Biodiversity management and local livelihoods: Rio plus 10

ODI briefing paper looking at biological resources and their management, for both conservation and people's livlihoods with a view to outlining a framework for best practice. The paper focusses on developments since the Rio Earth Summit to examine the reasons for policy failures and to pick up on positive developments.Taking a human (anthropocentric) perspective the paper looks at:The value of biodiversity in terms of the social distribution of its use (direct and indirect) and non-use (option and existence) value.The history of biodiversity policy making from top down to community led integrated approachesChallenges and barriers to progressPossible frameworks for project design.The paper's principle conclusions are as follows:Biodiversity management and local livelihoods are integrated, complex and locally-specific. Understanding relationships in different situations is central to the design and implementation of rural development, poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation initiatives. The use-values of biodiversity to local people, including the very poor, are often neglected. Understanding these, how they are accessed and by whom is central to the design and implementation of interventions. Conservation and development strategies must move away from simplistic assumptions that conservation and development are always mutually supportive. Where environmental change or conservation is involved there will also always be winners and losers. Biodiversity management in developing countries is not something that can be left solely to protected areas and high profile species as it has major implications for livelihoods more generally. As is now common in Britain, approaches to minimising biodiversity loss must have at heart an understanding of micro-economics and the use of farm-level incentives. This paper provides a framework for assisting in the planning of policies and interventions using a problem-centred and stakeholder approach for assembling and analysing information and developing a vision and plan for action. The approach needs to be tested and adapted to local situations and applied research in this area is urgently required.[authors]