Bhutan’s local communities to actively participate in achieving protected area management effectiveness (PAME)

Presenter(s) ORCID:

Thinley Choden: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5491-4233

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Start Date

5-12-2024 1:15 PM

Presentation Type

Presentation

Keywords

Bhutan, local communities’ participation, protected area management effectiveness, citizen control, nonparticipation

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are the last refuge in the world to prevent diminishing natural biodiversity values to achieve global biodiversity targets of the United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity. The third global biodiversity target is effectively managing the global PAs using the protected area management effectiveness (PAME) framework. In Bhutan, PAs were evaluated for PAME as early as the 2000s, and recently, the Bhutan Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT)+ was designed and implemented in 2015 and 2022. However, this Bhutan METT + assessment is a self-assessment and does not incorporate the opinions of the local communities. Local communities are increasingly recognised as conservation partners globally, and the need to establish and accept the communities’ roles in achieving PAME globally is urgent to achieving the conservation and social objectives associated with the designation of PAs. However, Bhutan’s local communities’ roles in PA planning, management and evaluation as guided by the PAME framework are less understood. This study will understand the current level and types of participation of local communities towards achieving Bhutan’s PAME. To understand this current level of community engagement towards PAME status, eight research sites were selected, and data was collected from the local communities living inside and in the periphery of these research sites. The focus group discussions were the means of data collection and best fit as required by the PAME framework. The reflexive thematic analysis of the data helped in understanding the poor participation of local communities in the planning, management and evaluation of Bhutan’s PAME. The local communities have not actively participated in PA planning, management and evaluation as desired by the PAME framework and are at a nonparticipation level. The local communities, however, express their genuine willingness to participate actively in the future. While local communities currently do not have the competent level of skills to contribute to PAME, however ignoring this gap is not desirable for achieving PAME. So, this study recommends that Bhutan’s PAs design and adopt relevant communication and education tools for PAME to progress. The participation of the local communities and harnessing the contribution of the local communities towards PAME requires designing relevant communication and education tools that will engage and empower the local communities in all the six phases of the PAME framework of context, planning, input, process, output, and outcome. This process, if followed, will push Bhutan’s PAs towards achieving the desired level of participation called citizen control for the local communities as per the participation models used in the conservation sciences and finally achieving PAME. With this, Bhutan’s PAs will continue to be a global conservation champion, and Bhutan specifically will continue to be on track towards meeting the global targets towards the legally binding obligations to the United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity.

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Dec 5th, 1:15 PM

Bhutan’s local communities to actively participate in achieving protected area management effectiveness (PAME)

Protected areas (PAs) are the last refuge in the world to prevent diminishing natural biodiversity values to achieve global biodiversity targets of the United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity. The third global biodiversity target is effectively managing the global PAs using the protected area management effectiveness (PAME) framework. In Bhutan, PAs were evaluated for PAME as early as the 2000s, and recently, the Bhutan Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT)+ was designed and implemented in 2015 and 2022. However, this Bhutan METT + assessment is a self-assessment and does not incorporate the opinions of the local communities. Local communities are increasingly recognised as conservation partners globally, and the need to establish and accept the communities’ roles in achieving PAME globally is urgent to achieving the conservation and social objectives associated with the designation of PAs. However, Bhutan’s local communities’ roles in PA planning, management and evaluation as guided by the PAME framework are less understood. This study will understand the current level and types of participation of local communities towards achieving Bhutan’s PAME. To understand this current level of community engagement towards PAME status, eight research sites were selected, and data was collected from the local communities living inside and in the periphery of these research sites. The focus group discussions were the means of data collection and best fit as required by the PAME framework. The reflexive thematic analysis of the data helped in understanding the poor participation of local communities in the planning, management and evaluation of Bhutan’s PAME. The local communities have not actively participated in PA planning, management and evaluation as desired by the PAME framework and are at a nonparticipation level. The local communities, however, express their genuine willingness to participate actively in the future. While local communities currently do not have the competent level of skills to contribute to PAME, however ignoring this gap is not desirable for achieving PAME. So, this study recommends that Bhutan’s PAs design and adopt relevant communication and education tools for PAME to progress. The participation of the local communities and harnessing the contribution of the local communities towards PAME requires designing relevant communication and education tools that will engage and empower the local communities in all the six phases of the PAME framework of context, planning, input, process, output, and outcome. This process, if followed, will push Bhutan’s PAs towards achieving the desired level of participation called citizen control for the local communities as per the participation models used in the conservation sciences and finally achieving PAME. With this, Bhutan’s PAs will continue to be a global conservation champion, and Bhutan specifically will continue to be on track towards meeting the global targets towards the legally binding obligations to the United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity.