
FORESTS NEWS
Analysis / 9 Feb 2018
Give local development a chance
Why top-down development in the Amazon requires a critical rethink
Brazil nut concession owner Felicitas Ramirez Surco relies on the resources of the Peruvian Amazon for her livelihood. New research suggests that bottom-up approaches involving smallholders like Surco could bring robust local development. CIFOR Photo/ Marco Simola
Amazonian forests play a crucial role in the global fight against climate change and loss of biodiversity. They are also an integral part of the social fabric in the region.
Efforts to protect these important forests have tended to focus on sustainable land use for the well-being of poor smallholders, including indigenous groups, traditional communities and small farmers. However, success has been rather modest. The destruction of forests continues with unabated speed, land conflicts between local and non-local actors remain aggravated, and the gap between urban rich and rural poor is ever increasing.
To uncover more promising experiences in forest protection, an international group of researchers and development practitioners asked non-governmental organizations, government agencies, and grassroots organizations active in the Bolivian, Brazilian, Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon to share their success stories in involving local natural-resource users. Guided by their suggestions, the project analyzed more than 150 initiatives throughout the region.
Insights from their research reveal that current approaches to development as employed by governments and non-governmental organizations are in critical need of revision. In fact, very few of the analyzed cases found local resource users to adopt the promoted management schemes without the occurance of any spontaneous replication outside of the projects. Frequently, the approaches were found to even accelerate cultural deterioration and environmental degradation.