Management Options for Biodiversity Protection and Population

This overview paper stresses what most of the authors believe: that in order to successfully manage biodiversity, local residents and resource users must be involved, and the people who are affected by conservation projects must be partners in the projects, otherwise they will not succeed. According to Cruz, community based conservation projects like the Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP) are the most effective, but while they are growing in number, to date, there have been few applications. The paper poses and responds to three major questions:

• 1.What is the balance between human uses and the preservation of biodiversity? The need to identify a protected areas carrying capacity is crucial.
• 2.What factors influence human impacts on biodiversity? Cross country studies, national studies, and case studies by the World Bank and Global Environment Facility are cited. They range in results and indicate that in order to get to the root causes of population growth, poverty and loss of biological diversity, many points of intervention exist.
• 3.What are the appropriate management options for making human uses of resources compatible with biodiversity protection?

The management options included intend to define the allowable human uses of biodiversity resources; determine the appropriate measures of population pressures; design relevant programs to address local needs; and create a conducive environment for implementing participatory programs