Research Designs for Evaluating the Impact of Community-Based Management on Natural Resource Conservation

Abstract

Community-based management has increasingly replaced centralized planning and regulation as an alternative means for conserving natural resources. But there is little empirical evidence to suggest whether community-based management has a positive or negative impact on the actual condition of natural resources. If, as is commonly argued, conservation success depends largely on local context, then we must think carefully about the entire causal chain of community-based management activities, from the inputs supporting decision-making processes to management outputs and environmental outcomes. We accordingly discuss appropriate methodologies for demonstrating the causal impacts of community-based management on natural resource conservation.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Tyler Davis, Jason Scullion, and the referees for providing very helpful comments that substantially improved the manuscript.