的发展趋势。森林经营发展战略表现为:1)从单纯的森林面积数量扩张,转变到提高单位面积的森林生产力和森林质量;2)从单一追求木材生产逐步转变为多目标经营,将森林林产品单一的经营目标转变为广泛的生态、经济和社会等多目标经营;3)森林经营重点从林分水平转变为森林景观的经营,强调森林景观的时空异质性和动态变化,权衡和协同多种生态系统的服务功能,倡导森林景观的多样性和连通性,提高森林与其它土地利用模式镶嵌构成的复合景观的可持续性和稳定性,增强森林生态系统对气候变化影响的适应能力;4)森林生态系统经营将从依赖传统经验的主观决策转变为信息化、数字化和智能化的决策,发展森林生态系统经营决策支持系统和森林景观恢复与空间经营规划系统。     

Underperformance of African Protected Area Networks and the Case for New Conservation Models: Insights from Zambia

Many African protected areas (PAs) are not functioning effectively. We reviewed the performance of Zambia’s PA network and provide insights into how their effectiveness might be improved. Zambia’s PAs are under-performing in ecological, economic and social terms. Reasons include: a) rapidly expanding human populations, poverty and open-access systems in Game Management Areas (GMAs) resulting in widespread bushmeat poaching and habitat encroachment; b) underfunding of the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) resulting in inadequate law enforcement; c) reliance of ZAWA on extracting revenues from GMAs to cover operational costs which has prevented proper devolution of user-rights over wildlife to communities; d) on-going marginalization of communities from legal benefits from wildlife; e) under-development of the photo-tourism industry with the effect that earnings are limited to a fraction of the PA network; f) unfavourable terms and corruption which discourage good practice and adequate investment by hunting operators in GMAs; g) blurred responsibilities regarding anti-poaching in GMAs resulting in under-investment by all stakeholders. The combined effect of these challenges has been a major reduction in wildlife densities in most PAs and the loss of habitat in GMAs. Wildlife fares better in areas with investment from the private and/or NGO sector and where human settlement is absent. There is a need for: elevated government funding for ZAWA; greater international donor investment in protected area management; a shift in the role of ZAWA such that they focus primarily on national parks while facilitating the development of wildlife-based land uses by other stakeholders elsewhere; and new models for the functioning of GMAs based on joint-ventures between communities and the private and/or NGO sector. Such joint-ventures should provide defined communities with ownership of land, user-rights over wildlife and aim to attract long-term private/donor investment. These recommendations are relevant for many of the under-funded PAs occurring in other African countries.     

Cyclone Winston and Community-Based Marine Conservation in Fiji

ABSTRACT

The establishment and use of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) groups is now the established route towards conservation in large parts of the Pacific, especially in Fiji. One of the main strengths of CBNRM that is often mentioned is its adaptability to different contexts and to changing objectives among stakeholders, an aspect thoroughly tested by events such as ‘natural’ disasters. This paper is based on 10 months of fieldwork in Kubulau district in Fiji before, during and after Cyclone Winston. It provides an ethnographic account of how this ‘natural’ disaster affected a community and the local CBNRM group. It looks at how this event was experienced and managed by the group, and how the group’s involvement in disaster assistance shifted its role both within and outside of the community, as well as changing its future agenda during the months that followed. We can see in the aftermath of disaster a shift within the group away from the original primary focus on conservation and towards development. The paper provides an account of how the disaster seemingly strengthened the group and the ‘community’ in terms of organisation, knowledge and motivation, but also how it challenged previous norms and exposed weaknesses that are arguably inherent within CBNRM itself.     

The practice and principles of community-based wildlife management in Zimbabwe: the CAMPFIRE programme

This paper describes Zimbabwe's wildlife-based CAMPFIRE programme. It suggests that community-based natural resource management is a potential solution to the inter-linked problems of poverty and conservation if it is based on sound management principles that also incorporate transparency, accountability and democracy because the unit of management is a community.This first section suggests that many of the causes of these natural resource problems in communal lands are a result of the failure of mechanisms to price and allocate resources efficiently. The second section describes the evolution of CAMPFIRE, while the third section summarizes the principles that underpin the programme. The fourth section discusses the governance of natural resources and describes the process by which rights to wildlife have been devolved. This emphasizes how important political and administrative systems are to wildlife conservation. CAMPFIRE can be viewed as a five-step process: getting an enabling political, legal, administrative and economic environment; creating awareness and a demand for the programme; generating revenues; using these revenues effectively; and, finally, setting in place the institutions and capacity for locally-based natural resource management. The first four sections of the paper deal with step on — the enabling environment, what it is and how it came about. The final section describes the actual implementation of the programme and is rather brief.     

农牧交错带农牧复合系统的可持续机制

农牧复合系统具有综合资源、兼顾生态与生计、环境与经济发展的作用,是农牧交错带脱贫富民的必由之路。目前,农牧复合实践迫切需要建立可持续的运行机制。针对于此,运用农户调查、土地养分测定和农牧测产、分室模型等方法,对宁夏盐池县皖记沟村农牧复合系统的资源支持、农户农牧复合生产方式、农牧复合系统的物质流开展研究。结果表明,促进农牧复合系统发展的主要原因是资源基础和耕地、灌木林地、草地系统耦合的生产方式。目前主要生产饲草料的水浇地和柠条林地的水资源可持续性是农牧复合系统能否长期持续的关键。加强水土资源、饲草料生产和滩羊养殖之间的系统调控和整体协同,是农牧交错带农牧复合系统可持续发展的必然选择。     

Fragmentation,Cooperation and Power: Institutional Dynamics in Natural Resource Governance in North-Western Namibia

Contemporary theoretical accounts of common pool resource management assume that communities are able to develop institutions for sustainable resource management if they are given security of access and appropriate rights of management. In recent years comprehensive legal reforms of communal rural resource management in Namibia have sought to create an institutional framework linking the sustainable use of natural resources (game, water, forest) and rural development. The state, however, ceded rights to rural communities in an ambiguous and fragmented manner, creating a number of instances of overlapping property rights and different legal conditions for different natural resources. Nowadays communities grapple with the challenge of developing institutions for these resource-centered “new commons”. This paper describes the process of local institutional development, focusing on the challenges arising from the necessity to define group boundaries, the issues arising from monitoring and sanctioning within newly defined institutions, and the ideological underpinnings of different trajectories of communal resource management.     

Water Scarcity and the Sustainability of a Common Pool Resource Institution in the Urban Andes

The Cochabamba Water War of 2000 was precipitated by Bolivians’ defense of common-pool water resources and institutions against privatization. This article examines the design of a water institution and its sustainability during periods of water scarcity in urban Cochabamba. Based on data collected via participant-observation and panel surveys conducted in 72 randomly selected households, I draw three main conclusions. First, the institution operated according to principles found in sustainable resource management institutions in the rural Andes (Trawick 2001) and across cultures (Ostrom 1990). Second, while the function of the common-pool resource institution was stable over the five study periods, the social structures that supported collective choice and operational rules were sensitive to external events including seasonal water scarcity. Third, while institutions with strong historical precedents for contingencies under resource stress may be sustainable, other forms of social organization on which the institution depends may be more vulnerable to water scarcity.     

甘肃阿克塞哈尔腾国际狩猎场的可持续经营对策研究

甘肃阿克塞县哈尔腾国际狩猎场野生动物资源丰富,主要狩猎动物盘羊和岩羊。通过狩猎,推动了阿克塞县野生动物保护事业的发展。目前,猎场存在草场超载、放牧管理不合理、狩猎地固定、多头管理、利益分配等问题。为实现该猎场的可持续经营,应控制羊群规模、调整转场时间、调整狩猎区域、开展野生动物资源监测、加强各部门的协调、提高工作效率和透明度。     

The Emergence of Waterfowl Conservation Among Yup'ik Hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

This paper presents evidence of emerging waterfowl conservation practices and attitudes among certain groups of contemporary Yup'ik subsistence hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a remote, wetlands dominated region of western Alaska crucial to several species of Pacific migratory birds. By examining what factors motivate hunters to follow restraint practices and evaluating how federal goose management policies impact these factors, I argue that recent policy has succeeded not by enforcement of regulations but by providing minimum necessary conditions for voluntary conservation to emerge as a cultural practice. This example of cooperative management may serve as a model for future, sustainable wildlife policies that involve indigenous resource users.     

农产品水足迹研究进展

水是人类生产生活的重要资源,科学合理地评价人类活动对水资源的影响是实现水资源可持续利用的重要保障.水足迹概念的提出创新性地将人类活动消耗的水资源区分为绿水、蓝水和灰水,拓展了水资源可持续利用的评价思路.基于虚拟水(VW)的水足迹理论和基于生命周期(LCA)的水足迹理论将水质与水量的概念相结合,成为了农业水资源管理研究的热点内容.基于VW的水足迹理论主要包括绿水足迹、蓝水足迹和灰水足迹的计算,以及水环境可持续性评价,而基于LCA的水足迹理论体现了水资源的消耗和污染及其对环境造成的综合影响.本文详细介绍了这两种水足迹理论的计算方法与环境可持续评价的研究进展,对比分析两种水足迹理论在描述农产品生产用水及其环境影响方面的差异性,并对其研究前景进行了展望.     

中国省域环境可持续性时空格局及其影响因素

人类活动已成为人类世背景下全球环境变化的主要驱动力,因此将其合理调控在地球环境边界之内是实现可持续发展的前提条件。作为全球尺度的环境边界,行星边界秉持"地球系统观",为统筹不同区域的环境可持续性评估提供了新视角。以行星边界为切入点,评估中国省域主要人类活动的环境可持续性状况,揭示其时空格局演变及社会经济影响因素。结果表明：（1）中国省域碳、氮、磷排放的不可持续性北部整体高于南部,分异程度随时间逐步拉大,不可持续省份数量的占比均已超出2/3;省域水、土地利用的可持续性南部整体高于北部,保持相对稳定,可持续省份数量的占比均已超出3/4。（2）中国省域环境可持续性大体受人口、经济、技术等因素的综合影响,且各类环境要素的可持续性之间存在一定的协同效应。其中,各类环境可持续性均受人口规模的正向驱动,同时氮、磷、水和土地的可持续性均受农业活动的负向驱动。（3）碳排放可持续性主要受能源消费强度的负向驱动,而磷排放可持续性同时受人口城镇化率的负向驱动,水可持续性受二产占比的负向驱动。基于行星边界的环境可持续性研究,可为区域合理界定和有效承担全球环境可持续性责任提供科学参考。     

