BIODIVERSITY SUPPORT PROGRAM
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD
LINKING THEORY AND PRACTICE IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION Issue No.1
April 1998
Keeping Watch: Experiences from the Field in Community-based Monitoring
Table of Contents Fiji Case Story: Accounting for Success in Community-based Monitoring
BSP Conservation Practitioners and Partners Interviewed for This Issue
Recommended Resources in Community-based Monitoring
While people and biodiversity are inextricably linked, achieving a balance is not easy. The Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) promotes conservation in many of the world's most biologically diverse areas, including Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Lessons from the Field is based on BSP's experiences in integrating biodiversity conservation with social and economic development and research and analysis of conservation approaches. Articles in this series share what we are learning along the way. We hope this series will serve conservation practitioners as a catalyst for further discussion, learning, and action so that more biodiversity is conserved.
Keeping Watch: Experiences from the Field in Community-based Monitoring
Monitoring is a vital tool in the experimental work of conservation - but it hasn't always been the easiest to use. We've interviewed 12 conservation practitioners experienced in community-based monitoring who represent a range of perspectives and places, from community leaders to program directors for Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Their advice and insights are surprisingly consistent. Here's what they had to say.
Conserving biodiversity on Earth makes putting people into outer space seem simple by comparison. It's a tough job. No longer is it enough to be a good manager and scientist; conservation practitioners must also have the sensitivities and skills to work with communities. Helping people meet their economic needs, dealing with local and foreign demands for biological resources, and addressing diverse and conflicting values are all part of a project manager's complex equation. Today, conservation solutions not only must include the people who live in an area -- increasingly, they rely on them.
Solutions to the problems of conserving biodiversity often aren't apparent at the outset. If they appear so, beware. Time could prove you wrong. Because of so many unknowns, conservation activities have an experimental dimension. How can you facilitate the design of a project so that it has the greatest probability of having positive environmental and social impacts? How can you get people on board and keep them involved? Most important of all, how will you know if your interventions are working?
You won't -- unless you monitor the impacts of your activities. Monitoring is the essential link in understanding cause and effect. "Monitoring is about effectiveness. If you want to achieve your conservation goals, you better keep track of what you are doing, and change it if you're not getting the desired results," says Hank Cauley, former Director of BSP's Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN), which assists community enterprises that support biodiversity conservation. Monitoring what does and doesn't work and responding immediately to new insights are critical because we can't afford to wait until all the data are in.
