ArticlePDF Available

Insights on fostering the emergence of robust conservation actions from Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE program

Authors:

Abstract

One strategy to address threats to biodiversity in the face of ongoing budget constraints is to create an enabling environment that facilitates individuals, communities and other groups to self-organise to achieve conservation outcomes. Emergence (new activities and initiatives), and robustness (durability of these activities and initiatives over time), two related concepts from the common pool resources literature, provide guidance on how to support and enable such self-organised action for conservation. To date emergence has received little attention in the literature. Our exploratory synthesis of the conditions for emergence from the literature highlighted four themes: for conservation to emerge, actors need to 1) recognise the need for change, 2) expect positive outcomes, 3) be able to experiment to achieve collective learning, and 4) have legitimate local scale governance authority. Insights from the literature on emergence and robustness suggest that an appropriate balance should be maintained between external guidance of conservation and enabling local actors to find solutions appropriate to their contexts. We illustrate the conditions for emergence, and its interaction with robustness, through discussing the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe and reflect on efforts at strengthening local autonomy and management around the world. We suggest that the delicate balance between external guidance of actions, and supporting local actors to develop their own solutions, should be managed adaptively over time to support the emergence of robust conservation actions.
Original Research Article
Insights on fostering the emergence of robust conservation
actions from Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE program
Duan Biggs
a
,
b
,
c
,
d
,
*
, Natalie C. Ban
e
, Juan Carlos Castilla
f
,
g
,
Stefan Gelcich
f
,
g
,
h
,
i
,
j
,
k
, Morena Mills
b
,
l
, Edson Gandiwa
m
, Michel Etienne
n
,
Andrew T. Knight
b
,
l
,
o
, Pablo A. Marquet
p
,
q
,
r
,
s
, Hugh P. Possingham
b
,
t
a
Environmental Futures Research Institute, Grifth University, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia
b
ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Centre for Biodiversity &Conservation Science, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia
c
Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa
d
Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa
e
School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2, Canada
f
Departamento de Ecología and Estaci
on Costera de Investigaciones Marinas, Las Cruces. Facultad de Ciencias Biol
ogicas. Ponticia
Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Av Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340, Santiago, Chile
g
Laboratorio Internacional de Cambio Global (CSIC-PUC). Ponticia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Av Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340,
Santiago, Chile
h
MERIC, Marine Energy Research &Innovation Center, Av. Apoquindo, 2827, Santiago, Chile
i
Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES) &Centro de Conservaci
on Marina, Departamento de Ecologia, Facultad de
Ciencias Biol
ogicas, Ponticia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
j
Center for the Study of Multiple Drivers on Marine Socio-Ecological Systems (MUSELS), Ponticia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile,
Santiago, Chile
k
Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
l
Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, United Kingdom
m
School of Wildlife, Ecology and Conservation, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Private Bag 7724, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe
n
Institut National de la recherche agronomique (INRA), France
o
Department of Botany, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
p
Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biol
ogicas, Ponticia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
q
Laboratorio Internacional en Cambio Global (LINCGlobal), Ponticia Universidad Cat
olica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
r
Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile
s
The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 87501, USA
t
The Nature Conservancy, 4245 North Fairfax Drive Suite 100, Arlington, VA, 22203-1606, USA
article info
Article history:
Received 19 January 2019
Accepted 20 January 2019
Keywords:
Emergence
Robustness
Complexity
Cost-effectiveness
Institutions
Social learning
Community-based conservation
CAMPFIRE
abstract
One strategy to address threats to biodiversity in the face of ongoing budget constraints is
to create an enabling environment that facilitates individuals, communities and other
groups to self-organise to achieve conservation outcomes. Emergence (new activities and
initiatives), and robustness (durability of these activities and initiatives over time), two
related concepts from the common pool resources literature, provide guidance on how to
support and enable such self-organised action for conservation. To date emergence has
received little attention in the literature. Our exploratory synthesis of the conditions for
emergence from the literature highlighted four themes: for conservation to emerge, actors
need to 1) recognise the need for change, 2) expect positive outcomes, 3) be able to
experiment to achieve collective learning, and 4) have legitimate local scale governance
authority. Insights from the literature on emergence and robustness suggest that an
appropriate balance should be maintained between external guidance of conservation and
*Corresponding author. Environmental Futures Research Institute, Grifth University, Nathan, Queensland, 4111, Australia.
E-mail addresses: d.biggs@grifth.edu.au,duan.biggs@outlook.com (D. Biggs).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Global Ecology and Conservation
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/gecco
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00538
2351-9894/©2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/
4.0/).
Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e00538
enabling local actors to nd solutions appropriate to their contexts. We illustrate the
conditions for emergence, and its interaction with robustness, through discussing the
Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in
Zimbabwe and reect on efforts at strengthening local autonomy and management around
the world. We suggest that the delicate balance between external guidance of actions, and
supporting local actors to develop their own solutions, should be managed adaptively over
time to support the emergence of robust conservation actions.
©2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction
Conservation aims to protect biodiversity to ensure persistence through time. However, conservation actions (e.g. pro-
tected areas, community-based management) commonly do not reach their desired goals, as they fail to be implemented, are
managed inappropriately, or are reversed as the social and political context changes (Salafsky et al., 2002;Mascia et al., 2014).
At the same time, threats facing biodiversity, such as habitat loss, unsustainable levels of hunting, and the spread of invasive
species continue to escalate, and available budgets and political will to mitigate against these threats are under renewed
pressure (Craigie et al., 2010;Rands et al., 2010;Waldron et al., 2013). Thus, a deeper understanding of the drivers of suc-
cessful implementation of conservation actions and their persistence through time is required. We argue that emergence and
robustness, two related concepts from the Common Pool Resources (CPR) literature, can provide insight and guidance into
achieving longer lasting conservation outcomes by harnessing and supporting the potential of self-organised action.
The CPR literature describes conditions that lead to long-term sustainable management of natural resources. Particularly
relevant for conservation is the focus on self-organisation of resource governance by communities. The development or
creation of new rules (also referred to as institutions or institutional arrangements) for sustainable resource management is
described as emergencein the CPR literature (Lubell et al., 2002;McCay, 2002). Within a conservation context, these rules
are often thought of as conservation actions (e.g. derived from new policies, local initiatives) that can deliver conservation
benets. Robustness refers to the ability of these actions, and the supporting rules and institutions of management, to persist
over time in the face of internal and external pressure (Ostrom, 2005;Cox et al., 2010). The principles for robustness have
achieved prominence in the literature (including a Nobel Prize in Economics for Elinor Ostrom, who developed these design
principles), and have been applied to a number of natural resource settings (e.g. Ostrom, 1990;Ostrom, 2009;Cox et al.,
2010). However, the conditions for emergence, and how they relate to principles of robustness, have received little atten-
tion to date. While several conditions have been identied that enable the emergence of new rules among groups of
stakeholders for collective action towards more sustainable management of common pool resources, and by extension the
conservation of biodiversity (e.g. Ostrom, 1990;McCay, 2002;Heikkila and Gerlak, 2005), they have not yet been synthesised.
We aim to address this gap in this perspective article. First, we present an exploratory synthesis of the conditions that un-
derpin emergence according to the CPR literature and focus on the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous
Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Zimbabwe as a case study to illustrate the conditions. Second, we discuss how the conditions for
emergence interact with the principles of robustness and discuss these interactions in the CAMPFIRE program. Third, we
reect on the implication for contemporary conservation initiatives through incorporating insights from efforts at
strengthening local scale resource governance around the world.
CAMPFIRE is an appropriate case study due to its focus on strengthening ownership, control, and decision-making power
of rural communities and the establishment of supporting institutions (Martin, 1986;Child 1996a,1996b). In addition, since
2000, a political and economic crisis (Balint and Mashinya, 2006,2008;Child and Barnes, 2010;Gandiwa et al., 2014),
including a controversial land reform program, has plagued Zimbabwe, which enables an exploratory assessment of how
these external pressures impacted the robustness of CAMPFIRE.
2. Methodology
Through a series of workshops and discussions among the authors during which we drew on our knowledge of the CPR
literature (e.g. Ostrom, 1990,2005,2010a, b;McCay, 2002;Heikkila and Gerlak, 2005), augmented by non-systematic
searches of Google Scholar and the Web of Science database we searched through the articles that had cited the emer-
gence references listed in Table 1 to determine whether the conditions for emergence had been updated, adapted or eval-
uated. In addition we asked two common property researchers (Michael Cox (e.g. Cox et al., 2010) and Michael Schoon (e.g.
