Local people as additional PA management manpower
The approach aims at involving local villagers actively in the management of the park due to their willingness and availability to participate and the limitation of resources provided by the government. In total there are 96 elected co-management committee members divided over 19 villages and 5 village clusters involved in participatory planning and reporting. Another key strategy is paying village rangers for making regular trips into the park to record wildlife sightings and threats and to become involved in patrolling for law enforcement. Payment fee for biodiversity monitoring and patrolling was agreed through negotiations and based on a fair compensation for the hard and dangerous work of climbing in the mountains. A team of 77 villager rangers has been trained in the use of GPS equipment and in the recording of sightings in coded booklets. All data and information from the field are inserted into SMART system. There are furthermore 35 households in 4 villages involved in the provision of eco-tourism services such as guiding, boatmen, guesthouse and home-stays. Village service providers have been trained to provide good services.
Availability and willingness of people to participate as they don’t have so many alternatives (land use options are limited in this area due to the ruggedness of the limestone formation and the many unexploded ordnance (weapons) littering the area which are limiting agriculture options or options for land transformation). Available local knowledge of the area in wildlife detection; use of natural resources; survival; etc. Training needs assessment to inform training of staff and villagers
Local part-time village rangers seem to be more effective compared to full-time government rangers. This was demonstrated by an increase in the area covered for patrolling and biodiversity monitoring and some successful law enforcement interventions. Furthermore, they are more effective for the following reasons: • Rely on their own food supply as they have their rice fields and farming activities. • Located close to the area and can act quickly, so there is no need to establish separate ranger stations. • Know if there are trespassers as they live next to the area they manage. The system of making use of local tourism service guides also works as it is an additional income for the people living next to the area which they know very well. Given the limited number of tourists, it is important that the village tourism service providers don’t rely solely on tourism income for their livelihoods.