community-conservation
Community conservation is an approach that engages local communities as active stewards in the protection and sustainable management of plant biodiversity within their landscapes. This model recognizes that indigenous and local knowledge systems are often deeply intertwined with plant diversity hotspots, making community involvement essential for effective in-situ conservation. By integrating traditional ecological knowledge with modern plant science, community conservation helps preserve rare and culturally significant plant species while supporting ecosystem resilience.
PubMed · 2026-04-01
Researchers surveyed 84 experts to identify what prevents successful community-led conservation efforts from expanding across southern and eastern Africa. Key barriers included unfair benefit sharing, unequal decision-making power, and top-down leadership rather than financial or ecological costs.
84 expert surveys across 10 initiatives identified unfair benefit sharing, unequal decision-making, inflexible rules, and top-down leadership as the most frequent bottlenecks to scaling conservation.
Costs to local communities — such as increased conflicts and reduced access to cropland and natural resources — were generally not considered bottlenecks because experts felt they were offset by other benefits.
The number of identified risk factors and bottlenecks varied widely among the 10 initiatives, suggesting context-specific governance challenges rather than a single universal barrier.