Schoon and Cox, 2018)) to review the conditions we identied and point us to additional literature we may have overlooked.
To evaluate the presence or absence of the conditions for emergence and robustness in CAMPFIRE for this exploratory
synthesis we combined searching through the peer-reviewed articles that had cited the initial peer-reviewed papers on
CAMPFIRE (Child, 1993;Metcalfe, 1994;Child, 1995,Madzudzu, 1995;Child, 1996a, b) for relevant papers together with the
authors knowledge of research outputs from CAMPFIRE.
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e005382
3. Conditions for emergence
We identied ten conditions for emergence that can be divided into four themes (Table 1;Fig. 1).
A. Recognising the need for change (conditions 1e2): This entails the need for a shared understanding of a problem and
agreement among actors that action to address it is worthwhile (McCay, 2002;Heikkila and Gerlak, 2005).
B. Expectation of positive outcome (conditions 3e4): This includes a collective interest in adopting new rules, based on high
perceived benets relative to cost and the likely collective cost of not adopting the rules (Ostrom, 1990;Heckathorn and
Maser, 1987;Lubell, 2002;Heikkila and Gerlak, 2005;Schneider et al., 2003).
C. A context that facilitates experimentation and collective learning among actors (conditions 5e8): The presence of policy
entrepreneurs, individuals who take advantage of opportunities to inuence outcomes (Kingdon, 2011), that can cham-
pion new rules and advocate for their adoption as well as a context that allows groups to communicate and share ex-
periences (i.e. understand benets of the new actions or rules based on experiences elsewhere) is required. In addition,
social norms that favour collaboration, such as reciprocity, trust, and an expectation that the group beneting from the
adoption of new actions and rules will be relatively stable, are necessary.
D. An opportunity for legitimate local scale governance (conditions 9e10): Actors should feel that their interests are repre-
sented and that the decision-making structure is legitimate (Schneider et al., 2003). Moreover, there should be an op-
portunity for norms to be generated internally, rather than externally imposed, because externally imposed sanctioning
and enforcement seems to crowd out the development of cooperative behaviour (Ostrom, 2005;Bowles, 2016)
Table 1
Conditions for emergence.
Condition References
THEME A: Recognising the need for change
1 Collective recognition of the problem: The collective recognition of a
serious problem by a critical mass of actors is important for widespread
adoption.
McCay (2002);Heikkila and Gerlak (2005)
2 Shared understanding of the problem: A shared view on the cause and
effect of the recognised problem is needed for the recognition that an
action is worthwhile.
McCay (2002);Heikkila and Gerlak (2005)
THEME B: Expectations of positive outcomes
3 Collective interest in adopting new rules: A shared understanding of the
perceived collective benet of adopting rules or the collective cost of not
adopting the rules. This includes the transaction costs of developing,
negotiating, monitoring, and enforcing the action.
Heckathorn and Maser (1987);Ostrom (1990);Taylor and Singleton
(1993);Lubell (2002);Heikkila and Gerlak (2005);Basurto and Ostrom
(2009).
4 High expectation and value of future benets: Changing one's day to day
action to engage in a conservation action is more likely when the
continuation of activities from the area (e.g. farming or shing) is highly
valued. A recognition of the detrimental personal impact of a past
behaviour on the future of that activity can serve as an impetus to
behavioral change.
Ostrom (1990);Schneider et al., (2003)
Theme C: Context that facilitates experimentation and collective learning among actors
5 Presence of policy entrepreneurs: Someone who will champion the rule
and advocate for its adoption will speed the rate of adoption by others.
Ostrom (1990)
6 Context allows for collective learning: Ability to share experiences and
ideas among members of the group, as well as other groups will allow
information from those who adopt the conservation action to pass to others
in the population.
McCay (2002);Schneider et al., (2003)
7 Social norms that favour collaboration: Reciprocity, trust and cooperation
should be valued by the actors in the system. There should be an alignment
of core values and beliefs sufcient to want to work towards a solution.
Ostrom (1990);Ostrom (1998);Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1993);
Heikkila and Gerlak (2005);Ostrom (2005)
8 Expectations that the group will be relatively stable: The group
appropriating and beneting from the new actions and rules will be stable.
Ostrom (1990);Lubell (2002);Heikkila and Gerlak (2005)
Theme D: Legitimate local scale governance
9 Perceived legitimate decision-making structure: Decision making
structures that provide stakeholders with an opportunity to present their
own interests and are perceived to deliver a fair outcome are required.
Ostrom (1990);Schneider et al., (2003)
10 Opportunity to generate new norms internally: The opportunity is
provided for norms to be internally generated rather than externally
imposed facilitates the spread of norms which suit the majority of the
population.
Ostrom (2005)
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e00538 3
4. Emergence in CAMPFIRE
4.1. Theme A: Recognising the need for change
From the late 1970s, a collective realisation began to materialize that Zimbabwe faced the dual challenge of rural poverty
in communal areas and increasing pressure on wildlife and their habitats (Condition 1; Child, 1996a;Child, 1996b). A shared
recognition of the problem emerged among conservationists, social scientists, social workers, economists, and politicians that
the allocation of rights over wildlife to rural communities presented an opportunity to tackle both challenges (condition 2,
Table S1;Child, 1996a;Child, 1996b).
4.2. Theme B: Expectation of positive outcomes
As a result of the shared recognition of the problem, and the need for change there was a collective interest in adopting
new policies to improve the livelihoods of rural communities and conserve wildlife, with an expectation that the benets of
action would exceed costs (conditions 3 &4, Table S1;Martin, 1986;Murphree, 1991;Metcalfe, 1994). Therefore in CAMPFIRE,
rural communities occupying land under communal tenure obtained the authority to use wildlife commercially and have
control over how to spend that income (Child, 1996a;Frost and Bond, 2008).
4.3. Theme C: A context that facilitates experimentation and collective learning among actors
The development of CAMPFIRE was further supported and enabled bythe presence of policy entrepreneurs which engaged
NGOs, representatives of government departments and community groups (Condition 5, Table S1)(Child, 1996a,b).
Furthermore, the CAMPFIRE Association enabled collective learning and developed guidelines and processes for contracts
with rural district councils and allowed for discussion of lessons learnt in Association meetings (condition 6, Table S1)(Child,
1996a). Social norms that favour collaboration were partially present as national government and rural district councils were
reluctant to decentralise power to community level, and wanted to maintain control, particularly over revenue (condition 7,
Fig. 1. How the conditions and robustness relate. The numbers refer to the conditions for emergence in Table 1 and S1 and the principles for robustness in Table 2
and S2.
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e005384
Table S1)(Child 1996a,1996b). Furthermore, although villages and wards were clearly dened, and the benets associated to
CAMPFIRE were restricted to these dened communities, and therefore there was an expectation that groups would remain
relatively stable, there was a challenge of in-migration to communities that received income from successful CAMPFIRE
projects (condition 8, Table S1)(Child, 1996a;Dzingirai, 2003).
4.4. Theme D: Opportunity for legitimate local scale governance
CAMPFIRE was based on strong principles of community participation and equitable benet sharing (conditions 9 &10,
Table S1), and the devolution of wildlife management and benets to the smallest feasible scale (Child, 1996a). However,
CAMPFIRE has been criticised for communities not being sufciently independent of government, due to the reluctance by
national and local governments to decentralise power to community level (Mutandwa and Gadzirayi, 2007). For example, the
Zimbabwean national treasury tried to maintain control over all the income owing to CAMPFIRE communities, undermining
effective collaboration while CAMPFIRE was developing (Child, 1996b). As a result the weakened ability of groups in
CAMPFIRE to represent their own interests and the opportunity to generate new norms internally negatively affected the
perceived legitimacy of the decision-making structure (Condition 9 &10). In addition, areas such as the Nkayi and Lupane
districts were characterised by historic conicts and violence which undermined the legitimacy of local scale governance
(Alexander and McGregor, 2000).
5. Emergence, robustness &CAMPFIRE
5.1. Emergence and robustness
The principles for robustness have been studied extensively in the common pool resources research, primarily focussed on
small communities, and small group settings (Ostrom 1990,2005;McCay, 2002) (See Table 2). Common characteristics of
these institutions (referred to as the design principles) have been developed and evaluated in a number of community-based
natural resource management and conservation settings (Ostrom 1990,2009;Cox et al., 2010;Mills et al., 2013).
Conservation actions that emerge must also be sustained through time. Therefore, understanding the similarities and
differences among the conditions for emergence and principles for robustness is critical. The conditions for emergence in
theme C (a context that facilitates experimentation and learning among actors) and theme D (opportunity for legitimate local
scale governance) (Table 1) are closely related to key principles for robustness (Fig.1). For example, the opportunity for norms
to be generated internally rather than externally imposed (emergence condition 10) is related to the existence of minimal
recognition of rights to organise (robustness principle 7). Similarly, the expectations that a group will be stable (emergence
condition 8) is congruent with having clear use and resource boundaries (robustness principle 1); knowing who is within the
group that benets from the conservation action is thus important in determining its emergence and robustness.
Table 2
Principles of robustness. Source (Ostrom, 2005,2009;Cox et al., 2010):
Principle Description
1A Clear user boundaries: Boundaries between legitimate users and nonusers must be clearly dened. De facto and de jure boundaries are clearly
dened. Some Parks are protected on paper (de facto) but this designation is not recognised by local people.
1B Clear resource boundaries: Clear boundaries are present that dene a resource system and separate it from the larger biophysical
environment.
2A Congruence with local conditions: Appropriation and provision rules are congruent with local social and environmental conditions.
2B Access, use, and harvest are proportional and appropriate with local conditions: The benets obtained by users from a common-pool
resource (CPR), as determined by access, use, and harvest rules, are proportional to the amount of inputs required in the form of labor, material,
or money, as determined by provision rules.
3Collective-choice arrangements: Most individuals affected by the operational rules can participate in modifying the operational rules.
4A Monitoring users: Monitors who are accountable to the users monitor the appropriation and provision levels of the users.
Monitors and enforcers are present and they are accountable to the community groups and individuals that they are monitoring
4B Monitoring the resource: Monitors who are accountable to the users monitor the condition of the resource.
5Graduated sanctions: Appropriators who violate operational rules are likely to be assessed graduated sanctions (depending on the seriousness
and the context of the offense) by other appropriators, by ofcials accountable to the appropriators, or by both.
6Conict-resolution mechanisms: Appropriators and their ofcials have rapid access to low-cost local arenas to resolve conicts among
appropriators or between appropriators and ofcials.
Systems with low cost conict resolution mechanisms are more likely to survive.
7Minimal recognition of rights to organise: The rights of appropriators to devise their own institutions are not challenged by external
governmental authorities.
Resource users have the rights to adapt harvesting and conservation rules themselves over time.
8Nested enterprises: Appropriation, provision, monitoring, enforcement, conict resolution, and governance activities are organized in
multiple layers of nested enterprises.
Smaller scale institutions for design and implementation of rules and enforcement are nested within larger organisations and institutions and
that there are relationships between these scales
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e00538 5
5.2. CAMPFIRE under pressure: impacts on emergence and robustness
From 2000 onwards, the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, including a controversial land reform program,
severely tested CAMPFIRE and counter-acted the favourable conditions for its successful emergence (Balint and Mashinya,
2006,2008;Child and Barnes, 2010;Nyamwanza, 2014). Following the onset of the land reform, an increasing number of
CAMPFIRE communities became subject to the resettlement of new people within their communities that laid claim to the
resources and benets, and donors withdrew support (Mutandwa and Gadzirayi, 2007;Gandiwa et al., 2014). Thus, user
boundaries became less clear and human wildlife conict increased (Le Bel et al., 2011). As a result both the existence of
conditions for emergence and the presence of the robustness principles were weakened. In particular conditions for emer-
gence 7 (social norms that favour collaboration) and 8 (expectations that the group will be stable) and robustness principles 1
(clearly dened user and resource boundaries) were weakened (Tables S1 and S2).
Additionally, the rights of groups to organise and decide how to harvest and manage their resources (robustness principle
7, Table S2) and the collective choice arrangements where individuals affected by rules should be able to participate in their
modication (robustness principles 3 and 7) were undermined both internally and externally. Within Zimbabwe, national
government and rural district councils wanted to maintain control, particularly over revenue, and therefore resisted
decentralising power to communities (Child, 1996b;Balint and Mashinya, 2006;Muboko and Murindagomo, 2014). For
example, by 2001, over 40% of revenue from CAMPFIRE was retained by some government district ofces compared to the
guidelines of 15% (Balint and Mashinya, 2006), changing the relative benets of engaging in the program. Externally, the ban
on the import of elephant hunting trophies into the USA (US Fish and Wildilfe Service 2015), a key source of income to
CAMPFIRE communities, has reduced benetows to communities. These developments, weakened the perceived legitimacy
of the decision-making structures (emergence condition 9) and the opportunity to generate new norms internally (emer-
gence condition 10) (Tables S1 and S2).
Furthermore, the CAMPFIRE Association and NGOs supporting CAMPFIRE became weaker as a result of Zimbabwe's po-
litical crisis, impairing the existence of a nested structure of organisation and multi-level governance (robustness principle 8,
Table S2)(Balint and Mashinya, 2006). This hindered the ability of participant communities to access external support or
input if required (Balint and Mashinya, 2008).
5.3. Characteristics of robust CAMPFIRE communities
However, despite the challenges facing CAMPFIRE, the program remained robust in some communities. An analysis from
south-east Zimbabwe around Gonarezou National Park showed that communities that have been more robust joined the
CAMPFIRE program earlier and had more time to develop robust institutions and were characterised by higher levels of trust
and cooperation (Ntuli and Muchapondwa, 2018). These communities were able to resist pressures sufciently to maintain
adequate levels of control over their dened boundaries (robustness principle 1, Table S2), and make collective choice ar-
rangements (robustness principle 4, Table S2). Furthermore, adequate conict resolution mechanisms were in place in these
more robust communities (Principle 6), and they maintained the right and ability to organise themselves (robustness
principle 7). Not unexpectedly, these communities characterised by the maintenance of the principles for robustness and
higher levels of cooperation were also responsible for achieving better wildlife conservation outcomes (Ntuli and
Muchapondwa, 2018).
6. Insights for addressing contemporary conservation challenges
6.1. Balancing decentralisation with the provision of external support through multi-level institutions
For new actions to develop and persist over time, local groups need to be afforded sufcient freedom to devise and adapt
their own rules (Condition 10, Table 1). However, multiple levels of continued external support are important for the
robustness of such new initiatives (Principle 8, Table 2). In the governance and CPR literature, multi-level institutions, also
known as polycentric institutions (a governance system with multiple governing authorities at different scales, Biggs et al.,
2012), have been shown to be effective at both enabling local autonomy, which allows for experimentation, whilst main-
taining external support and guidance in response to crises and change (Anderies et al., 2007;Ostrom, 2010a). In a polycentric
system, multiple organisations and governing bodies at a variety of scales (e.g. local to national and international) have
different responsibilities and roles for governance and support (Ostrom, 2010a).
Building and maintaining multi-level institutions and governance practices and achieving the balance between giving
local groups sufcient freedom to develop their own solutions, whilst continuing to provide external support and guidance in
conservation and resource management initiatives was one of the key challenges facing CAMPFIRE (Tables S1 and S2).
Effective multi-level governance is a challenge beyond CAMPFIRE and Zimbabwe. For example, in the Gulf of California,
community groups that successfully established locally crafted harvesting rules and marine reserves experienced rapid in-
creases in marine resource abundance (Cudney-Bueno and Basurto, 2009). However, the increased resources attracted
outside poachers, which the communities did not have the capacity to counter. Effective multiple governance, and assistance
with the enforcement of local management and harvesting rights is recommended to strengthen these successful community
groups (Cudney-Bueno and Basurto, 2009).
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e005386
6.2. The challenge of insufcient decentralisation and local autonomy
The lack of willingness of both the national government in Zimbabwe as well as the rural district councils to devolve power
and control, particularly over revenue, to local communities was one of CAMPFIRE's key challenges (; Child, 1996b;Mutandwa
and Gadzirayi, 2007;Mapedza, 2009). A lack of willingness of governments to decentralise and devolve power has been
demonstrated across the tropics in forestry management (e.g. Ribot et al., 2006) and in African sheries (Bene al. 2009).
Furthermore, well-intentioned international environmental and conservation initiatives need to be carefully managed to
ensure healthy, and well-functioning multi-level institutions and governance (Gruby and Basurto, 2013). For example, the
Reductions of Carbon Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation program (REDD þ) has been criticised for initiating a
recentralisation of forest policy (Phelps et al., 2010). Consequently, local groups could lose effective ownership and rights over
forests, and also lose the exibility to manage their forest resources according to their own needs, reducing the environmental
and social benets of REDDþ(Chhatre and Agrawal, 2009).
