I conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of Community based Conservation (CBC) in mitigating threats, saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997 were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages which were propensity-score matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. This study used government records, household questionnaire surveys, remote sensing and species distribution modelling.
Results/Conclusions
Over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach significantly affected fire frequency resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency compared to control villages. Although CBC interventions did not significantly reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages was slightly lower than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost to the villages were also identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation. Species distribution modelling results showed a decrease in the area of suitable habitat for the conservation target species within intervention villages and forest loss explained most of the variation of the species distributions. According to our Index of Perceived Provision of Valued Ecosystem Services, people in CBC villages showed greater awareness of environmental degradation due to forest loss relative to people in control villages. Support for education through CBC interventions was significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. This is possibly because relatively modest resources were provided to each village by the programme.