Good practices for community-based conservation in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Community-based conservation (CBC) emerged in the 1980s as part of a paradigm shift from unpeopled protected areas to people-centered efforts to connect conservation and development. Although well intentioned, the change prompted a focus on communities as either passive subjects or secondary participants of mostly top-down, externally-initiated interventions - many which framed people as separate from nature and, therefore, as a threat to it. As conservationists embrace a new paradigm first characterized by geologists as the "Anthropocene," conservation priorities and successes increasingly emphasize the inseparability of human-environment relationships. We argue that this new paradigm reframes prior aspirations and assumptions about conservation by cementing "community" as the gold standard for conservation effectiveness. We draw from recent literature to highlight five good practices emerging from CBC in the Anthropocene. These practices emphasize shifting from top-down "people-centered" CBC to bottom-up "people-driven" CBC to empower communities to position themselves as active agents of conservation. Conservationists have a growing body of knowledge to draw from to enact fair CBC practice and research in the Anthropocene.

Citation

Redmore, L.; Petriello, M. A.; Stronza, A. 2025. Good practices for community-based conservation in the Anthropocene. Reference Collection in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-14082-2.00131-9.