Community-Based Conservation

Community-based conservation is one term of many describing the direct involvement of local people and organizations in decisions and activities associated with locally based environmental management. Its introduction marks a shift that includes humans in ecosystems and a shift from management by experts toward management that includes local perspectives and interests. Other related concepts include comanagement, ecosystem management, civic science, grassroots environmental management, and public ecology. Its rationale is rooted in the subsidiary principle that decisions should be taken at the level closest to where effects are most likely to be felt. This implies that the people most affected should have a direct influence on the decisions that are taken. Proponents of community-based conservation typically also promote ecosystem management, a management approach that attempts to ...