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Incentive-Based Conservation Programs in Developing Countries: A Review of Some Key Issues and Suggestions for Improvements

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Abstract

Biodiversity conservation in developing countries has been a challenge because of the combination of rising human populations, rapid technological advances, severe social hardships, and extreme poverty. To address the social, economic, and ecological limitations of people-free parks and reserves, incentives have been incorporated into conservation programs in the hopes of making conservation meaningful to local people. However, such incentive-based programs have been implemented with little consideration for their ability to fulfill promises of greater protection of biodiversity. Evaluations of incentive-based conservation programs indicate that the approach continually falls short of the rhetoric. This article provides an overview of the problems associated with incentive-based conservation approaches in developing countries. It argues that existing incentive-based programs (IBPs) have yet to realize that benefits vary greatly at different “community” scales and that a holistic conceptualization of a community is essential to incorporate the complexities of a heterogeneous community when designing and implementing the IBPs. The spatial complexities involved in correctly identifying the beneficiaries in a community and the short-term focus of IBPs are two major challenges for sustaining conservation efforts. The article suggests improvements in three key areas: accurate identification of “target” beneficiaries, greater inclusion of marginal communities, and efforts to enhance community aptitudes.

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Acknowledgment

We wish to acknowledge funding support provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant No. 410-2003-0136).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada

    Arian Spiteri

  2. Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843-2261, USA

    Sanjay K. Nepalz

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  1. Arian Spiteri
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  2. Sanjay K. Nepalz
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Correspondence to Sanjay K. Nepalz.

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Spiteri, A., Nepalz, S.K. Incentive-Based Conservation Programs in Developing Countries: A Review of Some Key Issues and Suggestions for Improvements. Environmental Management 37, 1–14 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0311-7

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