Community-Based Conservation of Freshwater Resources: Learning from a Critical Review of the Literature and Case Studies

Freshwater resources (FWRs) are under enormous stress due to human activities and climate change. Given the centrality of local communities in managing natural resources, community-based conservation (CBC) for FWRs (fCBC) offers a mechanism for addressing these challenges. A framework informing fCBC that incorporates unique features of FWRs (such as being fugitive resources, having increased risk of negative externalities, and sheer spatial coverage) is needed to unlock CBC’s potential in achieving environmental and developmental impacts in freshwater contexts. We critically review and synthesize existing research adapting The Nature Conservancy’s Voice, Choice and Action framework, organized around four pillars (Secure rights and fair externality consideration; Strong community capacity; Effective multi-stakeholder platforms; Sustainable livelihood and development opportunities) and two cross-cutting elements (Cultural connections; Equity and power balancing), and provide recommendations on ways to strengthen facilitation and support community empowerment in fCBC. We report on how applying the framework during a conservation planning process for fCBC projects in four geographies provides important insights for developing robust CBC programs.HIGHLIGHTSThe unique features of freshwater resources re.quire additional considerations as compared to terrestrial resources. Elevating thinking about how these unique features can exacerbate threats helps motivate more diverse ideas on holistic strategies for community-based conservation.The Voice, Choice and Action framework has been adapted to the freshwater resource context in this study, drawing on a critical literature review.The adapted framework provides a useful framework for conducing strategy selection processes and situation and stakeholder analyses to ensure that projects pay attention to creating critical enabling conditions for robust community-based conservation for freshwater resources capable of preserving cultural connections, achieving equity and water justice, and resolving power imbalance. The unique features of freshwater resources re.quire additional considerations as compared to terrestrial resources. Elevating thinking about how these unique features can exacerbate threats helps motivate more diverse ideas on holistic strategies for community-based conservation. The Voice, Choice and Action framework has been adapted to the freshwater resource context in this study, drawing on a critical literature review. The adapted framework provides a useful framework for conducing strategy selection processes and situation and stakeholder analyses to ensure that projects pay attention to creating critical enabling conditions for robust community-based conservation for freshwater resources capable of preserving cultural connections, achieving equity and water justice, and resolving power imbalance.</p

Knowledge diffusion within a large conservation organization and beyond

<div><p>The spread and uptake of new ideas (diffusion of innovations) is critical for organizations to adapt over time, but there is little evidence of how this happens within organizations and to their broader community. To address this, we analyzed how individuals accessed information about a recent science innovation at a large, international, biodiversity conservation non-profit–The Nature Conservancy–and then traced the flow of how this information was shared within the organization and externally, drawing on an exceptionally data-rich environment. We used surveys and tracking of individual internet activity to understand mechanisms for early-stage diffusion (knowledge seeking and sharing) following the integration of social science and evidence principles into the institutional planning framework: Conservation by Design (CbD 2.0). Communications sent to all employees effectively catalyzed 56.4% to exhibit knowledge seeking behavior, measured by individual downloads from and visits to a restricted-access site. Individuals who self-reported through a survey that they shared information about CbD 2.0 internally were more likely to have both received and sought out information about the framework. Such individuals tended to hold positions within a higher job grade, were more likely to train others on CbD as part of their job, and to enroll in other online professional development offerings. Communication strategies targeting external audiences did not appear to influence information seeking behavior. Staff who engaged in internal knowledge sharing and adopting “evidence” practices from CbD 2.0 were more likely to have shared the document externally. We found a negative correlation with external sharing behavior and in-person trainings. Our findings suggest repeated, direct email communications aimed at wide audiences can effectively promote diffusion of new ideas. We also found a wide range of employee characteristics and circumstances to be associated with knowledge diffusion behavior (at both an organizational and individual level).</p></div

Daily page views for Conservation Gateway web pages about CbD 2.0.

<p>Related events are noted via text labels.</p

Unique daily visitors on internal website about CbD 2.0 (only accessible by TNC staff).

<p>Related events are noted via text labels, and the threshold of 50 daily visitors is shown in green.</p

Total publications mentioning CbD.

<p>Publications are grouped by organization type of the authors. Except for “Mixed authors” all categories indicate that all authors on each paper were from the same type of organization (academic, TNC, NGOs other than TNC, or a different kind of organization).</p

Summary of data sources evaluated for this study^a.

<p>Summary of data sources evaluated for this study<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0193716#t001fn001" target="_blank">^a</a>.</p

Weekly page views for nature.org external web page about CbD 2.0.

<p>Related events are noted via text labels.</p

Summary of logistic regression model characterizing external knowledge sharing^a.

<p>Summary of logistic regression model characterizing external knowledge sharing<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0193716#t004fn001" target="_blank">^a</a>.</p

Logistic regression results for internal knowledge sharing ^a.

<p>Logistic regression results for internal knowledge sharing <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0193716#t003fn001" target="_blank">^a</a>.</p