Overview

The Problem

Biodiversity represents the very foundation of human existence. Yet by our heedless actions we are eroding this biological capital at an alarming rate. Even today, despite the destruction that we have inflicted on the environment and its natural bounty, its resilience is taken for granted. But the more we learn of the workings of the natural world, the clearer it becomes that there is a limit to the disruption that the environment can endure.

Beside the profound ethical and aesthetic implications, it is clear that the loss of biodiversity has serious economic and social costs. The genes, species, ecosystems and human knowledge which are being lost represent a living library of options available for adapting to local and global change. Biodiversity is part of our daily lives and livelyhood and constitutes the resources upon which families, communities, nations and future generations depend.

         - 1995 Global Biodiversity Assessment, UNEP

The BCN Program -- 1997

Conservation efforts that ignore the economic needs of local communities are unlikely to succeed. The Biodiversity Conservation Network (BCN), a component of the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP), is an innovative USAID-funded program working in the Asia/Pacific Region to provide grants for community-based enterprises that directly depend on biodiversity. BCN is testing the hypothesis that if local communities receive sufficient benefits from a biodiversity linked enterprise, then they will act to conserve it.

The BCN granting process was carefully designed to provide the foundation for planning and implementing multi-faceted projects. BCN-funded projects integrate enterprise development with community organization and policy efforts needed to achieve conservation. Key to the program's ultimate success is the collection of social, economic and biological data to measure the effectiveness of these enterprise-oriented, community-based approaches to conservation. In 1997, all of the projects were "getting down to business" with regard to developing enterprises, influencing natural resource policy, and empowering communities. The enterprises are beginning to contribute to local economies and provide incentives for conserving local resources. The projects are also helping to influence national and local level policies that support better natural resource management. Most importantly, the projects and the businesses are increasing the ability of local communities and their partners to gauge the health of their natural surroundings and develop and implement strategies that conserve them. To date, BCN has spent $13.8 million, much of this is the $11.5 million obligated for grants. BCN funds are supplemented by grantee contributions of $5.3 million, 32% of the total project funds.

Challenges in Promoting Enterprise Based Conservation...
BCN's first goal is to promote enterprise-based approaches to conservation. In the United States which has a well developed infrastructure, a population that is experienced with a cash economy, and established markets, approximately one out of every seven newly formed businesses survives beyond five years. By contrast, BCN and its partners are sailing in uncharted waters, developing new businesses in remote areas with limited infrastructure and with people who are, in many cases, entering into a cash economy for the first time. These businesses must not only be financially self-sustainable, but ecologically and socially sustainable as well. These are serious challenges and we cannot expect that all projects will make it.

...and Successes in Evaluating This Approach

BCN's second goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of these enterprise-oriented approaches to conservation. Thus, despite the difficulties in implementing the projects, learning from the experiences of these projects along the way becomes BCN's measure of success. In the following pages, our community partners tell their own stories -- their triumphs and challenges. It is clear from these stories that the BCN program is well in on its way to collecting the information needed to meet this second goal of determining under what conditions these enterprises can lead to conservation.

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