What is Community Conservation?

Community Conservation isn’t just the name of our nonprofit organization, it’s also a whole approach to conservation.

Global wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970. Traditional conservation models have struggled to halt this crisis because they often overlook the most powerful potential partners: the local communities who live alongside these species. Too often, these communities are treated as mere beneficiaries of top-down projects.

When communities are treated as the solution rather than the problem, they are the best conservationists.

Community conservation is the future of biodiversity protection. It has the best impact over the long term, it is flexible enough to be used in communities all around the world, it is low-cost, and it is empowering to local people.

SO WHAT IS COMMUNITY CONSERVATION?

At its core, the definition of community conservation is just what it sounds like: local communities protecting biodiversity and natural resources because local people are the best stewards of their own land. But they can’t do it alone, In most contexts, they need support from government, NGOs, and scientists.

This is really the best of both worlds: local knowledge, values, and priorities, and global scientific effort coming together to protect biodiversity. The combination of local knowledge and international knowledge is powerful.

How does community conservation work?

Learn how community conservation works based on our 40 years of experience working with communities around the world in our Resources section.