Levels of community participation and satisfaction with decentralized wildlife management in Idodi-Pawaga Wildlife Management Area,Tanzania

Participatory approaches to conservation are viewed as a plausible alternative to the old ‘fortress conservation’ approach. The design and implementation of these approaches in developing countries have tended to embrace community participation through decentralized governance mechanisms in the past three decades. However, sustainable conservation approaches that maintain community livelihoods while conserving biodiversity are challenged with meeting both objectives. In addressing this challenge, little attention has been given to an empirical analysis of community’s satisfaction levels on how they participated in the design and implementation of this approach. In this article, we use a mixed method approach using both quantitative and qualitative data to examine levels of satisfaction and participation of local communities in the Idodi-Pawaga Wildlife Management Area (WMA), south-western Tanzania. We find that social economic factors (e.g. age, household size, gender, number of years living in the same location and participation/non-participation) influence, in different ways, the satisfaction levels of community’s participation towards the WMA creation. Due to inadequate participation, we find that the WMA design and implementation process failed from the beginning to actively involve the local communities and this has resulted in the near absence of the promised economic benefits from wildlife conservation. We suggest that participation should go beyond the simple information sharing to actively engage the local communities in key planning activities from the beginning of any WMA programme. It is also important to take into consideration their levels of satisfaction with the process of decision-making if meaningful decentralized governance is to be achieved.     

论皖南地区旅游资源综合开发

皖南地区具有独特的地理位置，自然景观和人文景观相互交融，其旅游资源的特色是景区分布集中（稀有性）、景观类型多样（珍贵性）、文化古迹丰富（徽文化发源地），旅游资源还具有自然风光、人文景观、生态环境的优势，具有综合开发利用各类旅游资源的可行性与必要性。通过系统调查和分析该地区旅游资源的配置基础，提出了对该地区的旅游资源进行综合开发的建议。     

Small habitat matrix: How does it work?

We present herein our perspective of a novel Small Habitats Matrix (SHM) concept showing how small habitats on private lands are untapped but can be valuable for mitigating ecological degradation. Grounded by the realities in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we model a discontinuous “stepping stones” linkage that includes both terrestrial and aquatic habitats to illustrate exactly how the SHM can be deployed. Taken together, the SHM is expected to optimize the meta-population vitality in monoculture landscapes for aerial, arboreal, terrestrial and aquatic wildlife communities. We also provide the tangible cost estimates and discuss how such a concept is both economically affordable and plausible to complement global conservation initiatives. By proposing a practical approach to conservation in the rapidly developing tropics, we present a perspective from “ground zero” that reaches out to fellow scientists, funders, activists and pro-environmental land owners who often ask, “What more can we do?”     

Defining Indicators and Standards for Tourism Impacts in Protected Areas: Cape Range National Park,Australia

Visitors’ perceptions of impacts and acceptable standards for environmental conditions can provide essential information for the sustainable management of tourist destinations, especially protected areas. To this end, visitor surveys were administered during the peak visitor season in Cape Range National Park, on the northwest coast of Western Australia and adjacent to the iconic Ningaloo Reef. The central focus was visitors’ perceptions regarding environmental conditions and standards for potential indicators. Conditions considered of greatest importance in determining visitors’ quality of experience included litter, inadequate disposal of human waste, presence of wildlife, levels of noise, and access to beach and ocean. Standards were determined, based on visitors’ perceptions, for a range of site-specific and non-site-specific indicators, with standards for facilities (e.g., acceptable number of parking bays, signs) and for negative environmental impacts (e.g., levels of littering, erosion) sought. The proposed standards varied significantly between sites for the facilities indicators; however, there was no significant difference between sites for environmental impacts. For the facilities, the standards proposed by visitors were closely related to the existing situation, suggesting that they were satisfied with the status quo. These results are considered in the context of current research interest in the efficacy of visitor-derived standards as a basis for protected area management.     

Applying Gap Analysis and a Comparison Index to Evaluate Protected Areas in Thailand

Protected areas in Thailand were first established 40 years ago. The total area of existing protected areas covers 18.2% of the country’s land area and the Class 1 Watershed, another form of protection, encompasses 18.1%. The government of Thailand intends to increase protected area systems to 25% of the country in 2006 and 30% in 2016. There are always questions arising about how much is enough protected areas to effectively protect biodiversity. The objective of this article is to assess the representation of ecosystems in the protected area network. This article also recommends which underrepresented ecosystems should be added to fill the gaps in representativeness. The research applies a gap analysis and a comparison index to assess the representation of ecosystems within the protected area network. The spatial analyses were applied to measure three aspects of representativeness, namely forest type, altitude, and natural land system. The analyses indicate that the existing protected area system covers 24.4% of the country’s land area, nearly meeting the 25% target proposed by the National Forest Policy; and 83.8% of these areas are under forest cover. Most protected areas are situated in high altitudes, where biological diversity is less than in lowlands. Mangrove forest and riparian floodplain are extremely underrepresented in the existing system. Peat swamp forest, dry dipterocarp forest, and beach forest are relatively well represented. In addition, these five ecosystems are threatened by human pressures and natural disasters; therefore, they should be targeted as high priorities for the selection of new reserves. Future research should incorporate aquatic and marine ecosystems, as well as animal distributions, which were not included in this research due to data unavailabilities.