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Data from: Using a participatory impact assessment framework to evaluate a community-led mangrove and fisheries conservation approach in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Data files

Jul 28, 2020 version files 112.96 KB

Abstract

  1. Community-based conservation (CBC) has been identified as a solution to biodiversity loss, climate change, and the reduction of rural poverty. The heterogeneity in social and economic inequalities often acts as a barrier to community engagement in resource management and further inhibits the distributional equity of social and ecological outcomes.
  2. This study presents a participatory impact assessment (PIA) framework that evaluated the outcomes of a cross-sector community-led conservation initiative. Community members involved in the program identified activities and outcomes for the Conservation Cooperative (CC), ranking the influence of the former on the latter as well as their daily life through multiple focus group discussions (FGDs). Participants were asked to rank the impact of activities on outcomes and the scale of the outcome which was totaled to identify the most impactful program activities and outcomes during the project period.
  3. Community members reported improved income, health, education and the creation of a locally-led natural resource management system. Members also reported improved crab harvest rates and reduced mangrove deforestation. Environmental outcomes identified by community members through the PIA were verified through a secondary spatial analysis and mud-crab independent fisheries monitoring.
  4. The results support the hypothesis that environmental NGOs need to consider a multi-dimensional view of human well-being, and that cross-sector integrated interventions may be effective at improving multiple outcomes.
  5. Future steps should focus on spatial replication of the CC program which will provide further insights by testing for differences in outcomes between villages, how those are impacted by preexisting social and ecological systems, and comparing outcomes between control sites that did not receive interventions.