The Africa
CSOs Biodiversity Alliance (ACBA) in collaboration with China’s Civil Society
Alliance for Biodiversity Conservation (CSABC) hosted a webinar to highlight
African and Chinese perspectives on “How community based natural resource
management (CBNRM) can deliver Inclusive, fair and equitable Conservation for
People and Nature” in land and marine conservation. The webinar was held on the
1st April 2021.
All 54
African countries and China ratified the global CBD convention and are actively
pursuing strategies for achieving sustainable development outcomes with mutual
benefits for people and nature. One of the strategies has been CBNRM, which as
a concept embraces a range of ecosystem-based approaches such as nature-based
solutions (NbS) and ecosystem adaptation including restoration of degraded
landscapes.
This
webinar aimed to illuminate how CBNRM has been used and can be taken forward in
African and Chinese biodiversity conservation. The session engaged CSO
professionals, related stakeholders from the ACBA and CSABC networks, and
African, Chinese, and other Public engaged in Africa-China relations,
biodiversity conservation, and environmental civil society.
The
outcomes from the webinar were to build common understanding on how CBNRM can
deliver on multiple elements of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) such as
nature-based solutions, ecosystem-based adaptation, other effective
conservation measures (OECMs), and other approaches to promoting biodiversity.
Throughout the discussion, the diversity in approaches to defining communities
was evident. The importance of ensuring community resilience, taking long term
approaches to ecosystem management, and addressing challenges posed to
conservation financing were highlighted across the board.
Dr. Shylock Muyengwa,
Monitoring and Evaluation advisor at Resource Africa, stated that CBNRM in
Southern Africa has shown great resilience in the face of local and global
challenges, adding that communities are already thinking about tackling
emerging challenges including COVID-19 and shifting global norms around
hunting. Pathways include diversification of the wildlife economy locally and
internationally, and new mechanisms to enhancing financing resilience. He
pointed out that it is also important to Resource Africa that communities
participate at regional and international platforms to share emerging issues
that impact their lives. Dr. Shylock emphasized that ACBA and other networks
are a step towards this.
Shi Xiangying a CSABC CSO
leader in local community eco-tourism pointed out that China, has just started
its CBNRM journey, and Chinese CSOs hope to learn from African stories. She
further discussed wildlife’s diverse benefits: what we consume from them, what
we gain intangibly, and their contribution to the environment through
biodiversity. “There are costs to wildlife protection, most of which are
shouldered by communities. When we transfer the benefits of protection to
communities, these costs are reduced.” She further talked about the need to
support communities as they compete with private companies when they engage in
eco-tourism.
David Obura from CORDIO
East Africa brought in perspectives on CBNRM for marine ecosystems. He
mentioned that a lot of our livelihoods and global economy comes from the sea,
that we are a lot more conscious of that now as there is increasing pressure on
land. He pointed out that In Eastern Africa alone, over 250,000 people are
dependent on fisheries. He further shared how the process of empowering
small-scale fisheries on the Kenyan coast has improved community resilience by
building their economic and social assets. Co-management of the fisheries with
national government (including legislation), local ownership of CBNRM and
external interest from other communities have been critical to success.
Community-based Natural Resource Management has become a flagship that inspires
other marine fishing communities to start their own initiatives.
Han Han, a CSABC CSO leader
in marine conservation spoke of engaging small-scale fisheries and fish farmers
in responsible fishery and aquaculture on Hainan Island, in China. Han Han and
her team have supported farmers to gain better and more financial and technical
support. Young fish farmers are empowered through community support, as they
are key to advocating for sustainable approaches and will be the leaders who
ensure that fishery activities are compatible with community needs and marine
conservation objectives.
In her concluding remarks
Maxi Louis, the ACBA moderator of the webinar, highlighted that it is
impressive that communities are increasingly involved in monitoring and
evaluation processes, and that long-term sustainability is addressed in Chinese
communities in comparable ways to conservation communities in Southern Africa.
She also mentioned that this is the first collaboration of many to come between
ACBA and CSABC.
The recording of the full
webinar can be accessed here.