Protected Area Planning

With the rapid expansion of human population growth and impacts on the planet there has been an increasing need for the establishment of protected areas to safeguard some of the world’s most special places and the biodiversity and cultural assets in them. EcoAfrica’s staff and associates provides high quality technical services and often acts as the agents that convey information between stakeholders using a ‘bottom up, top down’ approach to ensure that everyone’s views and concerns are incorporated in protected areas planning. We come up with site-specific frameworks that can easily be replicated in other areas and use scientific as well as indigenous knowledge to develop user-friendly management plans. Aimed at conserving biodiversity, cultural assets and processes that drive the ecosystems such plans are understood by all stakeholders, making them easier to implement.

Our expertise includes:

• Protected area demarcation
• Feasibility studies
• Management planning
• Training for all conservation areas, including heritage sites and marine conservation areas
• Working with communities on the perimeter or in buffer zones of protected areas to cultivate sustainable resource uses (including tourism or limited resources harvesting) and assist them to develop alternative livelihood options