Testing Hypotheses for the Success of Different Conservation Strategies
- 21 July 2006
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Conservation Biology
- Vol. 20 (5), 1528-1538
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00506.x
Abstract
Evaluations of the success of different conservation strategies are still in their infancy. We used four different measures of project outcomes—ecological, economic, attitudinal, and behavioral—to test hypotheses derived from the assumptions that underlie contemporary conservation solutions. Our hypotheses concerned the effects of natural resource utilization, market integration, decentralization, and community homogeneity on project success. We reviewed the conservation and development literature and used a specific protocol to extract and code the information in a sample of papers. Although our results are by no means conclusive and suffer from the paucity of high-quality data and independent monitoring (80% of the original sample of 124 projects provided inadequate information for use in this study), they show that permitted use of natural resources, market access, and greater community involvement in the conservation project are all important factors for a successful outcome. Without better monitoring schemes in place, it is still impossible to provide a systematic evaluation of how different strategies are best suited to different conservation challenges.Keywords
This publication has 45 references indexed in Scilit:
- Conserving Africa’s rain forests: problems in protected areas and possible solutionsBiological Conservation, 2004
- The need for evidence-based conservationTrends in Ecology & Evolution, 2004
- Who should pay for tropical conservation, and how could the costs be met?Oryx, 2003
- A Direct Approach to False Discovery RatesJournal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology, 2002
- Rethinking Tropical Forest Conservation: Perils in ParksConservation Biology, 2000
- Arguing Tropical Forest Conservation: People versus ParksConservation Biology, 2000
- Fisheries Management of San Salvador Island, Philippines: A Shared ResponsibilitySociety & Natural Resources, 1999
- Consequences of different forms of conservation for large mammals in Tanzania: preliminary analysesAfrican Journal of Ecology, 1998
- The effect of income on the extraction of non-timber tropical forest products: Model, hypotheses, and preliminary findings from the Sumu Indians of NicaraguaHuman Ecology, 1995
- An Evaluation of Some Tests of Trend in Contingency TablesJournal of the American Statistical Association, 1992