CONSERVATION STEWARDS PROGRAM
THE IDEA
Deals to make local people willing and able to preserve nature: an agreement of social benefits for conservation, that leave local people thriving and in control of their land
Patricia Zurita
After she was willingly brainwashed by ornithologists at college, Patricia changed course to study conservation economics. A stint with the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment convinced her that there had to be a better way, and looked for simpler, more direct ways to engage local people in conservation. She found it, but now spends far too much time in airports.
We have to make it pay for local people to preserve nature, because in the long run, they’re the only ones who can do it.
Everybody knows that biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate. What is less known is that most of the critical habitat under greatest threat is in private hands: indigenous groups, rural communities, and landowners. They are the only ones who can save it, but they are mostly poor and cannot afford to preserve a global good – biodiversity - at personal cost. Conservation economists at Conservation International (CI) recognized this and developed the idea of conservation agreements: bringing benefits to communities in an explicit deal for conservation. The Conservation Stewards Program (CSP) grew out of their efforts and uses an efficient process to produce unique agreements that leave communities thriving, in control of their own lands, and able to be the active stewards of biodiversity. There are more than 20 agreements in place - from preserving sacred forests in Tibet to saving Cambodia’s dragonfish - and many more in the planning. This replicable model has the potential to save millions of hectares of the most precious habitat.
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