An introduction to Community conserved areas (CCA)
Contents
- Introduction
- Definition of Community Conserved Areas
- Types of CCAs
- Reasons for establishing CCAs
- Comparison between CCAs and Protected Areas
- Key benefits of CCA
- Challenges faced by CCAs
- Possible ways of supporting the CCAs
Introduction
The invasive practises of ever-increasing levels of human consumption imperil ecosystems and species. Most countries now acknowledge the need of conservation, and several species and habitats are being protected. These initiatives are frequently left in the hands of government agencies. Local communities have been effectively practising conservation, though, for generations before it received greater acknowledgment from society and government action. The communities have taken a variety of actions to save the places and species that are important to them. These are recognised as Community Conserved Areas, which is a general word.
Definition of Community Conserved Areas
To guide judgments about how to manage certain areas or species, communities frequently establish rules and laws. These customs can be found in varied communities in almost every region of India, especially in those who, for cultural or socioeconomic reasons, still maintain intimate relationships to the ecosystem and/or specific animals. The rules and guidelines for both internal community use and external access to the resources are up to the community. These could include things like not gathering firewood or grazing in particular forest regions close to their settlement, designating some areas as wildlife refuges, forbidding the taking of certain animals or plants for food, etc. These laws support regional ecological advantages, cultural values, and the preservation of habitats and/or species. Such areas remain conserved and well-protected if the community has decision-making authority over issues relating to ecosystem management in the area and has some sort of authority to enforce these rules (as in the case of a council of elders or the Community Forest Resource, CFR, rights recognised under the Forest Rights Act). There are numerous names and descriptions for these regions because local communities frequently give them names and descriptions. Such lands have been designated as community reserves, sacred sites, biocultural heritage sites, sacred sites, and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Conserved Territories and Areas on both a national and international level (ICCAs). In India, these spaces are known as Community Conserved Areas (CCAs).
CCAs are natural and altered ecosystems with significant biodiversity, ecological qualities, and related cultural values that are voluntarily protected by indigenous peoples and local communities through customary rules or other efficient methods (Borrini et al., 2004, IUCN).
Various scholars, including anthropologists, sociologists, and biologists, have been examining practises in ecosystem and species conservation for a number of years. However, the conservation advantages of indigenous or local techniques have only just begun to receive serious attention and are now regarded as being on par with what is accomplished in "protected areas." It was agreed upon during the seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, Kuala Lumpur 2004) that CCAs should be acknowledged as a significant occurrence. Countries are expressly required by the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas to recognise, support, and take additional activities with relation to CCAs.
Types of CCAs
All regions of India as well as many other countries have verified evidence of CCAs. They can be found both on land and in the sea. They range in size from a tiny, less than a hectare forest patch (like many sacred groves in India) to several million hectares (such as the indigenous protected areas in some South American countries and Australia). The procedures that have ensured their protection are numerous and difficult to categorise. But some of the CCAs include:
Territories of indigenous peoples that are controlled for environmental protection, cultural preservation, or both. The Niyamgiri hills are thought to be Niyam Raja's property, over which the Dongriya Kondhs of Orissa have custody. They provide the environment a hallowed position that is essential to their worldview and necessary for their spiritual, cultural, and economic security. For these reasons, they have been battling a large mining corporation to preserve the hills and surrounding area.
The residents of Jardhargaon hamlet in Uttarakhand restored and protected 600–700 hectares of forest. The residents of the village also successfully organically farmed hundreds of local crop kinds. More often known as CCAs, sacred spaces include small forest groves, wetlands, entire landscapes, and seascapes with little to no resource exploitation. Sacred Groves are protected areas of woodland that serve as the homes of gods and ancestral spirits in several parts of India. It is not permitted to utilise these areas on your own. The community might use these locations for particular rites and ceremonies and restrict who can access the resources or how often.
Some CCAs are resource regions that provide important ecosystem services or support local residents' livelihoods. These can be controlled so that they continue to provide benefits over time. Traditional fishing communities mark off specific seascape features among fishing settlements in coastal areas. Every year, fishing may be suspended for a few days. During these times, fish are often in their reproductive season. Since the 1980s, the Lubuk Larangan (river protected area) system has been used by the Mandailing people of Indonesia.
