Livelihoods & Governance

Biodiversity conservation and the sustainable management of natural resources are inextricably linked to people’s rights to secure their livelihoods and live in dignity. Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is committed to ensuring that our conservation activities at the very least do not further disadvantage poor, vulnerable or marginalised natural resource-dependent people, and that, wherever possible, our activities contribute to improving human well-being.

We are also committed to respecting human rights, promoting their protection and realisation within our conservation programmes, and supporting the improvement of governance systems that can secure those rights.

People-centred approach

To help fulfil these commitments, the Conservation Livelihoods and Governance programme supports FFI’s regional conservation teams to take a holistic, people-centred approach to biodiversity conservation. This is achieved through providing briefing notes, guidance, tools, training and mentoring, to assist in understanding and addressing the needs and rights of local communities in our conservation programmes. Examples of the briefing notes produced are available, please refer to the Reports & Documents page.

We also facilitate the sharing of lessons learnt and good practice between FFI projects and in external fora, such as the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group.

Testing our approaches

Current programme initiatives include testing our approaches to the integration of biodiversity conservation, sustainable livelihoods and environmental governance in 3 projects: Cristalino State Park in Brazil; the Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative in Tanzania; and Tibetan Grasslands in China. This work is supported through a strategic partnership with Anglo American, and distillation and documentation of the lessons learnt will inform both the company’s and FFI’s future programming.

We are also actively participating in the Conservation Initiative on Human Rights, an international initiative that aims to ensure effective integration of human rights in the policies and practices of a number of international conservation organizations.

Recent initiatives included learning from and enhancing our partnerships with humanitarian and development agencies, government bodies, community groups and the private sector in areas afflicted by conflict or natural disasters.