Sustainable Livelihoods

Household agroforestry nursery brings an economic alternative to villagers (Photo: F. Potess – PRCF)

Livelihood alternatives for conservation

One of the biggest threats to endangered species is habitat degradation, particularly due to agricultural expansion, forest conversion, and large development projects.

Species conservation efforts often require for local communities to find alternative livelihood options to protect or restore the habitat of endangered species.  Most conservation efforts have the potential to affect local livelihoods, since by increasing habitat protection and indeed protection of the species itself access to hunting and unsustainable use of forest resources will reduce.  To ensure that people are not affected negatively by our efforts, we establish conservation initiatives that are community-driven, and that have village and household development activities to counteract any possible negative impact to the community.

Alternatives that we have worked with include sustainable agricultural and farming practices, fishing practices that are not detrimental to the resource base, community-led and based tourism activities, and other avenues that ensure communities have adequate food sources and income to maintain their livelihoods in spite of protection efforts.  PRCF provides training, facilitates planning, and supports implementation of sustainable livelihood initiatives, which in all cases are community-led.

Community Fisheries patrol checks fish catch in the Srepok River (Photo: PRCF)