Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key
ABSTRACT Community‐based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community‐based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagasca...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Conservation Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13100 |
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| author | Morena Mills Marie V. Touchon Elisa Denis Sarah Milligan Yasmeen Zuffetti Zara Ahmad Zoya Husain Sushma Shrestha Sangat Stefan Gelcich Selma Lendelvo Bharati Pathak Alifereti Tawake Michael B. Mascia Solofo Nandrianina Ralaimihoatra Thomas Pienkowski Matthew Clark Arundhati Jagadish |
| author_facet | Morena Mills Marie V. Touchon Elisa Denis Sarah Milligan Yasmeen Zuffetti Zara Ahmad Zoya Husain Sushma Shrestha Sangat Stefan Gelcich Selma Lendelvo Bharati Pathak Alifereti Tawake Michael B. Mascia Solofo Nandrianina Ralaimihoatra Thomas Pienkowski Matthew Clark Arundhati Jagadish |
| author_sort | Morena Mills |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT Community‐based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community‐based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagascar, and Fiji) to understand their perspectives on the drivers of adoption and spread. We used general elimination methodology and diffusion of innovation theory to identify and rule out possible explanations. Factors consistently considered influential were economic and social benefits, compatibility with needs, support and facilitation by extension agencies, and the presence of international organizations. Initiatives aiming to scale should be designed to be flexible and aligned with adopters’ needs, and external organizations should coordinate resources for scaling out. Dependence on external support underscores the need for quality assistance, good practices by external actors, and understanding power relations and fairness, as well as the need to temper donor and policy expectations of scaling beyond supported and appropriate sites. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c5a2c1bd1783447683c32cb8cf2aed96 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1755-263X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Conservation Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-c5a2c1bd1783447683c32cb8cf2aed962025-08-20T02:22:02ZengWileyConservation Letters1755-263X2025-05-01183n/an/a10.1111/conl.13100Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as KeyMorena Mills0Marie V. Touchon1Elisa Denis2Sarah Milligan3Yasmeen Zuffetti4Zara Ahmad5Zoya Husain6Sushma Shrestha Sangat7Stefan Gelcich8Selma Lendelvo9Bharati Pathak10Alifereti Tawake11Michael B. Mascia12Solofo Nandrianina Ralaimihoatra13Thomas Pienkowski14Matthew Clark15Arundhati Jagadish16Centre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKDepartment of Life SciencesImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKConservation InternationalGlobal Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities CenterArlington Virginia USACenter of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES)Facultad de Ciencias BiológicasPontificia Universidad Católica de ChileSantiagoChileLife Sciences Division, Multidisciplinary Research CentreUniversity of NamibiaWindhoekNamibiaFederation of Community Forestry UsersNepal (FECOFUN)KathmanduNepalLocally Managed Marine Area Network International TrustSuvaFijiSanford School of Public PolicyDuke UniversityDurhamNorth CarolinaUSAMIHARI, Villa Tsiriry, Lot VC 2 B, Ambanidia FaliarivoAntananarivo AnalamangaMadagascarCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKCentre for Environmental PolicyImperial College LondonLondonUKNature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, India, Moore Center for ScienceConservation InternationalArlingtonVirginiaUSAABSTRACT Community‐based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community‐based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagascar, and Fiji) to understand their perspectives on the drivers of adoption and spread. We used general elimination methodology and diffusion of innovation theory to identify and rule out possible explanations. Factors consistently considered influential were economic and social benefits, compatibility with needs, support and facilitation by extension agencies, and the presence of international organizations. Initiatives aiming to scale should be designed to be flexible and aligned with adopters’ needs, and external organizations should coordinate resources for scaling out. Dependence on external support underscores the need for quality assistance, good practices by external actors, and understanding power relations and fairness, as well as the need to temper donor and policy expectations of scaling beyond supported and appropriate sites.https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13100adoptioncommunity‐based conservationconservation decision‐makingcommunity‐based natural resource management (CBNRM)conservation policydiffusion of innovation theory |
| spellingShingle | Morena Mills Marie V. Touchon Elisa Denis Sarah Milligan Yasmeen Zuffetti Zara Ahmad Zoya Husain Sushma Shrestha Sangat Stefan Gelcich Selma Lendelvo Bharati Pathak Alifereti Tawake Michael B. Mascia Solofo Nandrianina Ralaimihoatra Thomas Pienkowski Matthew Clark Arundhati Jagadish Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key Conservation Letters adoption community‐based conservation conservation decision‐making community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) conservation policy diffusion of innovation theory |
| title | Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key |
| title_full | Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key |
| title_fullStr | Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key |
| title_short | Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key |
| title_sort | scaling out community conservation initiatives experts identify economic and social benefits compatibility with needs and external support as key |
| topic | adoption community‐based conservation conservation decision‐making community‐based natural resource management (CBNRM) conservation policy diffusion of innovation theory |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13100 |
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