Det er ikke de fattigste, men de velhavende naboer, som truer vildtlivet i en nationalpark i Uganda mest, lyder en af konklusionerne fra et projekt om sammenhængen mellem fattigdom og bevarelse af vildtliv.
Researchers will meet in Kampala, Uganda this week to share the first findings of a project that aims to help low-income communities benefit more from living near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where conservation priorities can impose limits on their livelihoods.
Government agencies and nongovernmental organisations have adopted this approach — termed Integrated Conservation and Development (ICD) — because poverty, people’s access to natural resources and the ecological health of the national park are so closely linked.
The project has found that whilst poverty often compels people to collect resources illegally from the park, the poorer villagers were likely to collect minor forest products such as firewood.
By contrast, the bushmeat hunters —who pose a greater threat to conservation— were amongst the wealthier members of their communities.
“The common assumption — that poverty drives people to use resources illegally – is over-simple,” says project coordinator Andy Gordon-Maclean, a researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development.
“The links between poverty and threats to wild species are more complex and it is that critical conservationists understand this,” he adds.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 400 of the world’s total population of 900 mountain gorillas and tourists pay five hundred dollars for a chance to see these apes. The potential for local people to benefit is clear.
The project found however that wealthier villagers gained more benefits from the park than poorer neighbours who lived closer to park.
Those villagers who live closest to the park are in a poverty trap, having less education, being at greater disease risk from poor sanitation and more likely to go hungry.
They also had less access to social services and markets, a lower sense of wellbeing. Crop raiding by wild animals from the national park exacerbates the situation.
Læs videre her: http://www.iied.org/project-sheds-light-complex-links-between-poverty-threats-wild-species
Begynd ved: “The results to date show…”
