Developing business strategies with traditional groups for biodiversity conservation

Focuses on developing sustainable economic uses of biological resources, building local capacity for the management of biodiverse areas (including management of parks and protected areas), supporting innovative non-governmental conservation and research programmes, encouraging the involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities at every stage of decision-making, and facilitating the setting of conservation priorities that respect the rights of indigenous peoples at the local, national, and regional levels.

Communities, hitherto excluded from policy discussions concerning biodiversity conservation, are also expected to play a vital role in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. How this is effected will vary from community to community. In some instances, communities will play an important role in managing and using local resources to ensure their conservation and sustainable use. In other cases, local knowledge and skills will be invaluable in assisting monitoring and inventory work such activities also providing jobs for people. And in certain circumstances, communities have a key role to play in rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. Fulfilling such actions will require increased and improved training opportunities to be created, and the creation of related economic opportunities to allow for skills to be used.

Business support programmes contribute to the amelioration of rural natural resource management and land-use problems through efforts to limit deforestation and promote reforestation, support conservation and promote environmentally sustainable uses of forests, coastal zones, and other important ecosystems. In urban areas, business strategies can involve water resources management, land-use, transportation planning, and sewage and waste disposal.

To stop the "mining" of forests in the Russian Far East (RFE) for raw logs, USAID's RFE Program helped organize 40 downstream forest product processors into trade associations. These associations have begun lobbying for investment incentives. They also support loan proposals and link with U.S. equipment suppliers and markets. This approach boosts the added value of finished wood products and increases employment in the RFE instead of losing both to foreign markets. A number of deals with U.S. firms have been made and are expected to continue.