Community-based monitoring in the context of sustainable wildlife management and biodiversity conservation in tropical countries

This document is addressed to communities and their partners, and features eight main key lessons learned that emerge from the implementation of community-based monitoring in the context of wildlife management and biodiversity conservation, across 15 countries in Africa, the Guyana Shield and the Pacific Region in which the Sustainable Wildlife Management Programme is implemented. The examples involve diverse forms of community-based monitoring and include different ecosystems (forests, savannahs, wetlands) and taxonomic groups (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish). We further provide a more focused description of five case studies, including the multitaxa community-based monitoring process implemented by community wildlife and fisheries committees in the Rupununi (Guyana), the human-wildlife coexistence monitoring programme implemented by communities in Mucheni Community Conservancy (Zimbabwe), the co-managed monitoring system implemented for sustainable hunting around Lastoursville (Gabon), and the citizen science process implemented in communities around the Dja Reserve (Cameroon) to monitor and alert emergence of zoonotic diseases and the community-based monitoring system implemented in Namibia in the context of community-based conservancies (Namibia).