Conserving Tropical Forests: Can Sustainable Livelihoods Outperform Artisanal or Informal Mining?
1
Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
2
O’Malley School of Business, Manhattan College, Bronx, NY 10471, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2018, 10(8), 2586; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082586
Received: 20 June 2018 / Revised: 15 July 2018 / Accepted: 16 July 2018 / Published: 24 July 2018
The viability of conservation efforts, including protected areas and buffer zones, depends on finding ways to make those strategies more attractive and viable for local populations. This paper presents a pilot study utilizing a rapid rural appraisal of livelihoods in the buffer zone of Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios, Peru, threatened by illegal gold mining and logging. We evaluated three predominant economic activities—artisanal gold mining, Brazil nut harvesting, and fish farming—in terms of potential economic returns. The main research question we ask is whether the latter two potentially sustainable land uses can match or exceed the returns from mining. Contrary to popular belief, we find that enhancing value creation at product origin could make existing forest-friendly livelihoods as or more lucrative than extractive ones. This has implications on local conservation policy encouraging implementable strategies incentivizing sustainable livelihoods in tandem with, and in support of, conservation goals.
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Keywords:
Brazil nuts; conservation strategies; deforestation; fish farming; half-earth; income analysis; informal gold mining; Madre de Dios; Payments for Ecosystem Services; sustainable livelihoods
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MDPI and ACS Style
Fisher, J.; Arora, P.; Rhee, S. Conserving Tropical Forests: Can Sustainable Livelihoods Outperform Artisanal or Informal Mining? Sustainability 2018, 10, 2586. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082586
AMA Style
Fisher J, Arora P, Rhee S. Conserving Tropical Forests: Can Sustainable Livelihoods Outperform Artisanal or Informal Mining? Sustainability. 2018; 10(8):2586. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082586
Chicago/Turabian StyleFisher, Joshua, Poonam Arora, and Sophia Rhee. 2018. "Conserving Tropical Forests: Can Sustainable Livelihoods Outperform Artisanal or Informal Mining?" Sustainability 10, no. 8: 2586. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082586
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