DEFORESTATION AROUND THE WORLD - India Environment Portal

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Deforestation Around the World
Table 2. Major differences between community conservation projects (CCPs) and integrated
conservation and development projects (ICDPs).
2.1 Rural people are the solution not the problem
Another difference between community conservation projects and ICDPs concerns
significant philosophical differences resulting in very different approaches and practices.
ICDPs conceptualize local communities as generators of habitat degradation (McShane &
Newby, 2004; McShane & Wells, 2004) based on the premise that humans utilize natural
resources and may abuse them when community and governmental regulating systems
break down, characteristic of the “tragedy of the commons” (Feeney et al., 1990; Hardin,
1968). However, if rural indigenous and other local people are seen as threats, they will have
a greater probability of living up to that expectation. In contrast, when people depend on
resources, they may be educated to understand that they must not over-exploit resources
without losing them. Because they use them, they have knowledge of and appreciate them.
Living on site, they can better protect the resources. But there are also many outside forces
competing with rural residents for resources. Thus, by giving rural indigenous and other
local people entitlement and responsibility over their resources, many will see the
importance of biodiversity conservation. Indeed, in almost all cases, when we have asked
local rural people for their help in protecting their natural resources, they have responded
very favorably and effectively.
2.2 Community scale at a personal level
Another philosophical difference between community conservation projects and ICDPs is
that ICDPs approach conservation on a large scale, possibly because donor agencies think