Conservation management topics

IH350 Quantifying the resilience of marine dependent communities to climate change and resource depletion in Indonesia 

(Weeks 2 - 10; need to have completed IH008)

The traditional Bajo fishing community living on Sampela, a stilt island located 500 metres from the land, has been settled for over 70 years. Before the settlement period, families were nomadic, moving between fishing grounds and trade points. Population levels are increasing year after year, with high levels of in and out migration and, in recent years, there has been an increase in social infrastructure including a new school and medical centre. The community traditionally lived a subsistence existence but due to the arrival of modern fishing techniques, extended access to markets and increasing aspirations, the Bajo fishing effort has increased dramatically. With a decline in fisheries and an increase in living costs, the community have developed a number of livelihood strategies, which include a series of strategic livelihood diversifications. The Bajo have had to develop a flexible annual livelihood strategy not only to accommodate seasonal weather patterns, which significantly affect fishing outputs, but also to account for environmental resource use regulations, a marginal location and fluctuations in the market. Projects could be developed to investigate the growth of alternative incomes, including seaweed (agar) farming and its potential to contribute towards household incomes. Bajo communities are also characterised by strong ties across large maritime spaces, based on family ties, trading networks and history. These offer opportunities for research into the drivers of migration, both temporary and permanent, within Bajo in Indonesia, as this has significant implications both for marine resource management and conservation along with Bajo adaptation and resilience to environmental stress. Another project area could examine changes in Bajo society through comparison with Butonese communities on the island of Kaledupa, looking at issues of natural resource ownership and participation in infrastructure development activities.

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IH351 Examining the roles of NGOs and government in improving natural resource management in Indonesia

(Weeks 2 - 10; need to have completed IH008)

Moves towards greater democracy and accountability within government in Indonesia have led to the rapid devolution of decision-making power away from the capital of Jakarta and towards local and regional government. This process, which occurred in reaction to the corruption of the Suharto period, is one of the most important issues determining the future of natural resource management and conservation within Indonesia. This project is therefore designed to explore how village-level government and non-governmental organisations operate. It will focus on their capacity to take on some of these decision-making roles, particularly those relating to marine resource management, tourism, fishing and other marine-based activities. By law, every village in Indonesia has a large number of local voluntary ‘groups’, all of which can be included in this work. At the same time, the increasing openness of Indonesian society has allowed local NGOs to flourish and they play a vital role in the devolution process. The project will therefore also examine how local NGOs operate, which areas they choose to become involved with and why, the level of independence and freedom they enjoy and the factors which may constrain or limit their activities. The role of the Wakatobi district level government will also be examined, as district government is highly influential in determining the amount of national funding allocated for development projects received by the Wakatobi. This project will therefore examine some of the key processes determining how marine natural resources are managed within the Wakatobi and offer prospects for improving this in the future.

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IH352 Assessing prospects for conservation and the implications of tourism within the Wakatobi Islands, Indonesia

(Weeks 2 - 8; need to have completed IH008)

The zonation and associated regulations within the Wakatobi National Park were completely revised in 2007 in an attempt to better reflect environmental conditions and resource use. Since that time, the park has also witnessed dramatic changes in terms of tourism development, with two commercial airstrips, more accommodation options and regular flights which have effectively opened up the park for tourism. Five years after the revised zonation, it is an appropriate time to examine these events in detail and consider their implications for marine resource management and conservation in the Wakatobi. This project can therefore include a re-assessment of the zonation process around Kaledupa, examining the scientific basis for zonation and crucially the degree of acceptance, awareness and potential opposition within local communities. There are always individuals who gain and those who lose from the imposition of regulations regarding natural resource management, and it is important to identify who these groups are and what led to their experience of the zonation process. Infringement and enforcement issues are therefore also central to this project, focusing on how local fishing communities have responded to the regulations. As tourism becomes ever more important to the local economy, the project should also examine what policies are in place to promote tourism within the park and the extent to which they reflect environmental considerations, both in terms of construction impacts on the local marine environment and also the provision of basic facilities such as sewage treatment and waste collection. Furthermore, such plans should recognise the needs and priorities of local communities and this should also form an element of the project. This project will therefore represent a necessary step in monitoring and evaluating progress towards effective national park management.

