People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management With Local Communities

National parks, wildlife reserves, and other types of protected areas are at the forefront of efforts to conserve biological diversity. But many protected areas are in crisis. Already underfunded, these areas have come under increasing pressure from the expanding scale of human activities outside - and sometimes inside - their boundaries. Conflicts of interest have thus arisen in many areas of the world between protected areas and local people. Traditional approaches to park management and enforcement activities have been unable to balance these competing objectives. In response, a new set of initiatives has been launched. These projects attempt to ensure the conservation of biological diversity by reconciling the management of protected areas with the social and economic needs of local people. The smaller projects include biosphere reserves, multi-use areas, and a variety of initiatives on the boundaries of protected areas, including buffer zones. Larger projects include the implementation of regional land use plans with protected area components, as well as large-scale development projects with links to nearby protected areas. This study looks at the early experiences of 23 such projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The report explores the social, ecological, technical, and institutional issues that arise from these attempts to link protected area management with local development.