The lubuks on the river are protected areas that are off-limits to all activity during a closed season. Women took a leading role in locating the places. At the conclusion of this time, a day of river fishing is open to the public as part of a festival that is held in the neighbourhood. A charge is paid by the participants to support initiatives aimed at fostering community development. Prior to the adoption of the Lubuk Larangan system, the Mandailing utilised traditional conservation techniques known as rarangan (prohibition) to rivers and forests.
Mobile (including nomadic or semi-nomadic) communities that have historically travelled in specific terrestrial or maritime domains have laws and norms for resource use within the territories that they crossed. As an illustration, consider the Bugyals, transhumant pastoralists' summer grazing areas in several areas of the Himalaya.
Many local communities maintain the roosting or breeding grounds of resident or migratory birds, including heronries, wetlands where the birds breed, and trees on which the birds perch or build their nests. Similar to this, there are other instances of important wild animal habitats being conserved. It is possible to protect or conserve anything for ethical, spiritual, cultural, economic, or, more recently, biodiversity conservation, reasons. Such instances can still be found all over the world, such as the stork nesting colonies in Germany that were conserved because people thought they brought luck. Communities in Kokare Bellure, Karnataka, protect the birds and the trees where they nest for the same reason that they do elsewhere. The community-based NGO for fishworkers protected sea turtle nesting areas in Kolavipaalam, Kerala. Despite repeated physical assaults and threats, they guarded the location against sand mining. Similar community protection measures are present in the Rushikulya region of Odisha, Sri Lanka, and other nations where olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) nest.
Reasons for establishing CCA
Different factors are used to establish CCAs. It could be motivated by a desire to protect wildlife or to guarantee sustainable access to resources for sustaining livelihoods. Communities in Nagaland used to hunt the majority of animals. Over 300 villages throughout the state have taken action to conserve and protect wildlife as a result of the realisation that this has severely reduced the population of wildlife in the forests and fish in the rivers. These cover the creation of wildlife reserves inside the communities, the prohibition of hunting during specific times of the year, the outlawing of fishing with chemicals, electricity, or other destructive gear, etc.
In a few instances, communities create CCAs to maintain environmental benefits, such as a healthy catch of fish from a pond that would be overfished if there were no fishing regulations. The CCAs can occasionally be connected to religious, identitarian, or cultural factors. For instance, the community might conserve locations used for specific religious ceremonies. In other cases, the community may desire to safeguard a location for shared use, communal land tenure, or self-defense. Such a requirement can be seen in the necessity to build shelters in forest areas where people once lived during war and local conflicts.
An place or species may now be protected in order to continue to reap financial rewards, such as through ecotourism. An unique instance of community-based ecotourism is found in Nepal's Baghmara hamlet, which is close to Chitwan National Park. The community forest in this area, known as Baghmara Community Forest, has been protected by the locals and is now home to a sizable population of large mammals. The locals built watchtowers and generate income by charging visitors an entrance charge, a technique identical to the neighbouring official National Park.
Comparison between CCAs and Protected Areas
In order to promote the long-term conservation of nature, along with the related ecological services and cultural values, a protected area is a clearly defined geographic region that is acknowledged, allocated, and administered through legal or other effective measures (IUCN Definition 2008). In some ways, CCAs resemble Protected Areas established by the government. Both have clearly defined geographic boundaries and are primarily focused on generating conservation benefits while leaving room for additional associated advantages. Both CCAs and PAs exhibit the designation and management by legal or other effective means, as well as the presence of a set of governing rules and a clearly identifiable organisation or person with governance authority.
According to their management goals, protected areas are divided into different categories by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In their system of protected area categories, CCAs are included. The key distinctions between PAs and CCAs are as follows: PAs have been established with the specific goal of conservation. Conservation could be one of the goals of CCAs, among others. Sometimes, conservation may not even be a goal that is formally expressed.
CCAs are typically founded on traditions and conventions. The government's laws do not publicly or legally recognise many CCAs. A national legislation designates PAs. (2) CCAs frequently conflict with more formally acknowledged land uses, such as the designation of legal Protected Areas or the leasing of areas where CCAs already exist by the government, which is frequently the legal owner of the region, for mining or other commercial/industrial purposes. Many of India's sacred groves are designated as private or revenue properties, making it simple to turn them into residential areas or businesses.
