GSIF09 SUMMARIES

Social Innovation Lab 8: Empowering Local Communities, Governments and Companies to Provide Ecosystem Services: Conservation Agreements as a Social Innovation Tool

Friday, 2 October  

• HE Ty Sokhun • Jatna Supriatna • Zhang Li

Facilitated by • Patricia Zurita

• Conservation agreements were presented as a novel approach that reconciles conservation and development. Conversation International (CI) recognizes that in reality, survival and livelihood come before conversation, especially when people living in areas experiencing need for conservation live under the poverty line.

• Discussion leaders presented that the conservation of environmental areas (that provide key ecosystem services such as climate regulation and biodiversity protection) is not without costs. There is an acknowledged need to reward socially responsible behaviour for the masses financially, hence the need for conservation agreements.

• Discussion leaders presented their initiatives and how conservation agreements have been utilized to great effect in their respective projects and countries (e.g., Indonesia, Cambodia, China, Peru), solving conservation problems through being a source of income.

• Conservation agreement is now a proven tool for enabling conservation in the impoverished world.

Download GSIF09 Social Innovation Lab 8 - Summary.