Poverty and Biodiversity Conservation

For the individual interested in the empirical, historical, and contemporary discourse associated with conservation and poverty alleviation, The Earthscan Reader in Poverty and Biodiversity Conservation provides insight into organizational, institutional, and stakeholder involvement at the multinational level. It also provides insight into what needs to be accomplished in the twenty-first century so that the lessons learned are improved upon to obtain rewarding results.

In this six-part book, an overlying theme is the inclusion of locals in the decision-making process. In the early days of biodiversity conservation vis-à-vis international development, too often the theoretical and academic objective operated in the abstract, with a top-down approach to policy formulation and implementation. To the detriment of indigenous communities surrounding protected areas, protectionism was shown to benefit the land but at the peril of people occupying the property to be slated for conservation. With the lack of conservation expertise in developing countries, Western “professionals” imparted a sustainability-management practice that was, ironically enough, not synonymous with poverty reduction.

The role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), indigenous people, livelihoods, land development, and development is perfectly interwoven to outline the best- and worst-case scenarios predetermined only by insight, or lack thereof. Although there is not a collective outright plea from any of the authors for re-evaluation of the practices associated with failed projects or analysis in poverty alleviation strategies in biodiversity conservation, the hint of institutional self-examination is reiterated based on consistent empirical finding. The latter part of the reader is positioned eloquently to include climate change and the need for conservation poverty partnerships. This adds the possibility of increased readership for those who want to move forward with the discourse and improve on poverty and biodiversity conservation strategy. Second, the affect and inclusion of climate change in the discourse is needed when safeguarding the rights of protected areas as well as indigenous communities.

Although part three included conservation policy, the reader gets an introduction as to what kinds of policy decisions are made, who is making them, as well as the long- and short-term implications on the land and people who inhabit them. The only shortfall of the reader is that there should have been a greater inclusion of the political and policy ramifications of decision making from multi-stakeholders. Overall, this is an excellent reader, especially for those, like me, who have minimal knowledge of this area.