From colleagues on three continents.

• Author: Veit, Peter
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

[on conservation as a social and political process]

Mac Chapin's "A Challenge to Conservationists" raises a number of important questions about current approaches to international conservation that deserve wide and open discussion. We thank the editor(s) of World Watch for having the foresight to provide a forum for such a dialogue. We wish to emphasize that, while the effort to understand biodiversity loss falls mainly within the realm of conservation biology, the process of slowing and hopefully reversing the decline sits predominantly in the human organizational realm. We thus want to emphasize the many key process-oriented issues that may be lost in the reaction to Chapin's article.

How shall we organize ourselves to both protect nature and promote human wellbeing? A number of important methodological issues require much greater attention by all major conservation and development organizations (not just the BINGOs). These include prior informed consent, just and timely compensation for appropriated land and resources, public debate and representation of environmental concerns, transparency and accountability in decision-making (including mechanisms for democratizing eminent domain decisions), and the relationship between conservation, human rights, and property rights.

While governments must have the authority to acquire private land for public purposes, including biodiversity conservation, such takings should be a last resort, not a first response. With little vacant and idle land in many countries, such acquisitions often have significant and adverse effects on local people, especially the poor and disenfranchised. Community-based management and multiple use zones are proven alternatives to protected areas that promote local development and wildlife management.

Without addressing both the institutional and methodological issues, conservation will not only continue to be challenged and perhaps lose credibility; its essential function will be compromised. Much...