Conflict-sensitive Conservation and Livelihoods Generation in the Haramba Queros and proposed Santa Rosa de Huacaria/Palotoa Conservation Concessions of Peru

DESCRIPTION: This project will test whether and which conflict-sensitive conservation strategies encourage voluntary compliance of local stakeholders with concession management plans, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of resource management. The project will test whether conflict sensitivity increases the effectiveness and reach of alternative livelihoods programs in the area. It will also assess the potential to scale conflict-sensitive resource management to other concessions across the Peru and to disseminate lessons learned and best practices to other organizations in Peru and in neighboring countries.

OUTCOMES: Project Accomplishments and Milestones Since the funds for the project were allocated, the project achieved the following critical milestones necessary to achieve each of the short-term goals described above: The project convened a series of conflict analysis and planning workshops between January 2013–November 2013 with key stakeholders from civil society, Government of Peru, Indigenous Federations, and natural resource/protected area managers. In total 6 workshops were convened. A total of 3 conflict-sensitive planning training workshops were delivered to resource managers over the course of the project to resource managers from government and civil society organizations including SERNANP, Amazon Conservation Association, and managers of Manu National Park and Machu Picchu. Additionally, 2 student researchers from Columbia University were employed to support the original Earth Clinic project, and assisted in analytical research and field-based activities. A third student researcher is now assisting with follow-on activities. Finally, the project team conducted field-based data collection in the communities surrounding the Los Amigos concession to generate a baseline data set on social perceptions and drivers of conflict in and around the protected area. This baseline will be an important resource to track levels of social cohesion in and around the project area during the implementation of the 2013-2018 Los Amigos Conservation Concession Management Plan. In terms of the long-term goals described in the preceding section, the project achieved the following milestones: Information and data gained through the conflict analysis and planning workshops was integrated into the 2013-2018 Los Amigos Conservation Concession Management Plan, as well as the operational plans for Amazon Conservation Association conservation programming in the project area. The above mentioned Management Plan was introduced to the regional government of Madre De Dios and affected stakeholders in November, 2013through a participatory workshop in Puerto Maldonado, and was subsequently authorized by the Peruvian agency that oversees protected areas, SERNANP. The project team established a partnership with the managers of the Amerakaeri Communal Reserve and their respective communities, and designed a plan to scale the initial lessons from the Earth Clinic project into a3-year capacity building program for the reserve. In 2014 the project team was awarded a $1.2 million contract from USAID to fund the capacity building program described above. Due to USAID funding requirements, the local partner is the prime contractor for USAID and the primary implementer of the project. In service of the original empirical framework for the Earth Clinic project, the PI is conducting the monitoring and evaluation for the USAID capacity building project. This will enable the original baseline data collected during the Earth Clinic project to be updated annually, as the affected stakeholders are the same between the Earth Clinic project site and the USAID project site.