1.Front section - IUCN

Protected areas and development assistance agencies: at the intersection of conservation and development 7
Actions required in the coming
ten years
Integrated conservation and development is intuitively
appealing. It offers something for everyone. It
promises to defuse the major threats to biodiversity,
create better opportunities for people to earn a decent
living and gain access to basic services, and equitably
address the rights and interests of everyone who uses
land and resources in and around protected areas. It is
not a surprise that the integration of conservation and
development has been so easy to sell to a broad range
of interests, from park managers and conservation
organizations, to local communities, governments and
development assistance agencies.
The problem is that the myth of “win-win” solutions
has created a culture in which overly ambitious
projects have proliferated based on weak assumptions
and little evidence. There is no doubt that poverty
reduction and conservation of biodiversity must work
hand-in-hand in today’s world. However, some tradeoffs
must be recognised, and mistakes need to be
avoided for integrated conservation and development
to work in the future. The following features are key to
this success in the coming ten years (adapted from
McShane and Wells, 2004):
1. Clarity about goals and objectives. Biodiversity
goals are often in partial opposition to
development goals and this is rarely explicitly
acknowledged and addressed from the start.
2. Constraints of project structures. The constraints
imposed by the project structures of many
conservation and development agencies are still
inhibiting real engagement with local
stakeholders and preventing the integrated
management of natural resource systems.
3. The scale of intervention. Too many of the
interventions of conservation and development
agencies are scale-specific, often addressing local
symptoms but ignoring underlying policy
constraints or dealing with macro-level issues
while ignoring local realities.
Culture plays an important role in linking conservation and development. Traditional land use practices around Punakha Dzong in Bhutan ensures
the maintenance of riverside habitat for endangered species such as the white-bellied heron.
© Thomas O. McShane
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