Motivations for participation in conservation amongst four communities in Central America

Background/Question/Methods   International conservation efforts have traditionally used a “protectionist paradigm” in which “protected” areas were established and tried to impose western methods of conservation onto peoples the world over. These projects often fail and many times create friction between the conservationists and communities. Community based conservation is often considered an alternative to this protectionist paradigm. However, we do not know if or to what extent community based conservation really works or even whether these communities are willing to take the responsibility for the conservation of natural resources. The purpose of this study is to assess what motivates individuals to participate in conservation projects and what factors predict an individual and community responsibility for conserving protected area resources. Four comparative case studies that included surveys were conducted in four different Central American communities- two in Guatemala and two in Honduras.

Results/Conclusions   Results suggest differences in the levels of how responsibility for the conservation of the natural world is perceived by different cultural communities. Results also show that there are differences in the motivations that people have based on the type of conservation project (reforestation vs. wildlife). Those who participated in reforestation projects had motivations that were not only utilitarian, but also included the perpetuity of the species for intrinsic values and for future generations. Those that participated in wildlife projects expressed motivations that were somewhat utilitarian, but that were due more to their sense of stewardship and commitment to the project or species. We can improve our strategies and increase our chances to achieve our natural resource management goals by understanding these factors.