Around 100 separate chiefdoms govern the region of Batoufan (in west Cameroon), which is home to a number of sacred forests that are protected by various clandestine and community-based organisations. Access is closely regulated by local institutions, however locals are allowed to enter the area to harvest a variety of goods during a short annual access period or to collect essential medications given by revered healers. The presence of visitors from other areas in the area tends to erode the conventional system's dominance. Then there is the issue of legal and customary practises clashing. Similar circumstances may be found in several regions of India where tribal populations previously ruled over territory that is now occupied by people who moved in over time, creating conflicts of interest.
Over time, a number of nations, notably India, have developed regulations and passed legislation that can give CCAs legal status. Community Reserve and Conservation Reserve are two forms of Protected Areas that can be used to provide CCAs legal status, according to the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India. However, neither of these laws acknowledges the institutional or management structures that CCAs may already have in place. The same can be done with the Biodiversity Act (2014). Community Forest Resource (CFR) Rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006 are one of the key legal provisions for forest-based CCAs. This clause recognises the community's rights to continue managing and maintaining the forest areas that are located within their customary borders in a sustainable manner.
Key benefits of CCAs
CCAs are essential in many ways, both ecologically and socially. They can support the preservation of vital ecosystems and vulnerable species. The community is the main participant in a CCA and is well aware of the need of conservation. By doing so, the community is able to enjoy benefits including food and water security, social and cultural safety, and the achievement of the goals of biodiversity protection and sustainable management.
As well as providing the necessary knowledge for incorporating community norms and regulations into the law, CCAs can give essential lessons for participatory governance, especially for government-managed protected areas. CCAs may also demonstrate how formal and informal organisations might collaborate to carry out conservation efforts that are more successful.
The empowerment of communities has benefited from CCAs, particularly when it comes to regaining or securing territory, tenure rights, or resource control. Communities have been able to more clearly define their respective borders thanks to the international recognition of CCAs. CCAs have aided in fostering a stronger sense of community identification and cohesion, as well as a revitalised feeling of pride in regional cultures and a desire to protect them. This is particularly true for young people who have been otherwise cut off from their roots by modern influences. CCAs can be places where ecological knowledge systems are better understood and passed on to future generations. CCAs have assisted and continue to support official conservation initiatives, many of which are situated on areas that were previously being sustainably managed and maintained by the local community before being declared as Protected Areas (mainly State-initiated and led). State-protected zones can learn valuable lessons from CCAs about overcoming their constraints. Because of the involvement and support of the local communities, CCAs, especially those that are modest in scale, conserve species and ecosystems more effectively.
Because local residents fight to protect their traditional lands from harmful development, including mining, dams, logging, and overfishing in their resource areas, biodiversity is being protected and conserved in many places. The fierce opposition that the local community mounted to mining in the Niyamgiri hills in Odisha on the grounds that the land was sacred to the native Dongriya Kondh population is a well-known recent example. Due to the lack of large-scale initiatives, land purchases, etc., CCAs contribute to biodiversity protection at a relatively low cost. They do, however, continue to need community input for things like land boundaries and community compliance with rules. Indeed, these are a part of what people do on a daily basis. Their very existence depends on it.
One of the most significant advantages of CCA is that it enables individuals to view their own environment as an integrated whole that includes both physical and biological components, as well as individuals. The fact that local residents are frequently viewed as invasive and destructive forces that must be expelled in accordance with the law has been a major issue with formal protected zones. Villages have been forced out of India's National Parks as a result, with terrible results for both the biodiversity and the populace. The continuing participation of people in biodiversity conservation is beneficial for CCAs. CCAs support the preservation of both domesticated and wild species. Peru's Andes are a prime example. The indigenous Quechua people have created a park here dedicated to potatoes as a biocultural heritage site where a variety of agricultural and natural habitats are preserved with the resurgence of potato diversity in its native region.
Challenges faced by CCAs
CCAs shouldn't be thought of as a universally effective solution to all conservation-related issues. They experience significant restrictions and issues. Communities are frequently not uniform. A village may be made up of individuals from various castes and social strata, all of whom may not agree on CCA-related choices. Within a community, social injustices and internal disparities are frequently present. Natural resource usage decisions may be made in an autocratic manner by a dominating group, such as men, landowners, upper castes, etc., without taking into account the requirements of others who have no power, such as women, minorities, craftsmen, etc. This can jeopardise the CCAs' goals and purposes, as well as the fair distribution of their advantages. Parts of the watershed area were designated as protected in many settlements, and grazing on the hillside slopes and the cutting of branches for firewood were both outlawed. Farmers and NTFP collectors were the biggest winners as a result, which also helped the water tables and forests. However, pastoral groups suffered and lost their grazing fields, particularly the migratory pastoralists who would frequent the village. Initiatives for CCA can be threatened by conflict with other communities or within a village over access to resources and land.