6.3. Examples of successful multi-level governance
Examples of multi-level governance aimed at maintaining a balance between external guidance and support and local
management do exist. For instance, the sheries policy in Chile was recently revised in a way that strengthens the capacity of
actors to develop locally agreed upon sheries management plans (Gelcich, 2014). This new policy aims to maintain a
healthier balance between the need for external support for enforcement and monitoring through national scale rules and
institutions and allowing for local autonomy and adaptability (Ostrom, 2010b;Gelcich, 2014). This type of approach has
potential to inform novel conservation strategies inwhich local communities control conservation areas, whilst national level
institutions steer and support these processes (Gelcich et al. 2008,2012). Indeed, multi-national organisations such as the
European Union or international or national NGOs can be key to maintaining effective polycentric institutions by supporting
the enactment of sub-national, national, or global conservation policies, while simultaneously supporting a greater devo-
lution of rights to local groups. Support from these organisations could include technical advice, facilitation, subsidies or
nancial support especially at critical times, and assistance in communication and in applying political pressure where
necessary. The continuation of such international support during Zimbabwe's political crisis and the pressures faced could
have led to more CAMPFIRE communities remaining robust. Indeed, a long term commitment of support from external
agencies can play a critical role in maintaining conservation outcomes, especially during times of internal strife (Struhsaker
et al., 2005). Moreover, if this support is accompanied by a deep understanding and respect for local contexts, the support is
likely to be more effective at delivering sustainable outcomes locally (Lancaster, 1999;Ika, 2012).
6.4. Importance of ongoing communication and dialogue
To build and maintain multi-level institutions, communication that enables social learning between stakeholders across
multiple levels of governance is critical (Condition 6 and 7, Table 1 and Principle 8, Table 2)(Schusler et al., 2003;Blaikie,
2006;Cumming et al., 2006;Armitage, 2008;Gruby and Basurto, 2013). Structures and fora for communication between
community groups, supporting NGOs, technical advisors, and government ofcials played an important role in the successful
development and implementation of CAMPFIRE (Child, 1996a). Adequate structures for communication among resource
users, researchers and the government were also essential in the development of new policy in Chile (Gelcich, 2014).
Adequate communication, supported by local and international non-governmental organisations, was also critical for the
adoption and spread of Locally Managed Marine Area Network in the Pacic(Mascia and Mills, 2018) and in small-scale
community based initiatives sheries in other countries in Latin America (Castilla et al., 1998;Defeo and Castilla, 2012).
6.5. Constraints of donor cycles and political circumstances
Many conservation actions are subject to the constraints applied by donors and aid agencies. The constraints on donors to
continue to provide funding to projects in Zimbabwe after the onset of the political crisis from 20 00 onwards weighed heavily
on CAMPFIRE (Balint and Mashinya, 2006,2008). Political crises and constraints aside, donor cycles typically run for three
years, requiring reportable deliverables to be met within a specied timeframe (Sayer, 2004;Wells and McShane, 2004). In
addition, centralised management structures are often preferred by donors because these structures allowdonors to maintain
greater control (Morss, 1984). Donorsdesire to maintain control and the relatively short funding cycles can be incongruent
with lengthy and unpredictable participatory processes that enable communities to develop their own rules (Atkinson et al.,
2006). The longer-term benets of taking a participatory approach aligned with the conditions for the emergence and
principles of robustness of conservation actions may not be visible over the time-frames of donor reporting (Wells and
McShane, 2004). Similarly, conservation actions that are led or implemented by governments can also be affected by
shorter term political and election cycles (Stein, 2001).
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e00538 7
6.6. Emergence, robustness and enhancing resilience
The conditions for emergence and principles of robustness overlap with the principles that have been identied on how to
enhance the resilience of desired features of social-ecological systems (e.g. Anderies et al., 2007;Ostrom, 2009;Biggs et al.,
2012). There is a strong degree of overlap with three principles for enhancing resilience, as summarised by Biggs et al. (2012).
First, the principle of encouraging learning and experimentation overlaps with two conditions of emergence: a shared un-
derstanding of the problem (condition 2, Table 1) and a context that allows for collective learning (condition 5 Table 1).
Second, the resilience principle of broadening participation coheres with three conditions for emergence: social norms that
favour collaboration (condition 7, Table 1), perceived legitimate decision-making structure (condition 9, Table 1), and the
opportunity to generate new norms internally (condition 10, Table 1). The resilience principle of broadening participation also
concurs with two principles of robustness: collective choice arrangements (principle 3, Table 2), and minimal recognition of
the rights to organise (principle 7, Table 2). Third, the resilience principle of promoting polycentric governance systems
concurs closely with the robustness principle of nested enterprises (Ostrom, 2005;Cox et al., 2010) (principle 8, Table 2).
7. Limitations and future research directions
Our exploratory synthesis of the conditions for emergence aims to provide a basis for more in-depth, systematic, and
rigorous literature reviews and empirical analyses of emergence. For example, the types of analyses that have been conducted
testing the robustness principles in differing contexts would be useful to evaluate or modify the conditions for emergence
synthesised here (Cox et al., 2010;Mills et al., 2013). Moreover, the conditions for emergence described here were established
through studies that focussed primarily on small communities and groups (Ostrom 1990,2005). However, the extent towhich
the conditions hold at larger scales, and which conditions may be more important than others in particularcontexts, requires
investigation.
Further research is needed on how the conditions for emergence and the principles of robustness of conservation actions
relate to the ndings from work on the emergence of governance (e.g. OMahony and Ferraro, 2007). The development of a
shared conception of authority that is able to adapt and change over time is critical for a self-organised community to develop
successfully and work together to achieve shared objectives (Brechin et al., 2002). The role of authority and control, and its
establishment in a group, and how it changes and develops over time among groups working to achieve conservation out-
comes will provide additional insights to fostering the emergence of conservation actions and maintaining their robustness.
Finally, understanding how conservation actions emerge and are robust over time: 1) extends and deepens our under-
standing of enabling conditions and durability of conservation actions, 2) allows the identication of conservation actions
achieved through harnessing self-organised action and 3) provides guidance on how to maintain the appropriate balance
between external support, and local autonomy. Therefore, we argue that conservation organisations should explicitly
consider emergence and its interactions with robustness in their policy and practice and that research that informs the
evolution and adaptation of the conditions for emergence presented here is urgently required.
Article impact statement
Principles of emergence and robustness can guide how to enable self-organisation to drive locally-developed conservation
outcomes.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Edwin Muchapondwa, Diane Skinner and Brian Child for their inputs on CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe,
based on their personal experience with the initiative. We would also like to thank Common Property Researchers Michael
Cox and Michael Schoon for their review of the principles of emergence that we identied. We thank the Australian Research
Council CEED and Project on Marine Conservation CCM RC 130004 (IniciativaCienticaMilenio) and the Estaci
on Costera de
Investigaciones Marinas (ECIM), Las Cruces, Universidad Cat
olica de Chile for funding the workshops that led to this publi-
cation. Duan Biggs is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Grant (DE 160101182).
Julia van Velden and Abigail Brown assisted with nal proof-reading and formatting of this paper.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00538.
References
Alexander, J., McGregor, J., 2000. Wildlife and politics: CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe. Dev. Change 31, 605e627.
Anderies, J.M., Rodriguez, A.A., Janssen, M.A., Cifdaloz, O., 2007. Panaceas, uncertainty, and the robust control framework in sustainability science. Pro-
ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 15194e15199.
Armitage, D., 2008. Governance and the commons in a multi-level world. Int. J. Commons 2, 7e32.
Atkinson, R., Crawford, L., Ward, S., 2006. Fundamental uncertainties in projects and the scope of project management. Int. J. Proj. Manag. 24, 687e698.
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e005388
Balint, P.J., Mashinya, J., 2006. The decline of a model community-based conservation project: governance, capacity, and devolution in Mahenye, Zimbabwe.
Geoforum 37, 805e815.
Balint, P.J., Mashinya, J., 2008. CAMPFIRE during Zimbabwe's national crisis: local impacts and broader implications for community-based wildlife man-
agement. Soc. Nat. Resour. 21, 783e796.
Basurto, X., Ostrom, E., 2009. Beyond the tragedy of the commons. Economia delle fonti di energia e dellambiente 1, 35e60.
Biggs, R., Schlüter, M., Biggs, D., Bohensky, E.L., BurnSilver, S., Cundill, G., Dakos, V., Daw, T.M., Evans, L.S., Kotschy, K., Leitch, A.M., 2012. Toward principles for
enhancing the resilience of ecosystem services. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 37, 421e448.
