Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Wildlife Conservation

Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in wildlife conservation has evolved as an approach that seeks to reconcile biodiversity protection with the livelihoods and rights of local communities. Emerging in the late twentieth century, it rests on the principle that devolving responsibility and benefits to people who live alongside wildlife can strengthen conservation outcomes while promoting economic and social welfare. Central to this model are locally defined governance structures, transparent benefit‐sharing mechanisms and adaptive management that responds to ecological feedback and social concerns. Globally, CBNRM initiatives have taken many forms, from legally designated Wildlife Management Areas in East Africa to co‐management arrangements in South‐East Asian forests and communal conservancies in southern Africa. In practice, they address challenges such as illegal poaching, habitat fragmentation and human–wildlife conflict by empowering local actors to monitor wildlife, set sustainable harvest quotas and negotiate land use. Successes include enhanced species recovery, improved water catchments and diversified income sources, notably through eco‐tourism and sustainable resource harvesting. Nevertheless, pitfalls persist: uneven power relations can undermine genuine devolution; revenue streams may be recentralised; and external pressures, including population growth and infrastructure development, can exacerbate resource competition. Effective CBNRM demands robust local governance, capacity building and continuous dialogue among communities, state agencies and non‐governmental organisations. In an era of accelerating biodiversity loss and climate change, the global significance of community-based frameworks lies in their potential to align conservation with social justice, recognising that resilient ecosystems and resilient communities are inextricably linked.

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Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Wildlife Conservation publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in community-based natural resource management in wildlife conservation across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM): A conservation approach in which responsibility and decision‐making for managing natural resources are transferred to local communities to link biodiversity protection with social and economic benefits.

Wildlife Management Area (WMA): A legally defined zone, often at the village or district level, where community groups hold responsibilities for wildlife monitoring, benefit‐sharing and land‐use planning under state authority.

Co‐management: A collaborative governance arrangement in which responsibility for resource management is shared between local communities and government or other external agencies.

Decentralisation: The transfer of administrative, fiscal or decision‐making powers from central government to regional, local or community entities to enhance local autonomy and accountability.

References

1. Designed for accumulation by dispossession: An analysis of Tanzania's Wildlife Management Areas through the case of Burunge. Conservation Science and Practice (2021).
2. More robust local governance suggests positive effects of long‐term community conservation. Conservation Science and Practice (2020).