Participatory Conservation Planning

Conservation is not just about nature—it is about relationships, power, and the systems that sustain both people and ecosystems. This document offers a rare and comprehensive lens on how communities interact with their environments through complex, interdependent systems. Developed by the Community Conservation Research Network (CCRN), it reframes conservation not as isolated technical fixes but as a dynamic process embedded in governance, culture, livelihoods, and resilience. For M&E professionals and humanitarian practitioners, it provides not only theory but tested frameworks for evaluating real-world interactions between social and ecological systems. – It introduces foundational concepts: Social-Ecological Systems, Resilience, Scales and Levels, Transformation, Thresholds, and Power – It details governance dynamics: Cross-Level Institutions, Community Stewardship, Knowledge Co-Production, and Adaptive Co-Management – It presents integrated frameworks: Ostrom’s SES Model, the Resource Systems Approach, the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, and Community Resilience Indicators – It provides empirical case studies: Seagrass Restoration in Tokyo Bay – Marine Protected Areas in Bali – and Fisheries-Driven Mobilization in Nova Scotia – It embeds participatory insights: Local Worldviews, Collective Action, Bridging Organizations, and the Politics of Conservation Outcomes This is not a traditional ecology manual—it is a systems-thinking blueprint for those who want conservation to work with communities rather than on them. Whether you’re shaping governance policies, co-designing monitoring tools, or evaluating multi-stakeholder marine initiatives, this guide delivers the concepts, frameworks, and grounded lessons needed to align environmental sustainability with social equity and institutional legitimacy.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) 🇨🇩 just announced plans for the world's largest community forest reserve. Unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Couloir Vert, or Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, will span 550,000 square kilometres, covering vast stretches of primary forests and peatlands. The Congo River reserve aims to balance conservation with economic development by transforming conflict-ridden areas into hubs of sustainability and stability. Key facts: ↳ Covers 550,000 km², including 100,000 km² of primary forest and 60,000 km² of peatlands. ↳ Positioned as one of the largest tropical forest reserves in a carbon-dense, biodiversity hotspot. ↳ A $1B investment is expected in the next 3-4 years to support renewable energy, agriculture, and logistics. ↳ Officially established by a decree signed last week, following a Council of Ministers decision (https://mongabay.cc/fC3sZr). ↳ Includes a participatory governance model involving local communities & stakeholders. ↳ Inspired by successful stabilization efforts in northern Beni and southern Ituri. The announcement has drawn praise from global leaders, including former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab, who lauded the initiative as a step toward linking peace, sustainable development, and conservation. However, Rainforest Foundation UK (https://mongabay.cc/9xU0rx) has highlighted several areas that require further attention. According to their statement, these include: ↳ Participatory process: Limited consultation with local communities, civil society, and local authorities, raising concerns about inclusivity and scrutiny. ↳ Governance challenges: The designation of ICCN( Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature) as the lead management body raises questions about jurisdictional overlap and administrative efficiency. ↳ Legal framework gaps: While the project introduces a new concept of community-managed protected areas, it lacks specificity in models of rights-based conservation and alignment with existing legal frameworks. ↳ Unclear protections: There are ambiguities regarding restrictions on extractive industries and safeguards against community displacement or forced eviction. ↳ Pilot projects: The need for targeted green investments to test and refine community forest management approaches along strategic areas such as the RN4 road. “The Couloir Vert could represent a significant opportunity for DRC to realize its role as a “solutions country” to the climate and biodiversity crises,” said Rainforest Foundation UK in a release. “However, achieving this vision requires meaningful engagement with all stakeholders, a coherent and robust governance structure, and a stronger emphasis on human rights.”

🏝️ 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 🐮 Between 23 July and 1 August, I had the privilege of piloting a new community-led well-being assessment in Ntsimangweni and Ebhoqweni alongside Seb Costedoat, as part of Conservation International's work under the BiLToNG initiative. Co-designed with Meat Naturally Africa and partner researchers, the pilot trained 16 local facilitators and engaged 68 community members across 10 focus groups, including 18 youth, 25 women, and 25 men. This participatory approach helps Herding for Health (H4H) implementers understand how diverse groups, livestock owners, rangeland users, women, and youth define a “good life” and what supports or hinders their well-being. Rather than delivering benefits, the process encourages communities to reflect on their aspirations and collaborate toward shared goals. This shift from service delivery to capacity-building is key to inclusive governance and sustainable livestock value chains. In one community, poor cellphone network coverage emerged as a major barrier to accessing jobs, training, and emergency services. While H4H can’t directly resolve this, the assessment surfaced past efforts to engage government and network providers—highlighting land access approvals and permit requirements from traditional authorities as key obstacles. Through facilitated dialogue, community members proposed forming a joint committee with neighbouring villages to strengthen their case and engage relevant authorities. Exploring how this committee could be supported by existing resources, including H4H benefits—illustrates a new vision for capacity-building in action. Insights from the pilot will inform tailored engagement models that align grazing and livestock management with community-defined priorities. They will also guide reinvestment of revenues from livestock sales and carbon credits to benefit all members. Demonstrated well-being and biodiversity improvements help H4H meet the highest tier of the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, unlocking access to premium buyers in the Voluntary Carbon Market. This work is part of the BiLToNG initiative (Behavioural Incentives for Land Transformation on Natural Grasslands), led by Conservation International’s Moore Center, the University of California Santa Barbara, and CI’s Africa Field Management Unit. The well-being assessment is being refined based on pilot feedback, with training materials to support replication across more communities, contributing to a robust community engagement toolbox for impactful planning. #CommunityLedDevelopment #Rangelands #HerdingForHealth #BiLToNG #ClimateAction #LivestockValueChains #InclusiveGovernance #ParticipatoryPlanning #CarbonMarkets

🌿 Forest Management = Community Management 🌿 One of the critical aspects of sustainable forest management is human-wildlife coexistence. This was a key theme during the recent Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership visit, where an Indian delegation, through the support of French Development Agency in South Asia , ONF International and CIRAD had the opportunity to engage with the Mucheni Community Conservancy in Zimbabwe . A highlight of the visit was an innovative participatory conflict management technique that brings conservation science and local knowledge together—through a community-developed game! 🎲 🔍 Recreating Kaziranga in Zimbabwe: Kaziranga National Park in India, spanning 1,090 sq km, is home to some of the world's most iconic wildlife, including over 2,600 one-horned rhinoceroses, 1,100 elephants, and nearly 1,900 wild water buffaloes, among others. To better understand human-wildlife interactions, we worked with the Mucheni community to virtually map settlements, wildlife corridors, conflict zones, and potential mitigation strategies—all within a dynamic, interactive framework. 🎯 Why This Matters: Conflict mapping: Identifying high-risk zones where wildlife movements intersect with human settlements. Participatory mitigation: Enabling co-design of strategies with the local community for sustainable solutions. Rapid response planning: Using scenario-based simulations to improve preparedness and reaction time. Scalability: A simple, engaging tool that can be adapted across landscapes for conservation education and planning. This approach reaffirmed that mitigation and timely response are at the heart of human-wildlife coexistence. Could gamification be the next big step in community-driven conservation? 🤔 Let’s keep the conversation going! Notably, French Development Agency in South Asia is supporting the Assam Forest Department in forest management and biodiversity conservation through the Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation (APFBC) APFBC-Communicating Conservation—further strengthening efforts toward sustainable community-led conservation, wildlife management, and human-wildlife coexistence. #HumanWildlifeCoexistence #ConservationInnovation #CommunityLedSolutions #IndoPacificParks #ParticipatoryConservation #SustainableForests #BiodiversityConservation #AFD #APFBC Camille Severac Orphée Silard Laura BUIS Lise Breuil Daniel CORNELIS Fabrice Sin Aurore Oberlé