New research reveals "unprecedented" conservation results of community-based management of protected areas in the Amazon - as many face a future in which they may become increasingly degraded due to low enforcement of regulations, growing external encroachment and competition for resources.
The study describes a powerful new mechanism for increasing the extent of effective area-based protection by piggybacking on community management of natural resources.
Tropical protected areas are typically understaffed, underfunded and underequipped and it remains unclear how existing ones can be feasibly implemented under conditions of scarce financial resources, as well as hostile political climates.
The historical expansion of traditionally designated protected areas is also coming to a halt, just when commitments to global targets to protect 30% of the planet for nature by 2030 - known as '30x30' - are renewed, as agreed at the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) three years ago.
Publishing their findings in Nature Sustainability, a team of researchers from Brazil and the UK says one option would be to boost Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), which are defined as areas managed in ways that achieve positive and sustained biodiversity conservation outcomes.
The team, from the Instituto Juruá (Brazil), University of East Anglia (UK), Universidade Federal de Alagoas (Brazil) and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (Brazil), investigated the positive conservation results from community-based management of fisheries along a 1,200-km section of the Juruá River, a major tributary of the Amazon in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
The study shows that by combining all zones of either direct or incidental protection, each community in fact protects a total area of floodplain and upland forest that is nearly 86 times larger than the total dry-season area of oxbow lakes sustaining local arapaima populations. For the state of Amazonas alone, 15 million hectares of floodplain forest have been protected in this way.
Professor Carlos Peres , from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences and a senior author on the paper, said: "This study clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of empowering local management action by stakeholders who have the greatest interest and a 24-7, year-round presence where conservation battles are being won or lost.
"The conservation dividends from community-based protection are unprecedented and deployed at a tiny fraction of the financial costs of traditional protection mechanisms. In practice, this makes local land managers true 'unsung heroes' in the cacophony of theoretical conservation discourse."
Through locally coordinated enforcement and active surveillance, local communities in the western Brazilian Amazon mount concerted efforts to protect oxbow lakes, where commercially valuable fisheries are managed, against exploitation by outsiders.
These communities then benefit from an annual windfall in sales of sustainably harvested fish, accrued from the local harvesting of protected populations of key resources, which also boosts populations of several other non-target co-occurring species that have been historically overexploited, such as giant otters, manatees, and giant Amazon River turtles.
The study authors call for more recognition and financial support for these crucial conservation efforts, which play a significant role in protecting the vast Amazon biome. Without adequate support, they warn the long-term sustainability of this model - dependent on unpaid labour and costs borne by communities - may be uncertain.
Dr Ana Carla Rodrigues from Universidade Federal de Alagoas led the study. She said: "We have shown how Amazonian community-based management can protect vast areas across one of the planet's most complex and vital biomes. The community-led systems safeguard biodiversity at an impressive scale, despite bearing a heavy social and economic burden.
"Recognizing the vital role local people play in protecting the Amazon rainforest and supporting local communities are essential for long-term conservation and a crucial matter of social justice."
The team analysed data on the costs and benefits of collective protection efforts by local communities over 96 protected lakes located along the Juruá River, which were on average 47.4 ha in size. These lakes were under the direct jurisdiction and stewardship of 14 rural communities and hosted a population count of approximately 109,000 adult arapaima.
They also surveyed both the extent and cost of protection beyond lakes alone, including the adjacent flooded forests and upland terra firme forest areas that are safeguarded by community patrols. These additional areas, functionally linked to lake ecosystems and key for species' life cycles, expand the overall conservation footprint dramatically.
Currently, the costs of protecting these areas are borne entirely by community members, covering expenses such as fuel and food for volunteer rangers - without any compensation for their work. However, implementing fair compensation schemes such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES) would remain significantly more cost-effective than conventional protected area enforcement strategies.
Dr João Vitor Campos-Silva, a Co-Director of Instituto Juruá and a co-author on the study, added: "Currently, six million people in the Brazilian Amazon depend directly on wild nature. By explicitly including local dwellers into conservation practices, we can both increase the effectiveness of conservation outcomes and enhance local welfare."
The team hopes its evidence will help persuade governments that supporting local conservation is both extremely good value for money and critical to successful ecological and conservation programmes.
'Community-based management expands ecosystem protection footprint in Amazonian forests' is published in Nature Sustainability on September 19.
