The principles of conservation and development: do they apply in Malinau?

Attempts to reconcile economic development with environmental conservation in a forest area in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, are reviewed for the district of Malinau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, an area of 42,000 km2 that is still largely covered in rainforest. The history of the region is described and the conservation and development impacts of external drivers of change are assessed. Both government and conservation organizations have subscribed to the rhetoric of pursuing development pathways that would be sustainable and would conserve the rich biodiversity of the area. Three distinct approaches to conservation have been attempted. First spatial planning has been used to attribute land to different uses and particularly to identify and designate protected areas. Second, measures have been taken to lessen the negative environmental impact of industrial logging and to promote the preservation of biodiversity in logged forests. Last, decentralized and community-based management has been promoted on the assumption that this would yield better environmental and social outcomes than large-scale industrial development. These conservation measures have been pursued during a period when the governance of the region has been weak. Corruption, political collusion, and nepotism have been major factors in decision making about natural resources. We argue that a sustainable future for the district of Malinau must lie in finding an appropriate balance between protected areas, forests managed at both industrial and community scales, and land conversion. However, there is little empirical evidence that allows the outcomes of these approaches to be measured. The problem of knowing how conservation investments can be made in ways that optimize sustainable benefits to local livelihoods remains largely unresolved. A number of possible conservation and development pathways for the district are discussed

Science for action: the use of scoping models in conservation and development

Addressing the conflict between biodiversity conservation and enhancing human well-being is a complex exercise that must draw upon social, economic, cultural and biophysical perspectives. Project interventions seeking to achieve a ‘balance’ between conservation and development whereby biodiversity is conserved and people's livelihoods improve need to address these broad contextual issues. However, most attempts fail because they are not based upon understanding of system complexity, they assume “win-win” situations, they fail to plan for the impacts of society-wide changes happening beyond the project landscapes, and they use top-down – planning – approaches. In this paper we explore the use of system dynamics modelling for investigating trade-offs and synergies in landscape-scale approaches to conservation and development. We advocate the use of ‘scoping models’ because of their ability to incorporate complexity and promote social-learning in a participatory environment, while increasing the capacity of local actors to manage social-ecological complexity. We discuss their role in facilitating change in policies and practice in three landscapes in the tropics. Models do not provide a magic bullet solution and should not be used in isolation. They must be deployed along side other participatory and technical tools appropriate to local conditions

Transdisciplinary science for improved conservation outcomes

[Extract] Major advances in biology and ecology have sharpened our understanding of what the goals of biodiversity conservation might be, but less progress has been made on how to achieve conservation in the complex, multi-sectoral world of human affairs. The failure to deliver conservation outcomes is especially severe in the rapidly changing landscapes of tropical low-income countries. We describe five techniques we have used to complement and strengthen long-term attempts to achieve conservation outcomes in the landscapes and seascapes of such regions; these are complex social-ecological systems shaped by interactions between biological, ecological and physical features mediated by the actions of people. Conservation outcomes occur as a result of human decisions and the governance arrangements that guide change. However, much conservation science in these countries is not rooted in a deep understanding of how these social-ecological systems work and what really determines the behaviour of the people whose decisions shape the future of landscapes. We describe five scientific practices that we have found to be effective in building relationships with actors in landscapes and influencing their behaviour in ways that reconcile conservation and development. We have used open-ended inductive enquiry, theories of change, simulation models, network analysis and multi-criteria analysis. These techniques are all widely known and well tested, but seldom figure in externally funded conservation projects. We have used these techniques to complement and strengthen existing interventions of international conservation agencies. These five techniques have proven effective in achieving deeper understanding of context, engagement with all stakeholders, negotiation of shared goals and continuous learning and adaptation

Conservation Science and Practice Must Engage With the Realities of Complex Tropical Landscapes

There is a growing disconnect between the international conferences where grand solutions for tropical conservation are designed and the complex local realities in tropical landscapes where plans need to be implemented. Every tropical landscape is different and no ?one size will fit all.? There is a tendency for global processes to prescribe simple generalized solutions that provide good sound bites that can be communicated with political actors and the media. Sustainable outcomes in tropical landscapes require locally adapted, unique approaches supported by long-term processes of learning and adaptation. Tropical biologists and conservationists can play a key role by establishing effective local?global links and by directly engaging in local policy discourses while remaining connected to evolving political imperatives