农作物景观生态研究:概念框架与研究方向

针对当前农业系统中农作物景观变化迅速、人地关系趋于复杂、粮食安全保障需求迫切,提出景观生态学和农业科学交叉产生的农作物景观生态研究这一新兴研究方向。通过构建农作物景观生态研究的概念框架,辨明农业生产中复杂的景观等级结构,为农业可持续发展提供理论依据。综述从农业景观到农作物景观的研究变化,指出农作物景观具有高动态性、尺度性和格局复杂特征。针对由种植者、消费者、耕地及其周边自然环境组成的农业景观,需要遵循相应的生态和农业经济发展规律,研究农作物种植格局变化、农作物的社会-生态效应和农作物种植可持续性的景观生态途径。重点开展以下四个研究方面的内容,农作物景观时空动态及其形成机理、农作物种植的多功能评价与权衡、景观农艺管理措施及情景模拟、可持续的农作物景观生态评价。从而构建"格局-过程-服务-管理-可持续性"的农作物景观生态研究范式,为农业可持续发展提供综合的空间分析与管理途径,为实现农业农村现代化与城乡人类福祉提升提供科学支撑。     

Embracing thresholds for better environmental management

Three decades of study have revealed dozens of examples in which natural systems have crossed biophysical thresholds (‘tipping points’)—nonlinear changes in ecosystem structure and function—as a result of human-induced stressors, dramatically altering ecosystem function and services. Environmental management that avoids such thresholds could prevent severe social, economic and environmental impacts. Here, we review management measures implemented in ecological systems that have thresholds. Using Ostrom''s social–ecological systems framework, we analysed key biophysical and institutional factors associated with 51 social–ecological systems and associated management regimes, and related these to management success defined by ecological outcomes. We categorized cases as instances of prospective or retrospective management, based upon whether management aimed to avoid a threshold or to restore systems that have crossed a threshold. We find that smaller systems are more amenable to threshold-based management, that routine monitoring is associated with successful avoidance of thresholds and recovery after thresholds have been crossed, and that success is associated with the explicit threshold-based management. These findings are powerful evidence for the policy relevance of information on ecological thresholds across a wide range of ecosystems.     

Making the biodiversity monitoring system sustainable: Design issues for large‐scale monitoring systems

Abstract There is strong demand for information about the status of, and trends in, Australia's biodiversity. Almost inevitably, this demand for information has led to demand for a broad‐scale monitoring system. However, the decision to embark on a monitoring system should only be made once it has been established that a monitoring system is the optimal way to inform management. We stress the need to invest resources in assessing whether a monitoring system is necessary before committing resources to the design and implementation of the system. Current debate associated with the design of a biodiversity monitoring system has similarities to the debate within the range management profession in the early 1970s. The experience with range monitoring shows that large‐scale monitoring systems such as those being proposed will require considerable resources, recurrently expended into the distant future, but with only a limited ability to adapt to new demands. Those involved in any biodiversity monitoring system will need to understand the implications of investing in a long‐term monitoring programme. Monitoring sustainability will only be possible if the monitoring system is itself sustainable. We discuss a number of issues that need to be addressed before the system is at all sustainable. These attributes are a mix of biophysical, social and institutional attributes and highlight the view that monitoring systems of the type being suggested comprise an unusual mixture of attributes not found in typical scientific activity. The present paper is not a technical manual, but rather considers some of the design issues associated with designing and implementing large‐scale monitoring systems.     

popharvest: An R package to assess the sustainability of harvesting regimes of bird populations

Bird harvest for recreational purposes or as a source for food is an important activity worldwide. Assessing or mitigating the impact of these additional sources of mortality on bird populations is therefore crucial issue. The sustainability of harvest levels is however rarely documented, because knowledge of their population dynamics remains rudimentary for many bird species. Some helpful approaches using limited demographic data can be used to provide initial assessment of the sustainable use of harvested bird populations, and help adjusting harvest levels accordingly. The Demographic Invariant Method (DIM) is used to detect overharvesting. In complement, the Potential Take Level (PTL) approach may allow setting a level of take with regard to management objectives and/or to assess whether current harvest levels meet these objectives. Here, we present the R package popharvest that implements these two approaches in a simple and straightforward way. The package provides users with a set of flexible functions whose arguments can be adapted to existing knowledge about population dynamics. Also, popharvest enables users to test scenarios or propagate uncertainty in demographic parameters to the assessment of sustainability through easily programming Monte Carlo simulations. The simplicity of the package makes it a useful toolbox for wildlife managers or policymakers. This paper provides them with backgrounds about the DIM and PTL approaches and illustrates the use of popharvest''s functionalities in this context.