Blaikie, P., 2006. Is small really beautiful? Community-based natural resource management in Malawi and Botswana. World Dev. 34, 1942e1957.
Bowles, S., 2016. The Moral Economy: Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens. Yale University Press.
Brechin, S.R., Wilshusen, P.R., Fortwangler, C.L., West, P.C., 2002. Beyond the square wheel: toward a more comprehensive understanding of biodiversity
conservation as social and political process. Soc. Nat. Res. 15, 41e46.
Castilla, J.C., Manríquez, P.H., Alvarado, J., Rosson, A., Pino, C., Esp
oz, C., Soto, R., Defeo, O., 1998. Artisanal Caletas: as units of production and co-managers of
benthic invertebrates in Chile. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 125, 407e413.
Chhatre, A., Agrawal, A., 2009. Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benets from forest commons. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Unit.
States Am. 106, 17667e17670.
Child, B., 1993. Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE programme: using the high value of wildlife recreation to revolutionize natural resource management in communal
areas. Commonw. For. Rev. 284e296.
Child, G., 1995. Managing wildlife successfully in Zimbabwe. Oryx 29, 171e177.
Child, B., 1996a. The practice and principles of community-based wildlife management in Zimbabwe: the CAMPFIRE programme. Biodivers. Conserv. 5,
369e398.
Child, G., 1996b. The role of community-based wild resource management in Zimbabwe. Biodivers. Conserv. 5, 355e367.
Child, B., Barnes, G., 2010. The conceptual evolution and practice of community-based natural resource management in southern Africa: past, present and
future. Environ. Conserv. 37, 283e295.
Cox, M., Arnold, G., Tomas, S.V., 2010. A review of design principles for community-based natural resource management. Ecol. Soc. 15, 38-art 38.
Craigie, I.D., Baillie, J.E., Balmford, A., Carbone, C., Collen, B., Green, R.E., Hutton, J.M., 2010. Large mammal population declines in Africa's protected areas.
Biol. Conserv. 143, 2221e2228.
Cudney-Bueno, R., Basurto, X., 2009. Lack of cross-scale linkages reduces robustness of community-based sheries management. PLoS One 4, 6253.
Cumming, G., Cumming, D., Redman, C., 2006. Scale mismatches in social-ecological systems: causes, consequences, and solutions. Ecol. Soc. 11, 14.
Defeo, O., Castilla, J.C., 2012. Governance and governability of coastal shellsheries in Latin America and the Caribbean: multi-scale emerging models and
effects of globalization and climate change. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 4.
Dzingirai, V., 2003. 'CAMPFIRE (communal areas management programme for indigenous resources) is not for ndebele migrants': the impact of excluding
outsiders from CAMPFIRE in the zambezi valley, Zimbabwe. J. South Afr. Stud. 29, 445e459.
Frost, P.G.H., Bond, I., 2008. The CAMPFIRE programme in Zimbabwe: payments for wildlife services. Ecol. Econ. 65, 776e787.
Gandiwa, E., Sprangers, S., van Bommel, S., Heitk
onig, I.M., Leeuwis, C., Prins, H.H., 2014. Spill-over effect in media framing: representations of wildlife
conservation in Zimbabwean and international media, 1989e2010. J. Nat. Conserv. 22, 413e423.
Gelcich, S., 2014. Towards polycentric governance of small-scale sheries: insights from the new Management Planspolicy in Chile. Aquat. Conserv. Mar.
Freshw. Ecosyst. 24, 575e581.
Gelcich, S., Godoy, N., Prado, L., Castilla, J., 2008. Add-on conservation benets of marine territorial user rights shery policies in central Chile. Ecol. Appl. 18,
273e281.
Gelcich, S., Fernandez, M., Godoy, N., Canepa, A., Prado, L., Castilla, J., 2012. Territorial user rights for sheries as ancillary instruments for marine coastal
conservation in Chile. Conserv. Biol. 26, 1005e1015.
Gruby, R.L., Basurto, X., 2013. Multi-level governance for large marine commons: politics and polycentricity in Palau's protected area network. Environ. Sci.
Policy 33, 260e272.
Heckathorn, D.D., Maser, S.M., 1987. Bargaining and the sources of transaction costs: the case of government regulation. J. Law Econ. Organ. 3, 69e98.
Heikkila, T., Gerlak, A.K., 2005. The formation of large-scale collaborative resource management institutions: clarifying the roles of stakeholders, science,
and institutions. Pol. Stud. J. 33, 583e612.
Ika, L.A., 2012. Project management for development in Africa: why projects are failing and what can be done about it. Proj. Manag. J. 43, 27e41.
Kingdon, J., 2011. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Pearson Education, Boston, USA.
Lancaster, C., 1999. Aid effectiveness in Africa: the unnished agenda. J. Afr. Econ. 8, 487e503.
Le Bel, S., Murwira, A., Mukamuri, B., Czudek, R., Taylor, R., La Grange, M., 2011. Human wildlife conicts in southern Africa: riding the whirl wind in
Mozambique and in Zimbabwe. In: L
opez-Pujol, J. (Ed.), The Importance of Biological Interactions in the Study of Biodiversity. InTech, Croatia, pp.
283e322.
Lubell, M., 2002. Environmental activism as collective action. Environ. Behav. 34, 431e454.
Lubell, M., Schneider, M., Scholz, J.T., Mete, M., 2002. Watershed partnerships and the emergence of collective action institutions. Am. J. Pol. Sci.148e163.
Madzudzu, V., 1995. Comparative study of the implications of ethnicity on campre in bulilimamangwe and binga districts of Zimbabwe. Zambezia 22,
25e41.
Mapedza, E., 2009. Decentralisation Outcomes in the Context of Political Uncertainty in Zimbabwe: a Comparative Assessment from Comanagement and
CAMPFIRE and Implications for Policy. Governing Africa's Forests in a Globalized World. EarthScan, London, UK.
Martin, R., 1986. Communal areas management programme for indigenous resources (CAMPFIRE) revised version. In: CAMPFIRE Working Document No.1/
86, Branch of Terrestrial Ecology. Department of National Parks and Wild Life Management Harare, Zimbabwe.
Mascia, M.B., Mills, M., 2018. When conservation goes viral: the diffusion of innovative biodiversity conservation policies and practices. Conservation Letters
e12442.
Mascia, M.B., Pailler, S., Krithivasan, R., Roshchanka, V., Burns, D., Mlotha, M.J., Murray, D.R., Peng, N., 2014. Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and
degazettement (PADDD) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, 1900e2010. Biol. Conserv. 169, 355e361.
McCay, B.J., 2002. Emergence of Institutions for the Commons: Contexts, Situations, and Events. The drama of the commons, pp. 361e402.
Metcalfe, S., 1994. CAMPFIRE: Zimbabwe's communal areas management programme for indigenous resources. In: Western, D., Wright, M., Strum, S. (Eds.),
Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-Based Conservation. Island Press, Washington D.C.
Mills, M., Pressey, R.L., Ban, N.C., Foale, S., Aswani, S., Knight, A.T., 2013. Understanding characteristics that dene the feasibility of conservation actions in a
common pool marine resource governance system. Conservation Letters 6, 418e429.
Morss, E.R., 1984. Institutional destruction resulting from donor and project proliferation in Sub-Saharan African countries. World Dev. 12, 465e470.
Muboko, N., Murindagomo, F., 2014. Wildlife control, access and utilisation: lessons from legislation, policy evolution and implementation in Zimbabwe. J.
Nat. Conserv. 22, 206e211.
Murphree, M.W., 1991. Communities as Institutions for Resource Management. CASS Occasional Paper Series. University of Zimbabwe.
Mutandwa, E., Gadzirayi, C.T., 2007. Impact of community-based approaches to wildlife management: case study of the CAMPFIRE programme in
Zimbabwe. Int. J. Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 14, 336e344.
Ntuli, H., Muchapondwa, E., 2018. The role of institutions in community wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe. Int. J. Commons 12, 134e169.
Nyamwanza, A., 2014. Bridging policy and practice for livelihood resilience in rural Africa: lessons from the mid-Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe. The Journal of
Rural and Community Development 9, 23e33.
O'Mahony, S., Ferraro, F., 2007. The emergence of governance in an open source community. Acad. Manag. J. 50, 1079e110 6.
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e00538 9
Ostrom, E., 1990. Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Ostrom, E., 1998. A behavioral approach to the rational choice theory of collective action: presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1997.
Am. Pol. Sci. Rev. 92, 1e22.
Ostrom, E., 2005. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Ostrom, E., 2009. A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science 325, 419e422.
Ostrom, E., 2010a. A multi-scale approach to coping with climate change and other collective action problems. Solutions: For a Sustainable and Desirable
Future S1, 27e36.
Ostrom, E., 2010b. Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Glob. Environ. Chang. 20, 550e557.
Phelps, J., Webb, E.L., Agrawal, A., 2010. Does REDDþthreaten to recentralize forest governance? Science 328, 312e313.
Rands, M.R.W., et al., 2010. Biodiversity conservation: challenges beyond 2010. Science 329, 1298e1303.
Ribot, J.C., Agrawal, A., Larson, A.M., 2006. Recentralizing while decentralizing: how national governments reappropriate forest resources. World Dev. 34,
1864e1886.
Sabatier, P., Jenkins-Smith, H., 1993. Policy Change and Learning: an Advocacy Coalition Approach. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, USA.
Salafsky, N., Margoluis, R., Redford, K.H., Robinson, J.G., 2002. Improving the practice of conservation: a conceptual framework and research agenda for
conservation science. Conserv. Biol. 16, 1469e1479.
Sayer, J., 2004. The pathology of projects. In: Getting Biodiversity Projects to Work. Columbia University Press, pp. 35e48.
Schneider, M., Scholz, J.T., Lubell, M., Mindruta, D., Edwardsen, M., 2003. Building consensual institutions: networks and the national estuary program. Am.
J. Pol. Sci. 47, 143e158.
Schoon, M., Cox, M.E., 2018. Collaboration, adaptation, and scaling: perspectives on environmental governance for sustainability. Sustainability 10, 679.
Schusler, T.M., Decker, D.J., Pfeffer, M.J., 2003. Social Learning for collaborative natural resource management. Soc. Nat. Resour. 15, 309e326.
Stein, A., 2001. Participation and sustainability in social projects: the experience of the Local Development Programme (PRODEL) in Nicaragua. Environ.
Urbanization 13, 11e35.
Struhsaker, T.T., Struhsaker, P.J., Siex, K.S., 2005. Conserving Africa's rain forests: problems in protected areas and possible solutions. Biol. Conserv. 123,
45e54.
Taylor, M., Singleton, S., 1993. The communal resource: transaction costs and the solution of collective action problems. Polit. Soc. 21, 195e214.
Waldron, A., Mooers, A.O., Miller, D.C., Nibbelink, N., Redding, D., Kuhn, T.S., Roberts, J.T., Gittleman, J.L., 2013. Targeting global conservation funding to limit
immediate biodiversity declines. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Unit. States Am. 110, 12144e12148.
Wells, M.P., McShane, T.O., 2004. Integrating protected area management with local needs and aspirations. AMBIO A J. Hum. Environ. 33, 513e519.
D. Biggs et al. / Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019) e0053810
... The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of minimizing the risks of every avenue of pathogen spillover, and we argue that developing a sustainable response to reduce the spillover risks associated with wildlife trade should incorporate decades of insights from governance practice and scholarship. This includes evidence from across policy domains including environmental management and conservation (Ostrom, 1990;Bennett and Satterfield, 2018;Biggs et al., 2019;Roe et al., 2020;Fukushima et al., 2021), drug policy (Wälti et al., 2004), and public health (Gaygısız, 2010;Gostin et al., 2020). There is vast diversity and context specificity in wildlife trade (Aguirre et al., 2020) and in how the emergence of infectious diseases is managed; both are part of complex socio-ecological systems characterized by multiple connections and feedbacks across scales (Wilcox and Gubler, 2005;Adger et al., 2009;Biggs et al., 2011;'t Sas-Rolfes et al., 2019;Schlüter et al., 2019;Fukushima et al., 2021). ...
... There is vast diversity and context specificity in wildlife trade (Aguirre et al., 2020) and in how the emergence of infectious diseases is managed; both are part of complex socio-ecological systems characterized by multiple connections and feedbacks across scales (Wilcox and Gubler, 2005;Adger et al., 2009;Biggs et al., 2011;'t Sas-Rolfes et al., 2019;Schlüter et al., 2019;Fukushima et al., 2021). Solutions lie in contextspecific interventions that recognize this global diversity, anticipate complex interlinkages, and account for the voices and concerns of people affected by new policies and regulations (Challender et al., 2015;Biggs et al., 2019;Borzée et al., 2020;Fukushima et al., 2021;Petrovan et al., 2021). Indeed, lessons from environmental governance highlight the limitations of policy solutions that are overly broad and based on speculative albeit popular narratives, such as attempts to ban all commercial wildlife trade and consumption across a wide range of cultural and contextual settings (Bonwitt et al., 2018;Roe et al., 2020). ...
... Indeed, lessons from environmental governance highlight the limitations of policy solutions that are overly broad and based on speculative albeit popular narratives, such as attempts to ban all commercial wildlife trade and consumption across a wide range of cultural and contextual settings (Bonwitt et al., 2018;Roe et al., 2020). Instead, we advocate for responses that recognize the complexity of disease emergence and the on-the-ground diversity of wildlife trade dynamics globally, and that incorporate four key governance principles: equity, responsiveness, robustness, and effectiveness, that have been established over decades of research and practical experience (Ostrom, 1990(Ostrom, , 2009Bennett and Satterfield, 2018;Biggs et al., 2019). ...
Article
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath are the most significant socio-economic crises in modern history. The pandemic’s devastating impacts have prompted urgent policy and regulatory action to reduce the risks of future spillover events and pandemics. Stronger regulatory measures for the trade of wildlife are central to discussions of a policy response. A variety of measures, including broad bans on the trade and sale of wildlife to banning specific species for human consumption are among a suite of discussed options. However, the wildlife trade is diverse, complex, and important for the livelihoods of millions of people globally. We argue that reducing the risk of future pandemics stemming from the wildlife trade must follow established principles of governance which include being equitable, responsive, robust, and effective. We demonstrate how incorporating these principles will support the development of context-specific, culturally sensitive, and inclusive responses that recognize the on-the-ground complexity of disease emergence and the social-ecological systems in which the wildlife trade occurs.
... The three principal tenets upon which CAMPFIRE gained regional and international acclaim have been its ability to: (i) convince communities to perceive wildlife as both an agricultural resource and a form of agriculture; (ii) defuse land-use tensions between wildlife conservation and arable agriculture; and (iii) create harmony between game management and communal subsistence agriculture in a complementary fashion that brings revenue to communities (Vincent et al., 2022). Nonetheless, the need for efficiency and effectiveness in community nature-based conservation is continually under threat by rising elements such as expanding human land use, climate change, invasive species, unmet conservation goals, and social, political and economic limitations (Biggs et al., 2019). ...
... The most contentious issue in conservation policy is undoubtedly how national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and other protected areas affect the people who live nearby (Gandiwa et al., 2014;Muboko & Murindagomo, 2014). Regrettably, forced eviction, terror, torture, and denial of access to resources from protected regions are still commonplace in many communities (Biggs et al., 2019;Chigonda, 2018;Ntuli & Muchapondwa, 2018). Protected areas are increasingly burdened by rising levels of poverty in developing economies, where for their survival, they must be a land use option, just like others, that is compatible with sustainable development (Nthiga et al., 2015). ...
Chapter
Nature-based tourism in Southern Africa is seen as a vehicle for spearheading sustainable rural development. In the past, various frameworks have been conceptualised in different countries in the form of Community-Based Natural Resource Management practices (CBNRM) to ensure equitable benefits to the local communities. Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) is seen as a pioneer CBNRM initiative in southern Africa that has brought about numerous benefits to the local communities. In the last two decades, the viability of CAMPFIRE to sustain rural livelihoods and contribute to conservation goals has come under threat due to a number of socio-economic challenges. This chapter, therefore, aims to evaluate the historical development of CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe and provide recommendations on how the programme can be re-designed to ensure sustainable benefits to the locals. The study is based on a review of extant literature in the form of published journal articles, book chapters and reports to analyse the evolution of CAMPFIRE and draw conclusions on its future developments. The results of this research reveal that CAMPFIRE is facing varied challenges that make it difficult to contribute to improved rural livelihoods and sustainable tourism development. It is also argued that there is a stronger need to re-evaluate the programme so that it fits into the current nature-based tourism dynamics. Lessons learnt over time and the way forward to improve wildlife tourism and community participation in CAMPFIRE areas are provided in this chapter.
... The demand for different species of flora and fauna, such as pangolin, to be used in TCM treatments have raised concerns from conservationists about green in this healthcare domain. The supply to fulfil the needs for endangered species as stated in some of the studies [51][52][53][54] alarmed conservationists. Lack of understanding of the industry has made conservation work on plants and animals' species more challenging. ...
... Lack of understanding of the industry has made conservation work on plants and animals' species more challenging. The development of TCM towards being more evidently proven and the cultivation of sustainability in the industry through green practices have been encouraging though appear challenging under current conditions [51][52][53][54][55], due to the complexity of TCM theories and concepts which makes TCM less readily to be understood and accepted by many [56,57]. The uncovering and development of new ideas and biology systems will be beneficial to the verification of TCM values in modern sciences [55,58]. ...
Article
Full-text available
TCM health benefits and pressure to thrive TCM businesses while taking care of the sustainability of resources has challenged the TCM industry to produce more with less. It is of interest to know how TCM businesses innovate to sustainability through green practices. By capturing the perspectives of TCM organizational stakeholders on practices to minimize the negative impacts on the local environment by TCM enterprises (clinics) in Singapore from the lens of a qualitative exploratory study, the present study explored the presence of green practices and innovations of TCM organizational stakeholders though it is less clear whether these engagements are conducted out of the intention to be green, as these are daily practices at TCM clinics. The phenomenological approach was applied to examine the lived experiences of study participants who work or had worked at TCM clinics in Singapore. The highlights of the paper stressed inadequate focus on green practices at the organizational level to achieve sustainable development targets of TCM industry in Singapore, despite the existence of self-awareness at the individual level to protect the environment. The findings can be building blocks for future research on green and policy making. Green practices and innovations to stay healthy while protecting the environment, with more sensible choices, can bring differences to humans’ lives.
... There is indeed no single "silver bullet" recipe that can be applied in all contexts and for all species and practices. Policy instruments and tools commonly fail when they do not take into account the ecological, cultural, political and historical features in which use of wild species take place (Biggs et al., 2019). Actions to empower local communities and respect their rights, access, and customary rules are fundamental to the development of context-specific policies (Tobin, 2008). ...
Article
This paper summarises the findings of the IPBES assessment for the sustainable use of wild species, which is extensive in both high- and low-income countries. At least 50,000 wild species are usedby billions of people around the world for food, energy, medicine, material, education or recreation, contributing significantly to efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, overexploitation remains a major threat to many wild species. Ensuring and enhancing the sustainability of use of wild species is thus essential for human well-being and biodiversity conservation. Globally, the use of wild species is increasing due to growing human demand and efficiency, but its sustainability varies and depends on the social-ecological contexts in which the use occurs. Multiple environmental and social (including economic) drivers affect the sustainability of use of wild species, posing major current and future challenges. In particular, climate change has already increased the vulnerability of many uses and is expected to increase it further in the coming decades, while global and illegal trades are, in many cases, key drivers of unsustainability. There is no single “silver bullet” policy to address these and other major challenges in the sustainable use of wild species. Rather, effective policies need to integrate inclusive actions at multiple scales that adopt right-based approaches, pay attention to equitable distribution of access and costs and benefits, employ participatory processes, strengthen monitoring programs, build robust customary or government institutions and support context-specific policies, as well as adaptive management.
... There is indeed no single "silver bullet" recipe that can be applied in all contexts and for all species and practices. Policy instruments and tools commonly fail when they do not take into account the ecological, cultural, political and historical features in which use of wild species take place (Biggs et al., 2019). Actions to empower local communities and respect their rights, access, and customary rules are fundamental to the development of context-specific policies (Tobin, 2008). ...
... Attention must be paid to the implementation process of any conservation project. Although by its design, CAMPFIRE recognises the role of agency and actors by redistributing decision-making power on land use to local communities, the lack of willingness by governments and rural district councils to devolve power to the communities is common (Biggs et al. 2019)-something that is also visible at the core of ecotourism and sport hunting. Very often, donors, NGOs, and private operators maintain to have a much bigger say about on-theground politics and policies, often in subtle ways, including in community-based conservation (e.g. ...
Article
Full-text available
Recent decades have shown the increased popularity of market-based instruments (MBIs) for conservation despite mixed social and ecological outcomes. This paper explores the extent to which two crucial MBIs, namely, ecotourism and sport hunting, are compatible with ‘convivial conservation’, a novel, integrated approach that explores conservation beyond capitalism. We developed an analytical framework of five key features for transformative change that can potentially contribute to conviviality: access and property rights, benefit-sharing, value operationalisation, institutional arrangements, and decision-making processes. We analysed the use of ecotourism and sport hunting in southern and eastern Africa in relation to the five features. Based on ‘radical incremental transformation’, we applied these features to analyse if, and if so how, incremental changes to these MBIs can be supportive in transitioning conservation towards (further) conviviality. With insights from our extensive research experiences in eastern and southern Africa, we highlight that the institutional design and contextual factors determining power relations are often more important than the choice of instrument in influencing its social and ecological outcomes. In conclusion, we propose a shift in the dialogue on conservation beyond its infatuation with commodification by integrating convivial elements into the design of conservation policies.
... In this regard, craftwork is a form of job diversification and creation in Tsholotsho in the face of limited livelihood options. In much of southern Africa, tourism has been widely acknowledged as critical for enhancing livelihoods of communities living outside protected areas (Biggs et al., 2019). There is variability in the sale of artefacts, with noticeable sales recorded in summer due to an increases in tourist arrivals and this buffered against fragile biophysical environment. ...
Article
Full-text available
Given that many local authorities specifically in rural areas struggle to strengthen and boost their local economies despite having vast natural resources and as such ecotourism can be a potential backbone of Local Economic Development (LED). The research examines the role of tourism as a vehicle for improving and strengthening Local Economic Development Initiatives for Rural Local Authorities in Tsholotsho District, Matabeleland Province, Zimbabwe. The sample of the study consisted of 296 participants ranging from community members and selected stakeholders in ecotourism. Data were gathered through interviews and questionnaires. The data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 and STATISTICA. Safari was the dominant tourism activity in Tsholotsho. There were significant variations (p < 0.05) in terms of incomes generated from ecotourism activities with craftwork selling being the most dominant. Results of the study showed that there is significant association (p < 0.05) between local economic development and tourism. The challenges faced in initiating LED are lack of funds, politicisation of natural resource governance and lack of community and traditional leadership engagement in key decision making by the Tsholotsho Rural District Council (RDC) and Safari Operators. The study recommends a grassroot-based approach to ecotourism development and strengthening of problem animal control by the RDC and that there is decentralisation and inclusivity in natural resource governance.
Article
Full-text available
La certificación de Áreas de Conservación Ecológica (ACE), se llevó a cabo en la región Montaña del Estado de Guerrero, como parte de una iniciativa para promover un nuevo paradigma de la conservación, el manejo integrado de ecosistemas, a través del Proyecto Manejo Integrado de Ecosistemas en Tres Ecorregiones Prioritarias (Proyecto MIE), coordinado por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). El objetivo de este estudio, fue analizar retrospectivamente, el proceso de certificación, con el fin de sistematizar la experiencia regional. La investigación tuvo un enfoque cualitativo, aplicando como métodos, la investigación documental y la sistematización de experiencias en el proceso de los propios investigadores. Los resultados indican, que el proyecto logró la certificación como ACE de 48,851.3 ha, de 18 núcleos agrarios; la superficie certificada, representa 57.5 % de la superficie total certificada como Áreas Destinadas Voluntariamente a la Conservación (ADVC) del Estado de Guerrero. Se concluye, que la certificación de ACE en la región representa, por la superficie certificada, un esfuerzo exitoso para la conservación de ecosistemas, además de que fomentó procesos de participación local y regional, de organización para la conservación y el desarrollo y la coordinación interinstitucional.
Article
If the United States land trust movement can overcome decades of institutionalized discrimination, it must institute sustained bridging capital to neglected constituents. This qualitative case study employs community-based conservation research literature findings to examine the bridging efficacy of an equity-based conservation plan in Taos, New Mexico. Interviews were combined with related documents and researcher observation in qualitative analysis. Results indicate conventional planning tools were inadequate in bridging Taos’s Hispanic community, although experiential opportunities at an associated park project showed greater promise. Findings support research indicating community bridging efforts should move away from instrumental efforts focused on specific outcomes toward ones that address agency issues in long-term, intrinsic trust-building processes. However, equity-based initiatives such as the TCCP can initiate other bridging capital benefits such as enhancing trust and consensus between groups and overcoming previous conflicts.
