Increasing local autonomy of government biodiversity conservation programmes

Promoting local authority involvement in the conservation of local biological diversity

Description

Devolving management of biological resources conservation projects to local level

Context

According to local circumstances and capacity, some functions of local government in devolved biodiversity management will be to: a) ensure that biodiversity considerations are effectively integrated into local strategies, plans and programmes; b) institute and participate in public education, awareness and training programmes; c) develop management plans for local resources that are under pressure; ensure that biodiversity considerations are integrated into land-use planning procedures for rural and urban areas; and d) encourage and prepare municipal open space systems which play a positive role in conserving and using biological resources sustainably.

Claim

Top-down concepts of biodiversity need to be contextualised: the concept needs to be transformed to a bottom-up concept in order to make the concept clear for everybody: from politician and government official, to ordinary man.