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HM353 Sustainability and coffee production in Cusuco buffer zone communities

(Weeks 2 - 8; need to have completed HM001)

The United Nations REDD+ programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) has indicated that economic investment in forest communities is an important part of successful forest conservation in addition to forest protection and biodiversity monitoring. There are numerous buffer zone communities in Cusuco National Park and the primary source of income for all communities is agriculture. The main cash crop grown is coffee. Coffee is a shade-grown crop that can be grown sustainably and is therefore an ideal crop for the buffer zones of forested areas. However, farm quality varies considerably across the farms at Cusuco, agricultural knowledge is limited and the majority of farmers do not use sustainable farming practices. Since 2008, Operation Wallacea has been collecting economic and agricultural data from the community of Buenos Aires as a means of assessing production and sustainability of coffee farms and local agricultural knowledge. In 2012, Operation Wallacea has organised for the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE) to visit Buenos Aires and provide agricultural training and technical assistance with regards to improving farm sustainability. Based on the recommendations of the technicians, it will then be possible to create individual management plans for each farmer, with specific reference to improvements to shade cover, diversity of trees providing shade, application of fertilizers, coffee plant maintenance, and harvesting methods. Management plans will also need to include cost-benefit analysis of each change to farming methods. Additional information regarding changes to farming knowledge and attitudes towards sustainability can be gathered from structured interviews with farmers before and after the classes. 

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HB354 Development of an aquaculture business within the Garifuna community, Honduras to supply the aquarist trade

(Utila: Weeks 3 - 5, Rio Esteban: Weeks 6 - 7 and Cayos Cochinos: Weeks 8 - 10)

The value of fish and invertebrates, both freshwater and marine, bound for the aquarium trade has been valued at USD $15 billion annually. The majority of these animals are harvested from the wild by local fishers.  As the demand by hobbyists for coveted species rises, local reef communities are overexploited by these fishers who, until recently, were subsistence fishers and only lately have been forced by the lack of economic opportunities to turn to the harvesting of marine ornamentals.  The percentage of animals supplied by aquaculture grows each year and culture of ornamentals is the fourth largest aquaculture industry in the US.  But as the list of species supplied by aquaculture grows, the need for wild caught specimens decreases, eliminating the need for fisheries in areas where the loss of income is devastating.  Whereas a large impetus behind aquaculturing these animals is safeguarding the environment, the resulting impact on the local economy is not a minor one.  The reaction has been a call for the transfer of low-technology culture techniques to local communities as a viable alternative to collection from the wild.  This topic involves working alongside an international expert in aquaculture who is examining how aquaculture of reef species could be undertaken in the fishing communities of the northern Honduran coast.  The resultant report will identify the proposed system of holding tanks or net pens that will need to be constructed on shore or in a lagoon area.  The report will also describe how pre-settlement larvae can be collected by net to be grown out, and reef fish in large numbers that occupy a territory such as basslets, gobies, and hamlets can be used as broodstock.  The final part of the report will be concerned with the marketing and shipping possibilities.  Working alongside this expert will enable students to develop dissertations on how this business could benefit the Garifuna community and the likely impacts of the business.

Unfortunately the specialist academic advisor for this topic is now unable to join the expedition in 2012. Therefore this project is being withdrawn as we cannot guarantee the high level of academic support which we strive to provide.

