An IUCN SSC Report highlights the importance of CBNRM as a tool for biodiversity conservation that should be welcomed by the conservation community, as well as model for empowerment of local communities that could encourage others to take their future into their own hands, according to an editor of the Proceedings of the May 2011 Symposium.
16 December 2011: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) released the proceedings of the international symposium on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and its relevance to the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species in exporting countries. Participants discussed markhor conservation efforts, incentives for local sustainable management of migratory species, and biological impacts of sustainable use.
The symposium, held in Vienna, Austria, from 18-20 May 2011, was co-organized by Austria’s Ministry of the Environment and the European Commission, with technical contributions from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species of Animals (CMS), TRAFFIC and WWF among others.
In discussing markhor conservation efforts in Tajikistan, Stefan Michel, Nature Protection Team, noted that successful community-based trophy hunting schemes on markhor in Pakistan provide an excellent example of how the species could be managed in Tajikistan. Aline Kuehl and Elizabeth Mrema, CMS, highlighted the case of the CITES and CMS Appendix II-listed Saiga Antelope and called for creating incentives for local people to sustainably manage migratory species, but underscored that the challenges for CBNRM are great given the vast ranges, often crossing national borders. Gabriela Lichtenstein, IUCN South American Camelid Specialist Group, underscored that, in order to improve the guanaco and vicuña sustainable use programmes, initiatives need to be developed that maximize benefits to local communities and minimize biological impacts to the species and habitat.
FInally, Colman O’Criodain, WWF, one of the editors of the Proceedings, underscored in the summary that not only does CBNRM constitute a successful means of biodiversity conservation that should be welcomed by the conservation community, but also is a model for empowerment of local communities that could stimulate others “to take their future into their own hands.” [Publication: Proceedings of an international symposium on “The relevance of CBNRM to the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species in exporting countries”]