Building Local Ownership in Protecting Snow Leopards

Markha villagers signing agreement, Oct. 1999 (photo by Nandita Jain)

On Building Local Ownership

Handouts do little to build a community’s self esteem. But when local people feel a sense of ownership in efforts to protect snow leopards, the chances of long-term success are greatly improved. Toward this end, the Snow Leopard Conservancy has established five conditions that must be met or satisfactorily addressed when we fund a community-based conservation program:

Linkage with Biodiversity Conservation

Our rationale for investing in a community is allied with our primary objective of conserving snow leopards and other mountain biodiversity. This linkage is constantly reinforced during village mobilization and planning meetings, so that it becomes associated with the project activities being supported by the Snow Leopard Conservancy as the outside donor.

Reciprocal Contribution

All stakeholders (villager, nongovernmental organization, or government) must make a reciprocal contribution, within their means, to compliment that being made by the Snow Leopard Conservancy. This may be in the form of cash or in-kind services such as materials and labor, which are valued using existing market rates and prices.

Participation

There must be strong commitment to active and equitable participation from each involved stakeholder group through the life of the project, from planning to implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. The project activities should benefit as many individuals and households as possible, and be sensitive to matters of ethnic or economic equity and gender.

Responsibility

The beneficiary community must be willing to assume all or significant responsibility for repairing and maintaining any infrastructural improvements provided by the Snow Leopard Conservancy. This usually means maintaining predator-proof corrals in good condition.

Monitoring & Evaluation

The stakeholders should be willing to employ simple but realistic indicators for measuring project performance and impact, according to a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (part of the overall Action Plan).

Good Science

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