Reconciling Local Livelihoods and Tropical Biodiversity Conservation

Carlos A. Peres
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK and Instituto Juruá, Rua Ajuricaba 359, Manaus, Brazil

João Vitor Campos e Silva
Instituto Juruá, Rua Ajuricaba 359, Manaus, Brazil

Winning article: Sustainable-use protected areas catalyze enhanced livelihoods in rural Amazonia (PNAS, 2021)

This work contributes to the following four Planetary Boundaries, including those that have already been breached (Climate Change, Biosphere Integrity; and Land-System Change) or are yet to be breached (Freshwater Use).

Hope from the ground

Many important studies have shown that IPLCs avoid deforestation within their territories through zero or minimum investments from top-down command-and-control jurisdictional authorities. Through consistent local presence and surveillance, they can keep farmers, land-grabbers, illegal loggers, hunters and fishers at bay. In the nearly 5 million km2 Brazilian Amazon, this is particularly the case of indigenous territories which account for 21% of the entire region. Another bright spot in lowland Amazonia is the community-based management of freshwater fisheries targeting giant Arapaima. Arapaima is the largest scaled freshwater fish on Earth and has been severely overfished since the heyday of the rubber-boom, but there is now strong evidence of population recovery within community-managed areas. Under this co-management model, indigenous peoples and local communities are empowered to protect their own territories against illegal activities through widely agreed ‘spatial zoning’ of water bodies, which is defined as the widely approved design of the large-scale configuration of a spatial mosaic that includes both protected and unprotected sites. This includes floodplain lakes, levées and river channels. This management system effectively ensures the establishment of a set of socially agreed principles within protected areas, Indigenous Lands and even unprotected sites, through so-called ‘fishing agreements’ that regulate the spatial access by different stakeholders. Our previous research work shows that wild Arapaima populations in protected lakes have grown 600% in the last 20 years and are 50-fold larger than those in unprotected lakes. In addition to the conservation benefits for this iconic Amazonian fish and all other freshwater and forest denizens under the umbrella of protected floodplains, this consolidated co-management initiative has emerged as an enormous window of opportunity to improve the welfare of the rural poor. Each protected lake can generate an average potential annual income of US$9,000, and these funds are used to enhance community infrastructure, access to health and education services, and capacity building opportunities. This has encouraged the enthusiastic participation of entire communities, including their women, fostering cooperation between remote rural communities, and strengthening local associations. Due to its unprecedented socioeconomic and ecological outcomes, which can be scaled up to fill vast areas, arapaima management has been increasingly recognized as one of the most promising windows of opportunities to promote biodiversity protection, food security and local welfare. Currently, arapaima management encompasses some 1,030 rural Amazonian communities and over 10,000 people who have moved from predatory sources of income to a low-carbon green economy.

Ingredients for success

Several ingredients can increase the likelihood of success of community-based arrangements in aligning biodiversity conservation and local welfare. Leadership, for example, represents a critical factor. Highly motivated and enterprising individuals are recognized as strong leaders who can inspire collective behavioural changes, ensuring local engagement, commitment and compliance. In addition, culturally important species, such as arapaima and freshwater turtles, can be used as a program flagship, further enhancing collective engagement. But it is also critical that these culturally important species also yield substantial economic value to sustain a value chain that generates income for rural communities. In this context, the sustainable exploitation of those resources can generate much needed revenues in otherwise disenfranchised, poor communities.

Another critical factor is the establishment of well-defined no-take areas where sensitive species are allowed to prosper. If well implemented, this principle can ensure the demographic viability of target species and the replenishment of previously depleted environments through healthy source-sink dynamics. Sustainable offtake quotas that can be collectively enforced are also essential within sustainable harvest programs. In the case of arapaima, the Brazilian government authorizes as much as 30% of the adult population to be harvested, according to the stock recovery rate and the community capacity to harvest those stocks. Finally, respecting sociocultural contexts and Local Ecological Knowledge is also essential to ensure the central role and engagement of local communities.

A new dawn for conservation in the Amazon?

IPLCs cast a beacon of optimism on the positive role of humans in biodiversity conservation. To strengthen those approaches even further, however, greater support from government, non-government and philanthropist sectors are necessary. This includes capacity building to strengthen the political organization of local associations so that they can self-regulate their own management arrangements and sustainable trade chains, and foster future leaders to ensure the perpetuity of both communal dividends and conservation outcomes. Financial compensations in the form of payments for ecosystem services will also need to be developed to properly reward the enormous effort made by local communities to protect their territories.

Much of conservation science has long advocated that effective biodiversity conservation and a positive human welfare agenda cannot co-exist within the same package. Our experience in Brazilian Amazonia shows otherwise: empowered communities can decentralize natural resource management, substantially reduce conservation costs, and create tangible opportunities for self-development, while protecting vast areas that were previously up for grabs. At the same time, conservation outcomes can be ensured through the establishment of no-take zones and science-based harvesting regulations. Highlighting these conservation ‘happy news’ can boost optimism and inspire local communities to increase efforts in community-led arrangements.