Dear Conservationists and Environmentalists,              

 

 As environmentalists and conservationists seeking ways to protect our forests and wildlife, Community Conservation for the past 23 years has been developing a successful flexible formula to catalyze communities throughout the world to protect their natural areas. In order to share our success we would like to offer an important short course of the philosophy, concept and methods which has been effective in catalyzing communities to protect our world’s natural areas, forests and wildlife.  We have been working in the field since 1984 catalyzing over 20 on-going community conservation projects most of which are managed and operated by an on-site community group.  Some have become fully or partially financially sustainable and all have been socially sustainable in that the community has kept the programs alive for as long as 15-23 years. Our work was accomplished in nine countries, involving 16 cultures and over 150 villages and protecting over one million acres.

 

Because of the effectiveness of these projects we are interested in encouraging activist conservationists to use what we have developed to create effective community conservation projects.  We are offering the course both in the US and internationally in order to reach such activist practitioners wherever there is interest in making a difference in protecting the environment.   The course will be offered on a sliding scale so that we can reach as many activist conservationists in as many regions of the world as possible. Therefore, any NGOs Universities or government groups should please contact us if interested in such a course. Each course offered to 10-25 participants, will last 3-4 days and can be extended to advise interested groups in their potential or chosen projects.

 

For more information about our projects, please view our website (www.communityconservation.org).  Our projects have shown successes in protecting the focal animals and forests as well as in helping the local people economically and socially. I would like to briefly outline some project successes in our focal areas of Belize, Wisconsin, USA and Assam, India. 

 

In Belize, the 23-year-old locally managed Community Baboon Sanctuary has become a national model and has led to:

• A major increase in howlers and country-wide interest and protection of howlers
• A dozen community groups signing co-management agreements with the government
• Incorporation of community participation in government policy
• Creation of a reintroduced howler population in a protected area
• A stronger protective law for the endemic, endangered Central American River turtle
• A financially sustainable project attracting 6-9,000 tourists annually
• Belize’s first museum and an education program for area children

 

In our own region of southern Wisconsin there are regional effects as well.  Five community-based groups have managed their own projects as legal non-profit organizations for the last 11+ years.   They have accomplished the following:

• One project attracts $1.3 million to the Sauk-Prairie area each winter for an eagle watching program
• Another project stimulated the creation of a 8,600 acre protected area co-managed by a community-based Board
• A third has monitored the Kickapoo River for over 10 years and shares the data with the state. It sponsors education and clean up programs and  a small rural museum
• A fourth project educates and manages over 15,000 acres of private lands for biodiversity and vulnerable species
• A fifth group, through an extensive education program, moved the government to create a 7,600 protected area

 

In Assam, five regional NGOs are focused on protecting the endangered endemic golden langur and its habitat which is also inhabited by many other vulnerable species such as tigers and other cats, elephants, primates and hornbills in over 500,000 acres.  The Forum of these five organizations works with over 130 villages that have:

• Created over 32 economic/social self help groups involving over 500 villagers
• Planted over 100,000 saplings
• Established two community-protected reserves protecting over 600 golden langurs on 40Km2
• Worked with the newly elected tribal Bodo Territorial Council to hire and train a 100-man forest protection group against illegal logging.  They confiscated over $100,000 of illegal logs and materials in their first 7 months.
• Catalyzed 4 community groups and a resulting “critical mass” in which these groups and others are independently protecting their area forests and wildlife

 

Our experienced successes have moved us to train other conservationists to catalyze successful community conservation projects and make similar differences in countries where they work.   Our short course at the annual meeting of the Society of Conservation Biology in June 2006 attended by 23 participants from eight countries further encouraged us to target a number of regions where we think our experiences may play a positive role in training others to succeed in their areas.

 

We are approaching you to see if there are students, teachers and conservationists who you are in contact with who may be interested in such a short course.  Or perhaps you work in an international region where such a course would be of service.  I have attached a brief course description for you.  Additional information about Community Conservation and our projects can be accessed at: www.communityconservation.org.

 

If you have current or future interest in such work, please contact me to open a discussion for possible collaborations (ccc@mwt.net).

 

Thanks for your help and support in this endeavor.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Robert H. Horwich, Ph.D.

 

Course Description

 

How to Catalyze Successful Community Conservation Projects

 

The 3-4 day course includes a series of lectures interspersed with discussion and hands-on activities. The course first introduces participants to projects carried out over the past 23 years in nine countries. It then discusses ten phases in catalyzing a community conservation project from initiation to termination of the catalyzing agent's role. Next, a method for project evaluation with 27 benchmarks as important objectives for a successful community conservation project will be discussed. A fourth topic will contrast major differences between small-scale community conservation projects and large integrated conservation and development projects. Contrasting the two will direct participants toward philosophies and concepts that will lead to better probability for success. Examples from Belize, the United States, and India will point out how small projects working at the community level can effect regional change from the bottom up. Other topics will compare and contrast a project in Mexico, Ecuador and Bolivia that  emphasizes community empowerment and organizations and sustainable agriculture while encouraging values for the common good.  The course also discusses types of training needed for community groups to manage their own conservation projects as well as the difference between practitioners and researchers. Finally, the course summarizes lessons learned.

The course is for an audience with experience or interest in working with community conservation projects who want to make a difference using their conservation biology knowledge as active conservationists and also for those working with integrated conservation and development and sustainable rural development. It will provide the rudiments for how to initiate, carry out, monitor, and terminate one's role in a successful community conservation project.

 

Instructors:

Dr. Robert H. Horwich’s training is in Ethology and Ecology with past research interests in comparative infant behavioral development in mammals and birds, primate behavior and ecology and reintroduction of animals into the wild. He developed a method for reintroducing captive cranes, based on infant development research and classic ethology that has been used on endangered cranes and successfully translocated howlers to create a new population in Belize. His interest and knowledge in community conservation began serendipitously in looking for a method to protect black howlers that inhabited the forests on the private lands of farmers in Belize. Seeing the potential of rural people as conservation partners, he and colleagues spent the past 21 years refining methods to involve rural people as conservation partners. This short course is a culmination of that work in which he hopes to involve others in the philosophy and practices that have been successful for Community Conservation in the focal areas of Belize, Wisconsin and Assam, India

Dr. Tim Moermond is Professor

Emeritus in Zoology and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is an ecologist with past research interests in behavioral ecology and optimal foraging in birds and other animals and experience in 50 countries. He and his students studied frugivore seed-dispersal in Central America and Africa with birds, primates, and elephants. He team-taught new courses in conservation biology for 25 years and received teaching awards from UW-Madison. He was co-founder of the UW’s M.S. Graduate Program in “Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development.” Tim is now dedicated to integrating conservation and development. He was principal coordinator of “Community-based Planning for Sustainable Livestock-based Ecosystems in Latin America” (Project PLAN), which included 13 institutions and over 160 collaborators from the U.S., Mexico, Ecuador, and Bolivia. His current work in Ecuador and Bolivia is with family farm community organizations and with the Wolong “Giant Panda” Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China (promoting integrated adaptive management through interactive workshops on systems-thinking, learning organizations, and monitoring systems).