Integrative Conservation

Abstract: Developing countries have become the primary proponents of integrative conservation—conservation that relies on the enhanced participation of local people to achieve the sustainable management of natural resources. The case studies of Zimbabwe and Costa Rica support the idea that integrative conservation allows governments to gain greater political influence while sucessfully administering conservation. Both cases suggest that local people demand greater access to natural resources to bolster their livelihoods and their autonomy. Governments, in turn, acquiesce to these demands because relinquishing control of resources to the local level confers the benefit of a wider and more positive political influence in marginal areas. Integrative conservation emerged in these two countries because it served both the interests of local people and those of the governing bodies.