Local Perceptions of Benefits from Protected Area Under Participatory Management

Protected Areas are vital for conservation and generate socio-economic impacts but lead to conflicts, particularly due to restricted access to resources, insufficient benefits, and poor communication.The aims of this study are to analyze the socio-economic dynamics of participatory management in the Lama Forest Reserve to understand the interplay between conservation and development goals.The hypothesis tested is that communities experience a differentiated distribution of benefits from the protected area, depending on their village of residence.A structured, pretested questionnaire was used to collect socio-cultural, socio-demographic, and perceptual data from respondents in six representative villages.The sample size was calculated based on Dagnelie formula.Descriptive statistics and Firth's binary logistic regression were performed to analyze the differentiated distribution of benefits.The results confirm the hypothesis with significant findings.The study found a strong predominance of the Holli' and Fon' communities.Men represented 52.9% of the sample, while 93.8% of respondents had a primary school education level.The probability of citing various benefits, such as bridge'building (Zalimey: ~70% vs. other villages: <20%) and market'building (Toffo-gare: ~80% vs. other villages: <10%), varied drastically among villages.Conversely, some benefits like community savings bank and non-Timber Forest Products collection had a low probability of citation across all villages.The regression analysis revealed that village of Zalimey has a higher overall probability of benefiting, while the perception of employment in that same village is negative.The study's findings strongly confirm that benefit distribution is highly differentiated across villages.Future research should use qualitative methods to explore the reasons behind the low or negative perception of certain benefits to better align conservation efforts with livelihood improvements.