Creating Simple Conservation Contracts with Communities
The project used one very simple and clear contract to lay out the benefits each community and family member would earn as a result of their conservation efforts. The contracts were about one page long and were written in an easy language for villagers to understand, with prices for wildlife sightings clearly written for everyone to see. Approval by the village chief alone—a convenient and traditional protocol—was avoided because of the underlying premise of the model that all potential hunters need to be included equally in sharing benefits and responsibilities. The contracts were, instead, signed by a representative from every family in each community to ensure that everyone understood their potential benefits and required commitment. The contract was also not simply read out loud in each community, but instead there was a question and answer session to gauge villagers’ understanding and help them visualize the system.
Protected area, district and provincial officials supported the concept and allowed the contract to be made in this non-traditional fashion because of their interest in conservation. Meetings with district and village officials were made prior to introducing the contracts to the communities in order to make the contracts understandable and fair from a local perspective, while making a more efficient process for approval in the villages.
Creating the concept required holding separate meetings with each different stakeholder group. The first step in creating the contracts was outlining the main points, which was done internally with key project staff who understood the situation and were committed to the overall goals of the project. Once the outline was created, a more detailed draft contract was presented to government counterparts who worked closely with the project. After that, it was presented to other government and village officials who worked with the project, but not as closely, for their input. It was important to start like this rather than including all stakeholders together in one meeting because of the newness of the concept and the need to present a solid and comprehensible draft to those less familiar with the project.