Article
High-level policy debates surrounding elephant management often dominate global conservation headlines, yet realities for people living with wildlife are not adequately incorporated into policymaking or evident in related discourse.1,2 Human health and livelihoods can be severely impacted by wildlife and indirectly by policy outcomes.3 In landscapes where growing human and elephant (Loxodonta spp. and Elephas maximus) populations compete over limited resources, human-elephant conflict causes crop loss, human injury and death, and retaliatory killing of wildlife.4-6 Across Africa, these problems may be increasingly compounded by climate change, which intensifies resource competition and food insecurity.6-9 Here, we examine how human-wildlife impacts interact with climate change and household food insecurity across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, the world's largest terrestrial transboundary conservation area, spanning five African nations. We use hierarchical Bayesian statistical models to analyze multi-country household data together with longitudinal satellite-based climate measures relevant to rainfed agriculture. We find that crop depredation by wildlife, primarily elephants, impacts 58% of sampled households annually and is associated with significant increases in food insecurity. These wildlife impacts compound effects of changing climate on food insecurity, most notably observed as a 5-day shortening of the rainy season per 10 years across the data record (1981-2018). To advance sustainability goals, global conservation policy must better integrate empirical evidence on the challenges of human-wildlife coexistence into longer term strategies at transboundary scales, specifically in the context of climate change.3,9-11.
Article
Full-text available
In preview of the special issue on “Environmental Governance for Sustainability”, this manuscript examines three key themes on governance and sustainability. Governance for sustainability, by its nature, requires long-enduring institutional arrangements. Given the complex adaptive systems in which governance decision-making takes place, we explore three key characteristics of successful, long-term governance. The first of these is working across scale. This includes nested institutions as well as communication and coordination both horizontally and vertically between diverse governance groups. Second, we highlight the importance of collaboration. Building on the previous point, we draw on literature from collaborative governance and co-management to emphasize how collaboration can help to build more enduring governance structures. Third, we examine the importance of adaptation and evolution in the resolution of collective action dilemmas in complex systems filled with nonlinearities, unclear causal chains, and environments in which we have less than a full understanding of the ramifications of governance actions.
Article
Full-text available
Despite billions of dollars invested, “getting to scale” remains a fundamental challenge for conservation donors and practitioners. Occasionally, however, a conservation intervention will “go viral,” with rapid, widespread adoption that transforms the relationship between people and nature across large areas. The factors that shape rates and patterns of conservation interventions remain unclear, puzzling scientists and hindering evidence-based policymaking. Diffusion of innovation theory – the study of the how and why innovations are adopted, and the rates and patterns of adoption – provides a novel lens for examining rates and patterns in the establishment of conservation interventions. Case studies from Tanzania and the Pacific illustrate that characteristics of the innovation, of the adopters, and of the social-ecological context shape spatial and temporal dynamics in the diffusion of community-centered conservation interventions. Differential trends in adoption mirrored the relative advantage of interventions to local villagers and villager access to external technical assistance. Theories of innovation diffusion highlight new arenas for conservation research and provide critical insights for conservation policy and practice, suggesting the potential to empower donors and practitioners with the ability to catalyze conservation at scale – and to do so at less cost and with longer-lasting impacts.
Article
Full-text available
In this article we build on an accompanying critique of recent writings in international biodiversity conservation (this issue). Many scholars and observers are calling for stricter enforcement of protected area boundaries given the perceived failure of integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) and other people-oriented approaches to safeguard biodiversity. Pointing to many ongoing, field-based efforts, we argue that this resurgent focus on authoritarian protection practices largely overlooks key aspects of social and political process including clarification of moral standpoint, legitimacy, governance, accountability, learning, and nonlocal forces. Following a discussion of these six points, we off er a series of recommendations aimed at highlighting existing work and encouraging dialogue and constructive debate on the ways in which biodiversity protection interventions are carried out in developing countries.
Article
The incentives for landholders to conserve wildlife were removed when colonial governments expropriated this resource from landholders. In Zimbabwe, this process has been reversed with some success under the communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). Government has devolved the authority for wildlife to rural communities. Rural communities now manage and market their wildlife, receive benefits from its sale directly, and are beginning to value and conserve it. This paper uses an example to illustrate some of the principles underlying CAMPFIRE, and shows how these practices are spreading throughout the country. It argues that wildlife will only survive in most of Africa if profitable sustainable utilization is combined with defined access to resources. It attacks "protectionism' because removing the value from wildlife will remove its ability to compete for space and will ultimately sabotage programmes like CAMPFIRE that at least have some chance of succeeding. -Author
Article
Building and enhancing livelihood resilience in most rural African communities is becoming a complex policy issue since the principal characteristics of most of these communities in contemporary times have become their increasingly differentiated nature and high socio-economic and environmental uncertainty due to multiple and reinforcing stresses and shocks. A major problem has been the glaring gulf between national policies and realities on the ground with a uniform approach being taken in the interpretation and implementation of general development and livelihoods policies on the ground in most countries. Yet the standard one-size fits-all policy approach is not possible as situations have become increasingly dynamic and conditions continue to differ from community to community. Utilising examples from the mid Zambezi Valley area of Mbire district in Zimbabwe, this paper argues that national policy frameworks should allow ample room for innovation, experimentation and knowledge exchange in local livelihoods. In the same vein, policies and policymakers should exhibit a profound appreciation of the complexity of contemporary, dynamically vulnerable environments and livelihoods therein through increased local stakeholder participation in policy interpretation and implementation as well as in reconceptualising ‘sustainability’ and viewing it through local lenses.
Article
This article discusses international development (ID) projects and project management problems within ID in Africa and suggests they may fall into one or more of four main traps: the one‐size‐fits‐all technical trap, the accountability‐for‐results trap, the lack‐of‐project‐management‐capacity trap, and the cultural trap. It then proposes an agenda for action to help ID move away from the prevailing one‐size‐fits‐all project management approach; to refocus project management for ID on managing objectives for long‐term development results; to increase aid agencies' supervision efforts notably in failing countries; and to tailor project management to African cultures. Finally, this article suggests an agenda for research, presenting a number of ways in which project management literature could support design and implementation of ID projects in Africa.
Article
Myths and metaphors that occur in media frames play an important role in influencing public perceptions of an issue in times of war, political conflict, crisis and disaster. This, in turn, influences policy makers and (inter)national assistance and aid programmes. We investigated whether a metaphoric spill-over of frames used in connection with political events could explain the misrepresentation in the framing of wildlife conservation. Zimbabwe experienced a severe political conflict and economic downturn in 2000 when land reforms took place. We analysed newspaper articles on Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation published between 1989 and 2010 from newspapers in Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. We selected three issues about wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe in the local and international media, namely, the ivory ban, rhino protection, and Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources to investigate the spill-over effect. Our results show that in the 1990s, the majority of newspaper articles highlighted that wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe was largely successful. However, two major changes occurred after 2000 following the land reforms in Zimbabwe. First, the international media showed little interest in wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe as evidenced by a sharp decline in published articles and second, the frames changed in the international media with the "political unrest and land reform" blame frame becoming more dominant. This transition in reporting, frames, and low frame parity shows that there was a spill-over effect of political frames into wildlife conservation following Zimbabwe's land reforms in 2000. Metaphoric spill-over effects may thus create myths in the readership, in turn influencing policy-derived actions in a sector that is not or poorly related to the actual disaster.
Article
This paper retraces: 1) the promulgation of protectionist wildlife policies by colonial administrators at the turn of the 19th Century in Zimbabwe, and their evolutionary trajectory over distinct time periods, 2) the paradigmatic shift and the extent of evolution of wildlife policies with respect to the devolution thrust and local community participation to date. The aim is to re-ignite and keep the debate alive for the ultimate improvement of local community livelihoods by meeting their aspirations and addressing poverty. Another section explores the robustness of local community institutional framework following decades of research on their efficacy in the face of internal weaknesses and external pressures. This is discussed in the context of contested devolution and decentralization concepts which not in the distant past became fashionable rhetoric in the field of local community empowerment in natural resource management. Areas of contests have been explored using a case study approach. Extensive literature consultation and gleaning of 129 published and relevant sources cutting across national, regional and global realms reveal that Zimbabwe and most southern African countries have evolved progressive policies. However, consistent with most literature, the implementation of these otherwise progressive policies remains problematic. Hence, the question, ‘when will community-based wildlife conservation initiatives like communal areas management programme for indigenous resources (CAMPFIRE) achieve their initially intended goals of devolution?’ remains largely unaddressed.