Sarhad Provincial Conservation Strategy - IUCN

again in the context of the overall development priorities.
The Round Table should have legal status.
All legitimate interests need to be represented on
the Round Table—local village representatives, union
councils, religious authorities, district administrations,
rehabilitation or rural support programme personnel,
the military, adventure travel companies, and others
with identified interests. The principle here is to provide
an equitable mandate to each interest group
irrespective of its legal standing or its historical
advantages or disadvantages.
B I O L O G I C A L D I V E R S I T Y , P A R K S & P R O T E C T E D A R E A S 13
If the participants on the Round Table see an
advantage in doing so, it may be useful to create a
set of valley-specific subgroups to consider in detail
the needs of each area. While there may be many
issues in common, there are also cultural differences,
environmental variations, political differences, and
potentially different solutions available for each subgroup.
These can be proposed and nurtured. There is
nothing inherently useful in proposing the same management
objectives, activities, or solutions uniformly
throughout a diverse region.
GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNITY CO-MANAGEMENT OF BOX
PROTECTED AREAS
Principle
Protected areas, which contain people may aim to protect not only natural features but also the essential elements of
the cultural landscape....it should provide a framework for doing so by encouraging sympathetic economic development
which preserves the cultural identity of the resident communities living in or near the protected area, and should
in no way usurp basic human rights.
Guidelines
Protected Areas should be planned and managed in accordance with the above principle and with full participation
by local communities.
There should be a full recognition of the right of any community to define its own identity and cultural values. The
community should be assisted in its efforts to maintain cultural practices which are threatened by migration, tourism,
resource exploitation and any culturally insensitive development.
The community should, equally, be provided with assistance in social and economic development within the framework
of the overall objectives of the protected area. The management should play an active part in supporting local
development.
Policies and programmes should be developed for ecological and other tourism which encourage mutual understanding,
respect and cultural sensitivity between local people and their guests, and which recognize the rights of local
communities to have a voice in regulating the scale and nature of tourism in their homelands.
The management plan for any protected area should include (in addition to the normal conservation component)
the following:
■ provision for a co-management structure which enables the representation of the community in decision making
bodies;
■ a mechanism for monitoring, review and updating;
■ a mechanism for continuing participation of the community in this process;
■ a formal mechanism for integrating policy coordination and decision making;
■ a plan for the protection of all elements of the local culture, its documentation and appropriate interpretation;
■ a mechanism for discussion and exchange of information between the protected area staff and the community on
any matters affecting either of them, including cultural changes, the effects of tourism and ways to incorporate traditional
knowledge in the management of the protected areas;
■ a plan which provides for appropriate benefits to the community from the establishment of the protected area such
as preferential treatment in procurement, local business and traditional occupations. Indirect benefits could include
education and health service, training, and related employment; and
■ a plan for financing and support.
Source: Adapted from Poore, 1993.
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SARHAD PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION STRATEGY 163