Abstract Detail

The Convention on Biological Diversity: What is it and why should botanists care?

Holmes, Christopher [1].

The CBD and integrative community-based conservation: insights from Ranomafana National Park Madagascar.

Established in 1991, Ranomafana National Park (RNP) serves to protect Madagascar’s unique biodiversity including two species of lemurs, one new to science and another previously thought to be extinct.

World renowned for its high rain-forest biodiversity, RNP exists today because of the collaborative efforts of Malagasy, European and American researchers.Exemplary in its integrative approach to biodiversity conservation, RNP is immediately boarded by over 120 villages populated by roughly 27,000 subsistence agriculturalists.Working with these villages to incorporate their expressed needs and concerns helps direct RNP’s management, and has led to the establishment of rural health initiatives, promotion of improved agricultural practices, and creation of a community outreach program that returns 50% of all Park proceeds to the villages.The results of these collaborative efforts are measured in the improved attitudes of local communities toward RNP conservation efforts, and over 100 graduate degrees (84 masters and 23 PhDs) awarded to Malagasy and expatriate researchers. The future of RNP depends upon continued collaborative efforts, and the dynamic thinking of RNP’s research community and management authority.While it is now realized that biodiversity conservation cannot exist in the absence of local community integration, it is also true that conservation cannot move forward with successful collaboration between expatriate researchers and host country stakeholders.

1 - Stony Brook University, Anthropology, SBS Building, 5th floor, Stony Brook, New York, 11794-4364, USA

Keywords:
Madagascar
Ranomafana National Park
Community-based Conservation.

Presentation Type: Symposium
Session: 50-3
Location: Wasatch (Cliff Lodge)
Date: Wednesday, August 4th, 2004
Time: 2:30 PM
Abstract ID:25