The Asia/Pacific Programme

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION



Rural communities usually know and understand their surroundings far better than outsiders can, and often use natural resources in traditional ways that do little damage to the environment. They are therefore ideally placed to help plan and carry out conservation projects.

WWF works closely with local communities all over the Asia/Pacific region, involving villagers in forest management in Annapurna, Nepal, helping Solomon islanders "legalize" their previously unrecorded rights to use land and resources, and promoting eco-development around protected areas such as India's Ranthambhore National Park. And in an innovative project in the Suleiman mountains of Pakistan, WWF staff work alongside tribal groups to save chilgoza pine forests.



"If those forests had gone, I wouldn't have found two new crabs and a bat everyone thought was extinct."
                                                        S Duangkhae,Thailand 

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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature