Creating Modern Community Conservation Organizations and Institutions to Effect Successful Forest Conservation Change

Despite increased investment, current conservation strategies have failed to stop environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity of the earth’s ecosystems with consequent climate change. Community Conservation’s (CC) 30 years of experience has produced a successful, cost-effective, field-tested flexible formula to catalyze communities to stop deforestation and biodiversity loss. Our method focuses on four concepts: 1) catalyzing projects, leaving ownership to on-site community-based organizations (CBOs) or local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); 2) encourag‐ ing creation of CBOs; 3) helping build complex federations or networks for a stronger community voice; and 4) creating conservation contagion for regional change. Based on trust, we initially make the community aware of their special forests and wildlife and ask their help in protecting them. Then we help them create CBOs and build federations of conservation activists to strengthen and empower them to manage their projects and their natural resources. By bringing community members to interact together from within a large region, we strive to create conservation contagion. Case histories from Assam, India; northern Peru; the Huon Peninsula in Papua New Guinea; Madagascar; Belize; and Wisconsin, USA demonstrate successes based on the formation of CBOs and community federations, allowing communities to play a powerful role in protecting and restoring forests.