Sustainability of the MDGs depends considerably on the successful mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation into national and international development planning.
Managing species and the ecosystems in which they live can improve livelihoods and incomes, empower people, and contribute to better governance. From our study, a number of recommendations can be suggested to the development and conservation sectors:
- Recognize the contribution of the species conservation approach towards improving rural livelihoods and economies and towards achieving the MDGs.
- Appropriately support conservation approaches that emphasize development outputs.
- Ensure species are assessed and valued as a natural asset in the process of setting poverty reduction strategy papers and other similar planning and funding tools.
- Build on the linkages between development and conservation that species conservation programmes have identified and support the implementation of similar projects/programmes.
- Support the scaling up of a wide range of successful initiatives in integrating rural development with conservation.
- Support the work of the species conservation programme to contribute more to rural livelihoods in remote areas.
- Support the funding of endangered and threatened species conservation work as a key part of the development portfolio in areas of high biodiversity value.
- Develop more partnerships between development agencies/NGOs and those environmental NGOs working with communities in areas of high biodiversity value.