Protected areas are important, but we must consider how to make them benefit, rather than hurt, local populations

The social impacts of protected areas

By Dr. Kai Schmidt-Soltau and Dr. Dan Brockington- April 2004

To read the complete paper: http://www.social-impact-of-conservation.net/

IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, Sustainable Livelihood Working Group

Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA)

Presented at the First global workshop (World Conservation Congress 20.11.2004; Bangkok)

Summary

The benefits and administrative costs of conservation are well documented in academic literature and popular media. The advantages of biodiversity conservation, watershed protection, clean air, ecotourism and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage for posterity are widely acknowledged. However potentially adverse social consequences of the creation protected areas are less well known. Protected Areas frequently require the eviction and exclusion of local groups, but do not always compensate for, or properly assess, the costs involved. Since Protected Areas cover more than 10 % of the earth’s land surface, and since more are mooted adequately to protect a representative sample of the world’s ecosystems, assessing the impacts of current costs and establishing a framework for evaluating future costs is an essential task.

This proposal outlines a two stage research project which would meet these needs. The first stage consists of an initial global assessment and sets up frameworks by which the diverse economic, social and cultural consequences of protected areas may be evaluated in their different contexts. Results will disseminated on the web. The second stage will refine and apply these frameworks more thoroughly within particular parts of the world. At the same time it will seek to test and correct the information generated by using web-based interactive tools to canvass diverse opinions on the data displayed.


Introduction: the need for a social impacts assessment

The impact of protected areas on local society and economy has variable but growing recognition. The international conservation community voiced in the Durban Accord the concern “that many costs of protected areas are born locally – particular by poor communities – while the benefits accrue globally” (WPC 2003: 2). The Congress made the commitment, “that protected area management strives to reduce, and in no way exacerbates, poverty” (WPC 2003: 4). [3]

Yet since their inception, protected areas have necessitated the removal of people. Some more recent parks have involved careful compensation arrangements for people moved to make way for conservation. These are not the norm. Evictions frequently occasion expense, hardship and impoverishment. Assessments of biodiversity conservation in the context of poverty alleviation suggest that protected areas did not reduce poverty, but on the contrary increase the poverty of the rural populations (Brockington 2002, Cernea & Schmidt-Soltau 2003). Compensation for the impoverishment caused by protected areas requires knowledge of know who has been affected and how greatly their lives have changed. Appreciation of the multiple benefits of conservation will be incomplete without a good understanding of the costs involved.

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