MI355 Forest land tenure and conservation revenue sharing in protected areas of southern Madagascar

(Weeks 1 - 6)

Forested land in Madagascar, both within and outside protected areas, has been officially considered as being owned by the state since the colonial era, while complex and nuanced customary rights and tenure systems exist as a parallel but largely unrecognised de facto traditional system.  The rapid expansion of the coverage of protected areas on the island in the last decade has occurred  alongside the emergence of schemes such as biodiversity offsets, direct payments, and forest related emissions reductions/mitigation schemes under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+).  These new innovative models of conservation within inhabited multiple use protected areas combined where local communities have significant natural resource dependency and often live in poverty has brought into sharp focus the importance for the promoters of conservation to better understand and recognise the customary systems. Students choosing this option will work in partnership with a Malagasy student and carry out spatial and social surveys to map and document the customary rights and land tenure systems in different zones of the Ifotaka North Protected Area.  The studies will contribute to a broader effort in Madagascar to inform the forest tenure policy processes, to ensure that protected areas better recognise the customary system, and the rights of Malagasy forest people to legally (and sustainably) use the natural resources in their ancestral forests.

MI356 Economic impacts of tourism and conservation in Ifotaka, southern Madagascar

(Weeks 1 - 6)

Community Based Tourism and Ecotourism are frequently adopted as strategies to provide alternative livelihoods for communities living in and adjacent to protected areas in Madagascar.  Ifotaka has had two such projects operating since the establishment of the protected area in 2006, one community managed tourism setup in the village, with whom Operation Wallacea works, and a luxury ecotourism company working 3km outside the village.  The community of Ifotaka, both in the main village and in the smaller outlying hamlets benefit in various ways from the tourism, with the provision of direct employment in tourism and research services, the payment of entry fees for working in the forest and through opportunities for local entrepreneurs to  provide services to visiting tourists and groups. Conservation activities in Ifotaka implemented by international and local NGOs has also provided some employment and livelihood activities. Students choosing this topic will work in partnership with a Malagasy student to assess the economic impacts for local people in Ifotaka from tourism and conservation. Using quantitative surveys, and participatory rural appraisal tools, the dissertations will examine the relative benefits accrued from the different revenue streams from tourism and conservation, and will contrast what this means for the main village of Ifotaka with the more outlying areas.

MI357 Natural resource dependent livelihoods in the Mandrare Valley, Madagascar

(Weeks 1 - 6)

Local communities in southern Madagascar are often heavily reliant on natural resources for their livelihoods.  The new generation of protected areas typically introduce new restrictions (or enforce previously unenforced rules) on resource use by local people, and aspire to provide alternative sustainable livelihood activities to replace the extractive activities on which people had previously depended. Students choosing this option will work in partnership with Malagasy students to conduct structured household surveys and to draw on participatory rural appraisal techniques to examine the livelihood systems of the local communities around Ifotaka, making comparisons between the main villages and more remote outlying villages, and between different beneficiaries of conservation and development interventions.  These studies will contribute to enhancing our understanding of the differing levels of natural resource dependency in the different villages of the Ifotaka protected area, and the relative success of alternative livelihood activities. This is significant in terms of providing recommendations for enhanced livelihood alternatives.

MN358 Assessment and valuation of ecosystem service provision in Madagascar

(Weeks 1 - 6)

Local people in poor rural villages such as Mariarano depend on the natural environment for almost all their daily needs.  In the Mahamavo region, the main economic activities are rice agriculture, fishing, charcoal production and zebu pastoralism. There is considerable scope to work with local people and our social scientists to elicit this traditional ecological knowledge and develop a conceptual model of which provisioning ecosystem services are considered important (e.g. the fisheries, fresh water, pasture for zebu, wood from the forest), who uses the services, how far they travel to obtain services, what kind of forest/lake/mangrove, etc. is most suitable for a particular resource use and whether it is possible to place monetary value on any services (e.g. with market prices or substitution costs).  The next step might then be to cross-walk this information into parameters of GIS models for the probability that landscape units will provide particular services.  In this way it should be possible to build a robust map of ecosystem service provision across the landscape.  Such outputs would be extremely useful in conservation planning, especially if they can be compared with maps of biodiversity value.

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