Importance of cooperation and participation for sustainable conservation

The terminology of participation is generally associated with bottom-up approaches to policy making, contrasting with, or enhancing top-down methods. 

 

1. Understanding and finding an appropriate rhetoric

Cooperation seems to be related to several concepts. It is primarily associated with the domain of international relations and policymaking, but may also be linked with the idea of exchange and communication within trade relations, social or cultural associations. In the context of sustainable development, cooperation is a mean to understand each other and bring peace, crucial for sustainability and nature conservation (Section 1.3). Furthermore, the problem of conflict resolution is a recurrent topic, in particular with the management of protected areas.

Some key terms, can be associated with the research question of this study. The ‘Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary’ defines cooperation in the sense of joint work following the same end. This emphasises a need for coordination to ensure harmony in order to be effective as a group. On the other hand, a partnership should be characterised as a shared form of joint participation between ‘partners’ taking part in a project. However, it appears that it is difficult to give a precise definition of these terms. Moreover, there is only a little amount of known literature about the role of international cooperation and partnerships within conservation. If these expressions are well known and commonly used, it seems nonetheless that the role of these processes is probably under-evaluated. Even in the field of international relations the words cooperation, collaboration and partnership are not clearly stated.

Nevertheless it seems important to have effective coordination when different actors are involved. Therefore, it will be accepted in this research that a ‘partnership’ means working in close partnership with a second party towards common aim (Brehm, 2000) and characterises a deliberate and more formal form of joint action, whereas ‘cooperation’ represents a more general definition of collaboration, generally on a wider scale (e.g. international cooperation) that can be enforced and informal. Both require some coordination and a degree of participation, as means to develop and defend common interests (see Section 5.2.). Agendas, regular meetings, targets and assessments should finally structure them.

Within development circles, ‘Partnerships’ covers a range of organisational relationships between different actors including official agencies NGOs and businesses (Brehm, 2000). Moreover, the notion of partnership reflects major principles of the Agenda 21. The United Nations, Programme of Action (Agenda 21 Programme) stresses the need to combine efforts and resources towards common aims, the importance of sharing information and expertise. Moreover, different points of view should be valued, through dialogue, while recognizing the independent roles, responsibilities and special capacities of each sectors of the society (Frame & Taylor, 2005). This highlights again the importance of working together to attain sustainable conservation.

 

2. Role of cooperation for sustainable conservation and participation processes

 As a principle of common sense, it seems obvious that cooperation and partnerships are a necessity. Every international convention on conservation mentions the importance of setting or improving existing partnerships. However, it is not clearly explained why and how these processes should be set up. Nevertheless, by interpreting the elements developed in the previous sections, setting up partnerships between stakeholders around a specific project or a particular problem will facilitate consensus and mitigate conflict, with potentially disastrous consequences, by bringing partners to a better understanding through dialogue and exchanges. Similarly, on a wider scale, cooperation is required on multiple levels and needs to involve all stakeholders concerned in order to achieve more sustainable solutions. Cooperation can be defined as a way to develop the exchange of information, communication and education, in particular with regards to the particular values of sustainable development: ‘Respect, Motivation, Participation in Local Development and Responsibility’ (Corbier-Nicollier et al., 2003).

Cooperation may potentially operate as a ‘shortcut’ in the hierarchy of conservation (top-down approach) for policy implementation through direct relationships with other organisation or involve organisations in other countries or on an International Scale (Princen & Finger, 1994). At the same time or alternatively cooperation will possibly engage a ‘feedback’/‘bottom-up’ process. In other words, cooperation is a way to encourage participation approaches (Figure 1). The involvement of people through participation is clearly justifiable, primarily as an appropriate general answer for the values of Equity enclosed within the principles Sustainable Development.

Participation is part of the idea of a ‘Development from below’ opposed to the ‘planning from above’, as a recurrent debate in sustainable development. It includes for instance the recognition of the value of Indigenous or Local knowledge for efficient conservation and the necessity of integrated approaches (Adams, 2001). Moreover, cooperation represents a means for participation by joining different stakeholders with common interests and objectives. Participation can be viewed as a mean to increase efficiency, as by involving people they are more likely to agree with and support a project or policy. But participation can also be considered as a fundamental right, which aims to ‘initiate mobilisation for collective action, empowerment and institution building’ (Pretty, 1995, p.4). Furthermore, to have a real meaning, the term ‘participation’ has to be used with an appropriate explanation. Jules Pretty (1995) classifies participation into seven types. For instance, manipulative and passive participation, define processes where stakeholders are told what is going to happened and act out predetermine roles, whereas in self-mobilisation people take initiatives independently from external institutions.

 From the point of view of conservation, participation can be expressed in three different ways:

·        Firstly from an educational and informative angle, by bringing responsiveness towards a given environmental issue

·        Secondly from a democratic point of view, by involving communities in environmental-policy processes.

·        Finally, public participation in environmental conservation is also recognised as a mean for prevention, less laborious and expensive than a cure of environmental degradation (Buckingham-Hatfield & Percy, 1999).

 Cooperation will have several applications towards sustainable conservation. For instance partnerships between NGO’s and the private sector may be considered as part of the search for financial sustainability (Hovik, 2006; Brehm, 2000). In the context of international nature conservation Zoos and Botanical Gardens (‘ex-situ’ conservation) are collaborating through exchanges of information and specimens as a contribution to global nature conservation. National Parks or other protected areas (‘in-situ’ conservation) cooperate in similar ways, in particular to maintain ecological continuity and ecological corridors. Finally, both in-situ and ex-situ conservation authorities complete their functions through inter-collaboration.

 Yet it has to be said that to set up cooperation it is important to have comparable standards measurement. The choice of internationally recognised indicator can be tricky and may be difficult in practice. This dilemma is quite significant as environmental and socio-economical indicators are essential, firstly for the identification and the justification of reasons and objectives of conservation, but also for the continuous monitoring and assessment of conservation policies and managements. As specifically pointed up by H. P. Pioor (2003), indicators are essential for policy making and decision making. Likewise, they have a growing relevance for international cooperation, especially since the Rio Conference in 1992, which requires indicators for monitoring. They now represent significant political tools for the preservation of Biodiversity and Habitats on a global scale.