Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Center for Integrative Conservation Research, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Environ Manage. 2021 Dec;68(6):882-899. doi: 10.1007/s00267-021-01532-4. Epub 2021 Sep 8.
Decentralized environmental governance has become increasingly common across much of Latin America and in developing countries more generally, yet the impacts of decentralization on wildlife conservation remain unclear. Decentralized environmental governance is thought to improve efficiency, local compliance, and democratic potential of natural resource management. However, wildlife conservation, especially that of large mammals, poses unique challenges in the context of decentralized governance: wildlife conservation is often expensive, requires large expanses of contiguous habitat, and often offers few economic benefits. We analyzed Colombia's decentralized environmental governance and its performance in conserving a contentious and border-crossing wildlife species, the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus). We considered both decentralized institutions and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This analysis is informed by 67 semi-structured interviews with conservation practitioners in Colombia. We found inconsistent program implementation across the country and little information exchange among institutions. These issues quite likely contribute to exacerbated human-bear conflict and thus more Andean bear deaths suggesting that the successful coordination of large-scale wildlife conservation may yet require the leadership of strong central institutions. A few international NGOs were working to improve Andean bear conservation in Colombia, but we saw little involvement at the national level of Colombian NGOs-some of whom felt they were being unfairly outcompeted by international elites. We recommend a greater engagement with Colombian NGOs (by both donors and international NGOs) as a means through which to ensure the integrity of Andean bear conservation into the future.
分散式环境治理在拉丁美洲大部分地区和发展中国家变得越来越普遍，但权力下放对野生动物保护的影响仍不清楚。分散式环境治理被认为可以提高自然资源管理的效率、地方合规性和民主潜力。然而，野生动物保护，尤其是大型哺乳动物的保护，在分散治理的背景下带来了独特的挑战：野生动物保护通常成本高昂，需要大片连续的栖息地，而且通常带来很少的经济效益。我们分析了哥伦比亚的分散式环境治理及其在保护有争议和跨境野生动物物种——安第斯熊（Tremarctos ornatus）方面的表现。我们既考虑了分散的机构，也考虑了非政府组织（NGO）。这项分析的依据是对哥伦比亚 67 名保护从业者的 67 次半结构化访谈。我们发现，全国的项目执行情况不一致，机构之间几乎没有信息交流。这些问题很可能导致人与熊的冲突加剧，从而导致更多的安第斯熊死亡，这表明成功协调大规模的野生动物保护可能仍然需要强有力的中央机构的领导。一些国际非政府组织（NGO）正在努力改善哥伦比亚的安第斯熊保护，但我们在国家一级看到很少有哥伦比亚非政府组织（NGO）的参与，其中一些组织感到他们受到了国际精英的不公平竞争。我们建议与哥伦比亚非政府组织（包括捐助者和国际非政府组织）进行更多的接触，这是确保安第斯熊保护未来完整性的一种手段。
