| Institution: | 1. CIRAD – UPR 36, TA 10/D, Campus de Baillarguet, 34398 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France, email claude.garcia@cirad.fr;2. French Institute of Pondicherry, 11 St. Louis Street, PB 33, 605001 Pondicherry, India;3. School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom;4. Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland;5. College of Forestry, University of Agricultural Sciences (Bangalore), Ponnampet, 571216, Kodagu district, Karnataka, India;6. Central Coffee Research Institute, Coffee Board, Coffee Research Station Post, 577 177, Chikmagalur District, Karnataka, India;7. Environmental Services & Sustainable Use of Forests Programme, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), P.O. Box 0113 BOCBD ‐ Bogor 16000, Indonesia;8. CIRAD ‐ UPR 80‐ETP, TA 10/D, Campus de Baillarguet, 34398 Montpellier, Cedex 5, France |
| Abstract: | Abstract: The new approaches advocated by the conservation community to integrate conservation and livelihood development now explicitly address landscape mosaics composed of agricultural and forested land rather than only protected areas and largely intact forests. We refer specifically to a call by Harvey et al. (2008) to develop a new approach based on six strategies to integrate biodiversity conservation with sustainable livelihoods in Mesoamerican landscape mosaics. We examined the applicability of this proposal to the coffee agroforests of the Western Ghats, India. Of the six strategies, only one directly addresses livelihood conditions. Their approach has a clear emphasis on conservation and, as currently formulated risks repeating the failures of past integrated conservation and development projects. It fails to place the aspirations of farmers at the core of the agenda. Thus, although we acknowledge and share the broad vision and many of the ideas proposed by this approach, we urge more balanced priority setting by emphasizing people as much as biodiversity through a careful consideration of local livelihood needs and aspirations. |
