Challenges Of Community Based Conservation Okwangwo Division Of Cross River National Park.pdf

Many conservationists attest to a paradigm shift in biodiversity conservation, away from exclusive protected areas towards more people-centred or community-based conservation. This has been referred to as ‘new conservation’. However, new conservation could be thought of as an attempt to re-name and re-package conservation and to ‘get forest communities on board’. According to its critics even so-called new conservation policy, practice and institutions remain expert-driven, top-bottom approach, undemocratic, and autocratic. We argue that for new conservation to become reality, then more fundamental changes in prioritysetting, decision-making and organization are required. This paper presents three challenges of community-based Conservation in Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park: a more pluralist approach to understanding knowledge and values of different actors, greater deliberation and inclusion in decision-making, and a remodeling of stakeholders to support conservation. Key words: community conservation, conservation policy, decision-making, institutions, protected Area, biodiversity.