Dr. Jonathan Davies, Drylands Coordinator IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

1. Conserving Biodiversity and Sustainably Managing Land through Community Conserved Areas Dr. Jonathan Davies, Drylands Coordinator IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

2. Land restoration in Jordan, Mali, Botswana and Sudan

3. Between 10 and 20% of drylands are subject to desertification Desertification exacerbates poverty, creates food and water insecurity and aggravates conflict Global cost of desertification: 42 billion USD annually Estimated cost of preventing it: 2.4 billion USD

4. Drivers of desertification • Poor understanding of dryland ecology • Weak consultation with resource managers • Weak communal tenure arrangements and governance • Unsupportive policies and investments • Human poverty and population dynamics • Climate change and climatic uncertainty • Fragmentation of landscapes

5. Governance: the bedrock of sustainable land management

6. Why implement good land management practices if you cannot stop others from abusing your land? • What is the point of protecting your resources to improve production if somebody else can benefit and leave you with nothing?

7. Creating and enforcing rules: what we mean by governance • Governance is more than government • Interaction between citizens, between the State and its Citizens, and between States • Rules – laws and other norms • Institutions • Processes

8. Strengthening Governance • Multistakeholder dialogue • Participatory planning and problem solving to get to root causes • Strengthening participatory practices in government and community • Hima identified as the preferred mechanism

9. Legitimising Hima • Legal avenues identified and political dialogue to identify acceptable approaches • Land for protection identified by communities • Allocation of land approved by government • Dept rangelands or forestry • Dept tourism and antiquities • Rules and regulations developed by communities • Inter-community dialogue to enforce rules: enforcement is key

10. What we did not do • Investment in infrastructure • Fencing • Extensive technical advice This can get in the way and can undermine governance • The key is community autonomy and leadership with government support

11. Results • 4 plots under improved management and conservation (approx. 1000 ha) • Running 2 years so end-results are modest • Major change in attitude and behaviour amongst communities • Significant change in support from Ministry of Agriculture

12. Results • Biodiversity benefits: recovery of floral species • De facto IUCN Protected Area Category 5 • Built on local knowledge and expertise in conservation and rangeland management • Dual development and conservation impacts

13. Results • Return of plants with medicinal values (e.g. artemesiaspp.) • Return of wildlife and possible hunting concessions (e.g. partridge)

14. Questions • Does HIMA management meet PA category 5 standards? • Are these effective ICCAs that contribute to Aichi targets?

15. Questions • Can livestock management replicate natural herbivore processes? • Where is the balance between livestock management and conservation?

16. Questions • Ecosystem-scale impacts • Can improved rangelands vegetation lead to better water cycling and reduced drought? • To what extent will we be able to rehabilitate rangelands?

17. Lessons

18. Community empowerment • Local communities have unique skills for conservation that can be harnessed through Hima • Key is to use Hima to strengthen local land use, not to exclude land use • Healthy, productive rangelands offer a genuine win-win of increased agricultural production (through livestock) and biodiversity conservation • Communities have aesthetic as well as economic motives • Assume that most rural people desire a beautiful environment: but a beautiful productive environment • Communities can be initially defensive towards any discussion of land rights • Demonstrating progress leads to rapid change of view

19. Government enabling • HIMA has positive effects on community-government relations • Political support gives high credibility • To succeed, this approach requires sanctioning by government, and may require policy reform • Not every government extension worker has the character to promote Hima • Requires a sensitive approach: only part of this can be taught • Technical advice can play an important role, but comes later, and must build on (and complement) communal management and knowledge • Government role in setting standards and evaluating progress needs to be developed through dialogue

20. Conservation outcomes • HIMA can improve landscape-connectivity by including community conserved areas in conservation strategies (including productive lands) • Requires new working relations between ministries that typically compete against each other • Herbivores play a critical role in rangeland ecology and we have to learn how to replicate this • Greater emphasis is needed on monitoring biodiversity and ecosystem services to track long-term progress • Long-term impacts can be exponential as people gain confidence in governance systems

21. Wider impacts • Great appeal world-wide • Hima has parallels in other cultures – recommend to adapt to other contexts and share experiences • Governance of water can undermine Hima systems in the long term • Factor water into community-government dialogue • The environmental services of Hima have hidden values (e.g. water cycling, migratory species, carbon sequestration) • These can be measured and should be compensated through domestic and international channels

22. Thank you DAVIES Jonathan Jonathan.Davies@iucn.org