The Nature of Conservation Enterprises: A 20-Year Retrospective of Six USAID-Supported Activities

Measuring Impact has conducted a retrospective of conservation enterprises supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment Office of Forestry and... [ view full abstract ]

Measuring Impact has conducted a retrospective of conservation enterprises supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment Office of Forestry and Biodiversity (E3/FAB). The aim of the retrospective is to improve the effectiveness of this strategic approach, one that has been, and continues to be, widely implemented in USAID biodiversity programming. The retrospective draws on a unique and valuable dataset: six USAID-funded activities in different regions of the world that included support for conservation enterprises and that have remained active for about two decades. The long-view experiences, outcomes, and lessons of these enterprises offer USAID and the conservation community a rich vein of information that can improve our understanding of what works, what does not, and under what conditions in designing and implementing conservation enterprises approaches.

Using a generalized theory of change and set of learning questions that are the foundation for USAID’s conservation enterprises learning agenda as the conceptual framework, MI reviewed existing documentation and conducted site visits to interview implementing partners and enterprise stakeholders and collect visual images to capture the human and community story of each of the six sites. The sites in Nepal, Uganda, the Philippines and Guatemala document enterprises as varied as jam production to timber production to tourism. The findings describe the conditions under which conservation approaches have or have not achieved sustainable outcomes towards biodiversity conservation.

The session/event will include a 40-minute presentation on the key findings and then 20 minutes for participants to provide comments and ask questions. The purpose and desired results of this session are for (1) participants to gain new insights about conservation enterprises approaches; (2) the Measuring Impact project team (USAID and implementers) to gain new insights from participants, including experiences that may add new dimensions to our perspective; and (3) to form a stronger network of conservation enterprise practitioners by collaborating, sharing, and interacting. The experience of participants will be shared through USAID’s online platform for the Conservation Enterprises Learning Group.