Policy that works for biodiversity and poverty reduction

IIED worked to understand how policy, economics and governance affect community-based initiatives, and how to better engage with governance in order to scale-up community initiatives and reduce poverty.

Project
Archived
,
2003 – 2008
Contact: 
Krystyna Swiderska
,

Principal researcher and team leader (biocultural heritage), IIED's Natural Resources research group

Community-based initiatives for biodiversity and poverty reduction, where biodiversity is sustainably managed by communities for nutrition, health, cultural and other needs, receive little official support and recognition. Their wider adoption is often hampered by unsupportive policy environments.

This project aimed to understand how policy, economics and governance affect community-based initiatives, and how to better engage with governance in order to scale-up community initiatives and reduce poverty.

The ‘Policy That Works’ approach focused on improving policy processes, as opposed to policy contents or instruments.

It sought to strengthen the capacity of marginalised biodiversity managers (for example, local and indigenous communities and traditional farmers) to influence policy, seize political opportunities, and move forward policy debates.

A key paper, 'The governance of nature and the nature of governance: policy that works for biodiversity and livelihoods' was launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in October 2008 in Barcelona, Spain.