Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T03:06:00.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Local People in the Successful Maintenance of Protected Areas in Madagascar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Joanna C. Durbin  and
Jonny A. Ralambo
Joanna C. Durbin
Affiliation:
Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX, England, UK
Jonny A. Ralambo
Affiliation:
WWF/ANGAP/MEF Projet Andohahela, BP 42, Tolagnaro 614, Madagascar.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In Madagascar, as practically throughout the world, many protected areas were originally created with little consideration for the resource requirements of local people and consequently are now suffering from acute pressure from local exploitation. In an attempt to redress the problems, integrated conservation and development projects have been initiated. The original aims to protect a representative ecocomplex are now expected to be achieved by understanding people's requirements and enhancing traditional practices or providing alternatives, and the aims have been expanded to promote the sustainable use of resources also outside of reserves.

These two projects, at Andohahela and Soalala, are duly considered, using a framework that has been developed to understand local people's behaviour in relation to resources. Economic, energy, cultural, and ecological, factors, acting as interdependent systems, are considered. The economic, energy, and cultural, factors influence each other, acting together to define the values or resources to people and driving their behaviour in relation to those resources. The behaviour affects the ecological system and may alter the availability of useful resources, depending on the level of use and their resilience. The availability of resources affects the energetic effort required to collect them, so establishing a feedback link.

The aims of the projects are to establish ecological equilibria that protect the reserves and enable sustainable use to be made of resources outside the reserve. To achieve these goals they must influence people's behaviour suitably. Strategies include strengthening feedback from the ecological system, and providing energy or economic incentives. Development activities which aim to promote sustainable use of resources and protect biodiversity, through maintenance of the protected area, are assessed. Many projects give a high priority to income generation and improved access to social services; however, the conservation aims of a project often require a better targeted, resource management-based development package. This paper advocates the consideration of economic, energy, ecological, and above all cultural, factors in the design of effective activities for conservation and development projects.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , Summer 1994 , pp. 115 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel, N. & Blaikie, P. (1986). Elephants, people, parks and development: the case of the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Environmental Management, 10(6), pp. 735–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbier, E.B. (1987). The concept of sustainable economic development. Environmental Conservation, 14(2), pp. 101–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carew-Reid, J. (1990). Conservation and protected areas on South Pacific islands: the importance of tradition. Environmental Conservation, 17(1), pp. 29–38, illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curl, D.A., Scoones, I.C., Guy, M.K. & Rakotoarisoa, G. (1985). The Madagascan tortoise Geochelone yniphora: current status and distribution. Biological Conservation, 34, pp. 35–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DEF/ANGAP (1992). Manuel de procédure pour la création des Aires Protégées. ANGAP, Antananarivo, Madagascar: 43 pp.Google Scholar
Green, G.M. & Sussman, R.W. (1990). Deforestation history of the eastern rain forests of Madagascar from satellite images. Science, 248, pp. 212–5, illustr.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hannah, L. (1992). African People, African Parks. Conservation International, Washington, DC, USA: 76 pp.Google Scholar
Jenkins, M.D. (Ed.) (1987). Madagascar: An Environmental Profile. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland: xiii + 374 pp.Google Scholar
Juvik, J.O., Andrianarivo, A.J. & Blanc, C.P. (1980). The ecology and status of Geochelone yniphora: a critically endangered tortoise of northwestern Madagascar. Biological Conservation, 19, pp. 297–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiss, A. (Ed.) (1990). Living with Wildlife: Wildlife Resource Management with Local Participation in Africa. (World Bank Technical Paper 130.) World Bank, Washington, DC, USA: xi + 217 pp.Google Scholar
Lusigi, W.J. (1981). New approaches to wildlife conservation in Kenya. Ambio, 10(2–3), pp. 87–92, illustr.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, J. & , K., Child, G. & Thorsell, J. (1986). Managing Protected Areas in the Tropics. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland: xvi + 295 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Nicoll, M.E. & Langrand, O. (1989). Madagascar: revue de la conservation et des aires protégées. WWF, Gland, Switzerland: xvii + 374 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
O'Connor, S. (1990). Beza Mahafaly and Andohahela reserves, Madagascar. Pp. 41–51 in Kiss (q. v.).Google Scholar
Talbot, L.M. & Olindo, P. (1990). The Maasai Mara and Amboseli reserves, Kenya. Pp. 67–84 in Kiss (q. v.).Google Scholar
UN Conference on Trade and Development (1990). Handbook of International Trade and Development Statistics. United Nations, New York, NY, USA: xx + 563 pp.Google Scholar
Wells, M., Brandon, K. & Hannah, L.J. (1992). People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management with Local Communities. World Bank, Washington, DC, USA: xii + 99 pp.Google Scholar
Western, D. (1982). Amboseli National Park: enlisting landowners to conserve migratory wildlife, Ambio, 11(5), pp. 302–8, illustr.Google Scholar