In many regions of the world, traditional institutions and knowledge systems have been destroyed or are deteriorating over time. The ability of communities to control their territories has been undermined as a result. One of the main causes of the deterioration of traditional traditions and the alienation of local youth from their culture is education systems, which do not take traditional knowledge into account. In many areas, the younger generation doesn't learn enough about the management techniques used by their communities. They lack the necessary skills to assume the burden of maintaining the CCAs. Formal schooling has frequently damaged a community's pride in its traditions.
Resources are now of more commercial importance as a result of globalisation and privatisation. Overuse of resources, supported by strong corporate lobbyists, puts local resource management techniques at jeopardy. Communities have become estranged from their traditional resources as a result of the establishment of state authority over all resources, particularly land, forests, and water. Traditions, values, and local laws are constantly in danger of being superseded by national interests, which would result in the loss of CCAs. The community rarely has ownership or security of tenure over CCA resources, which are always threatened by "development" projects that could destroy or degrade the ecosystems they are trying to protect. As a result, this is a perpetual concern.
In many locations, the number of people and animals has beyond the ecosystem's carrying capacity, leading to overexploitation, which the community cannot remedy on its own. Even in previously protected areas, some plant resources, like bayleaf and various medicinal herbs, are becoming less abundant due to increased demand. There are numerous instances where communities have successfully overcame these difficulties, nevertheless. However, if society as a whole offered the assistance and respect that CCAs sorely want, this might occur more frequently.
Possible ways of supporting the CCAs
At the local, national, regional, and global levels, a number of actions are urgently required. The most crucial is the one involving mindset. The mindset of society must alter. Communities' conservation efforts must be respected and protected on an equal footing with those of the government and international aid organisations. The mapping of CCAs must become commonplace, and they must be integrated into habitat protection strategies and worldwide conservation networks.
The potential of CCAs being recognised in global conservation paradigms has been made possible by the Convention on Biological Diversity's acknowledgment of them as legitimate entities for conservation. The objectives of national development must be framed so as not to conflict with those of local communities to manage their environments. Using the necessary technical assistance, the indigenous tribes in Honduras and Panama created maps of their territories and traditional resources at the beginning of 1990. They made use of these maps for planning purposes and, in certain circumstances, to protect their legal rights or acquire access to property titles. Instead of management or conservation plans, many indigenous groups are now articulating "Life Plans," which include the rights of all living things, including humans.
It is necessary to restore or provide tenurial security and rights (together with the associated obligations) over the lands and waters encompassed within CCAs, as well as to ensure financial and judicial support for future management. It is necessary to develop dispute resolution mechanisms. It is crucial to provide appropriate support for the documentation, resource evaluation, sociocultural, and managerial facets of CCAs. Local stakeholders have been trying with conservation in France. Together, elected officials, NGOs, locals, and private enterprises define a project that satisfies the needs of the stakeholders. They develop measures to save a rural area known for its rich, but in danger, cultural and ecological heritage. The area is designated by the government as a Regional Nature Park (RNP), which is then managed by a group of the elected representatives of the nearby communities (regions, departments, villages). It is managed by a diverse technical staff, and the majority of its funding comes from the government. Supporting CCAs entails integrating them into national protected area systems, recognising their governing communities as managing protected areas, and avoiding government involvement with already-existing community institutions. Since 1988, Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia have been established and added to the National Reserve System, totaling around 14 million hectares of land (and water). They still belong to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who see themselves as the lands' caretakers. To ensure that future generations uphold the ideals of environmental conservation, it is also necessary to raise awareness of CCAs and incorporate traditional knowledge into formal and informal education systems.
One of the greatest caribou migrations in North America takes place at Kamestastin Lake. It was a significant landscape historically for the Innu people. They see it as the centre of their ancestral lands. A group of Innu and non-Innu supporters formed the Tshikapisk Foundation in 1990, and it now works to improve the circumstances required for the survival of Innu culture and traditional land management methods in this area. Through cultural and ecotourism initiatives, the Foundation provides jobs for hunting families and hands-on learning opportunities for Innu youth. To ensure that CCAs are sustained and do not disappear in the era of globalisation, innovative approaches are required for their ongoing protection.
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