Abstract
Biodiversity monitoring in developing countries has long been haunted by problems with sustaining monitoring programs, especially after funding stops. Current programs are developed to fulfill strict scientific demands, which often results in high priced programs, with little local participation and attention. Thus, to enhance sustainability of the biodiversity programs, there is a great need to reconcile scientific rigor with local involvement. In this paper, we analyze the cost-effectiveness and usefulness of a standard and a participatory monitoring method, in their ability to monitor biodiversity, while rising local participation. As a standard method we used a forest characteristic with tree basal area and Shannon index as proxy for biodiversity. Interviews were used as a participatory approach, with hunters' catch-effort as proxy. The analysis showed that the interviews reached a better precision with fewer work hours spent and at the same time involved local populations and stake holders. As a tradeoff, the interviews lacked the scientific rigor from forest characteristic. In order to sustain monitoring programs, we conclude that conservation biologists needs to compromise between scientific rigor and public participation.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Biodiversity and Conservation |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 145-153 |
ISSN | 0960-3115 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- BIODIVERSITY
- ECOLOGY
- ENVIRONMENTAL
- PROTECTED AREAS
- RAIN-FOREST
- HABITAT STRUCTURE
- SEED DISPERSAL
- TAILED DEER
- CONSERVATION
- DIVERSITY
- VEGETATION
- ABUNDANCE
- Biodiversity
- Catch effort
- Monitoring
- Nicaragua
- Participatory
- Life Sciences
- Tree Biology
- Plant Sciences
- Evolutionary Biology
- General biology - Conservation and resource management
- Ecology: environmental biology - General and methods
- Ecology: environmental biology - Plant
- Plants, Spermatophytes, Vascular Plants
- forest conservation
- integrated conservation and development project
- biodiversity program
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Ecology
- Nature and Landscape Conservation
- basal area
- biodiversity
- cost-benefit analysis
- developing world
- diversity index
- environmental economics
- environmental monitoring
- forest cover
- local participation
- monitoring system
- questionnaire survey
- sampling
- stakeholder
- sustainability
- trade-off