Building local civil society constituencies for conservation is a particularly high priority in Indochina given the regional prevalence of weak and highly-centralized government institutions with an inability or lack of will to enforce protection on the ground. BirdLife International has developed and piloted a small-scale, community-based Local Conservation Group approach to site-based conservation globally. In Indochina a number of important lessons have been learned, particularly related to the need for participatory project and activity planning, increased attention to provision of tangible benefits that clearly meet both conservation and development objectives and are tailored to heterogeneous communities, increased support for awareness-raising activities, clear monitoring of activities and impacts, and truly committed partner support for implementation.
