Conservation Legacies:Governing Biodiversity and Livelihoods around the W National Parks of Benin and Niger.

Biodiversity Conservation;Social Impacts of Protected Areas;Ecological Impacts of Protected Areas;Governance;Benin;Niger;Natural Resources and Environment;African Studies;Anthropology and Archaeology;Geography and Maps;Political Science;Science;Social Sciences;Natural Resources and Environment

Miller, Daniel CharlesSinsin, Brice A. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Biodiversity Conservation;    Social Impacts of Protected Areas;    Ecological Impacts of Protected Areas;    Governance;    Benin;    Niger;    Natural Resources and Environment;    African Studies;    Anthropology and Archaeology;    Geography and Maps;    Political Science;    Science;    Social Sciences;    Natural Resources and Environment;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/99974/dcmille_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation advances theoretical and empirical knowledge at an especially challenging research frontier: that of the social and ecological impacts of international aid within and around national parks and other protected areas in low-income tropical countries.Systematic knowledge of these impacts, the relationships among them, and the causal pathways through which they are generated remains limited.This study addresses these research gaps through detailed assessment of the European Union-funded ECOPAS project (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Soudano-Sahélienne) implemented in the W National Parks (WNPs) of Benin and Niger from 2001-2008.Variation in these two national political contexts provides an ideal opportunity to explore how governance shapes the impacts of protected area-related aid.Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence collected during 15 months of fieldwork among 430 households in 12 villages, I develop and test hypotheses about the influence of key governance variables, including enforcement and property rights, on the biodiversity and livelihoods effects of ECOPAS.I find that ECOPAS generally improved the state of biodiversity in the WNPs of Benin and Niger.However, livelihoods impacts varied spatially and socially within and between the two countries.The poorest social groups and households in villages where enforcement increases were greatest experienced up to a 15% decrease in incomes as a result of ECOPAS.National political context strongly moderated the effect of increasing protected area enforcement.State protected area enforcement had more positive biodiversity and less negative livelihoods impacts in Benin than Niger owing to better national governance quality and more advanced decentralization reforms.However, the failure of ECOPAS to adequately engage with decentralized local political processes in Benin led to uncertainty over property rights in the Park periphery, threatening sustainable conservation.Research findings demonstrate heterogeneity in protected area impacts and the importance of effective governance arrangements at multiple scales for improved outcomes.Scholars and decision makers interested in the social-ecological impacts of conservation must attend more carefully to national and local-level political arenas to better understand the multi-stranded legacies of protected areas interventions, particularly given that such efforts remain at the forefront of biodiversity conservation across the tropical world.