This presentation by Terry Sunderland from CIFOR explains what alternative livelihoods are, how they are intended to support conservation, what alternative livelihoods projects exist and what the problems are.

1. Alternative livelihoods and
conservation:
A systematic review
Bogor, Indonesia
3rd September 2013
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy

2. What are alternative livelihoods?
Projects that seek to
alleviate a human threat to
biodiversity through:
•Providing or encouraging
the use of an alternative
resource
•An alternative occupation
•An alternative method of
exploitation (lower impact)
THINKING beyond the canopy

3. Livelihood initiatives intended to
support conservation
1. Incentives:
“That animal is worth more alive than
dead now so leaving it alone will be
worth your while.”
2. Compensation: “Leave that animal alone and we’ll
make it worth your while”.”
“Here’s a new job.”
3. Alternative livelihoods: [Goodness, I hope they
leave that animal alone
now.]
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4. Alternative livelihood projects
• Appeal to our intrinsic
sense of fairness
• Requested by
stakeholders
• Required by donors
• Much liked by the public
• Have become standard
fare in conservation
project delivery
• Found in many projects in
many places (often
duplicated)
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5. However…
• There are very few
compelling examples of
an alternative livelihood
project that have effected
net conservation gain
• Measured as healthier
wild populations or at
least markedly less total
effort to damage
populations.
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6. Primary research question
•
Are alternative livelihood projects effective at reducing local
threats to defined elements of biodiversity and/or improving or
maintaining the conservation status of those elements?
• “Effective” defined as: Threat alleviation through changes in
human attitude, behaviour or well being and (ultimately)
improvements in the conservation status of the specific
element of biodiversity under threat.
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7. Progress thus far
• Identification of review
partners
• Institutional agreements in
place
• Completion of scoping
study
• Hire of two research
assistants to compliment
review team
• Preliminary workshop
(June)
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8. Thank you!
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
is one of the 15 centres supported by the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
www.cifor.cgiar.org
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy