Uniquement disponible en anglais.
Par Sébastien Desbureaux, Ibrahim Kabore, Giulia Vaglietti, Mujon Baghai, Peter Lindsey, Ashley Robson, Philippe Delacote et Antoine Leblois.
Abstract Collaborative Management Partnerships (CMPs) between state wildlife authorities and non-profit conservation organizations to manage protected areas (PAs) have been used increasingly across Sub-Saharan Africa since the 2000s. They aim to attract funding, build capacity, and increase the environmental effectiveness of PAs. Our study documents the rise of CMPs, examines their current extent and measures their effectiveness in protecting habitats. We combine statistical matching and Before-After-Control-Intervention regressions to quantify the impact of CMPs, using tree cover loss as a proxy. We identify 127 CMPs located in 16 countries. CMPs are more often located in remote PAs, with habitats that are least threatened by human activity. Our results indicate that, on average, each year in a CMP results in an annual decrease in tree cover loss of about 55% compared to PAs without CMPs. Where initial anthropogenic pressure was low, we measure no effect. Where it was high, we see a 66% decrease in tree cover loss. This highly heterogeneous effect illustrates the importance of moving beyond average effect size when assessing conservation interventions, as well as the need for policy makers to invest public funds to protect the areas the most at risk.
Significance Statement Protected areas (PAs) are vital for nature conservation but in Sub- Saharan Africa, they often fall short due to funding, management, and institutional challenges. Since the early 2000s, Collaborative Management Partnerships (CMPs) have emerged to tackle these issues. We provide the most complete and recent census of CMPs, document their location and provide a robust statistical analysis of their causal effect on tree cover loss over two decades. As of the end of 2023, our work identified 127 CMPs across 16 countries. However, CMPs are more often created in remote areas that faced low anthropogenic pressures initially. On average, our counterfactual analysis reveals that tree cover loss was 55% lower between 2001 and 2023 in CMP-managed PAs compared to similar PAs without CMPs. While there was no effect of CMPs in remote areas, the effect was largest in high pressure environments.
Pour en savoir plus : Communiqué de Presse INRAe, 
Article PNAS, RFI, Libération, France Culture, France Inter, Actu Environnement