Can creating sustainable livelihoods with communities impact cotton‐top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) conservation in Colombia?

Abstract

Abstract Conservation and development organizations around the world are increasingly promoting livelihood programs for rural communities as a means of creating sustainable alternatives to activities destructive to remaining wildlife and habitats. In impoverished communities in Colombia adjacent forest patches with critically endangered cotton‐top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus), this study evaluates alternative livelihood programs' impact on participating community members' income, wellbeing, sustainable resource use, and attitudes about cotton‐top tamarin conservation. We surveyed program participants, their neighbors, and members of reference communities nearby for comparison (n = 253). Participants in the alternative livelihood programs had significantly more access to resources and benefits compared to both the non‐participating neighbors and people from the reference communities. However, results revealed challenges of scaling up the programs to include more community members. Participants' attitudes toward sustainable resource use and cotton‐top tamarin conservation were not stronger than others who do not receive benefits from the alternative livelihoods programs, and at times were contrary to the conservation goals, revealing a gap in program training for newer participants. Conservation programs using alternative livelihood strategies can apply the lessons learned in our 16 years of implementation and this post hoc evaluation to strengthen the connection between alternative livelihoods and conservation goals.

Keywords

• community‐based conservation
• conservation impact
• cotton‐top tamarin
• human wellbeing
• natural resource use
• program evaluation