Scaling Out Community Conservation Initiatives: Experts Identify Economic and Social Benefits, Compatibility With Needs, and External Support as Key
ABSTRACT Community‐based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community‐based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagascar, and Fiji) to understand their perspectives on the drivers of adoption and spread. We used general elimination methodology and diffusion of innovation theory to identify and rule out possible explanations. Factors consistently considered influential were economic and social benefits, compatibility with needs, support and facilitation by extension agencies, and the presence of international organizations. Initiatives aiming to scale should be designed to be flexible and aligned with adopters’ needs, and external organizations should coordinate resources for scaling out. Dependence on external support underscores the need for quality assistance, good practices by external actors, and understanding power relations and fairness, as well as the need to temper donor and policy expectations of scaling beyond supported and appropriate sites.
Authors
- Marie V. Touchon
- Morena Mills (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9865-0770)
- Selma Lendelvo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9793-6950)
- Alifereti Tawake (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0154-3600)
- Zeeshan Ahmad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8863-6211)
- Matt Clark (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3217-1192)
- Stefan Gelcich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5976-9311)
- Arundhati Jagadish (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6360-6179)
- Thomas Pienkowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3803-7533)
- Michael B. Mascia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9874-9778)
- Elizabeth Denis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4150-5043)
- B. K. Pathak
- S. R. Milligan
- Solofo Nandrianina Ralaimihoatra
- Yasmeen Zuffetti
- Zoya Husain
- Sushma Shrestha Sangat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4410-5480)
Institutions
- Conservation International (US)
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
- Duke University (US)
- University of Namibia (NA)
- Center of Applied Ecology & Sustainability (CL)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Fiji National University (FJ)
- Nature Conservation Foundation (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Conservation Letters
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13100
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Agricultural Innovations and Practices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 19.33
Funders
- Margaret A. Cargill Foundation
- Cargill Foundation
- Leverhulme Trust