Working with communities to achieve conservation objectives is a key focus of the Department of Conservation (DOC). This report addresses how DOC can most effectively support communities to develop skills to carry out conservation work, particularly through sharing scientific and technical information. The study began with an international literature review. The results of this review were used to inform four case studies of successful practice of DOC working with communities. Finally, an action research approach was used to work with DOC to interpret the findings from the case studies and literature review and to identify actions to respond to the results. The results of the literature review were six best practice principles for working with communities as part of skill sharing. The case studies strongly supported the six principles identified in the literature and identified two further principles. The two action research forums supported the findings from the first two stages of the research and identified potential actions that could be explored by both DOC and community organisations to improve information and skill sharing. Keywords: conservation with communities, skill sharing, technical skills, scientific knowledge, evaluation, monitoring, planning, participation, collaboration, experiential learning, community involvement, action research.
Methodology
The first part of the case study research examined four projects involving conservation skills transfer to identify any key learnings that could be used to provide guidance on a ‘best practice’ approach to conservation skills transfer. The findings from the case studies were compared with the information gathered in the literature review to identify any similarities or differences in the themes identified, as well as to highlight any information that was not covered in the literature review.
A number of DOC offices were contacted and asked for examples of successful conservation with communities projects (some were self-nominated, some were nominated by others). The key DOC staff person involved with each project was contacted and asked some introductory questions about the project. Eventually, four case studies (which best fitted the project requirements) were chosen. These are summarised in Table 2. The key DOC staff member for each project was also asked to nominate two key community people involved in the project. In some cases, they provided contact details for only one community participant, in which case the second community participant was identified by the first community participant. The four case studies used four different approaches or models for conservation skills sharing. The data collection methods for the case studies included:
- A review of any relevant programme documentation
- Semi-structured open-ended interviews with DOC staff and two community participants (in the case of the Lake Alexandrina case study, only one community representative could be successfully contacted).
Table 2. Summary of conservation with communities case studies.
| NAME OF CASE STUDY APPROACH | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION OF CONSERVATION SKILLS SHARING |
|
Case study 1: Lake Alexandrina Conservation Group |
Lake Alexandrina, South Canterbury |
DOC officer facilitates development of a new conservation group/work (using a collaborative process) and provides conservation skills training in association with workdays as well as advice on trust formation and group management Officer leaves the group after a couple of years, at which time the group has ownership of the project and access (as required) to technical support from the local DOC office.
|
| Case study 2: Kiwi Hui | Hu held in one location, projects spread throughout the country |
DOC facilitates nation-wide networking and skills sharing across particular area of work (in this case, kiwi recovery programmes) by organising, and providing staff time and financial support to a national Hui for people working on these programmes. The Hui uses a conference-type programme with speakers, workshops and demonstration events. |
| Case study 3: Tongariro Natural History Society |
Tongariro National Park, central North Island |
The technical support officer from the local DOC office provides on-going support to a community trust either directly to volunteers or through a full-time director.
|
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Case study 4: Otamatuna, core of the Te Urewera mainland island project and Puketi Forest Trust |
Demonstration site: Northern Te Urewera National Park |
Community conservation workers visit a successful DOC habitat restoration/species recovery project to gain inspiration on what can be achieved and to learn about techniques used to achieve the outcome. |
The research examined the overall approach and specific processes (methods, techniques) used in the case studies to share skills and knowledge, and identified:
- How the approach compared with the principles identified in the literature review
- The perceived overall strengths and weaknesses of the approach used, from the perspective of both DOC staff and participants
A copy of the interview schedule for DOC staff and community participants is included as Appendix 2.
Each interview was summarised and the summary forwarded to the interviewee to ensure that it was an accurate reflection of their views and the discussion that had been held. A copy of each case study summary was also forwarded to research participants to enable them to review how the information they provided was used and to clarify any of the points made.
Section 4 presents the results of each case study. Section 5 provides a discussion of the findings from the research, including an analysis of how the results from this research compare with the literature reviewed in section 2. The discussion (section 5) also addresses other issues that were raised by respondents in the course of the case studies, which were not directly related to the conservation skills transfer process in the case studies. This includes issues relating to the different types of relationships that exist between various DOC offices and communities, and wider issues to do with DOC staff and other resources.
ACTION RESEARCH
The second part of the research involved a type of ‘action research’ where we worked with DOC, and other community-based conservation workers to explore the findings of the four case studies, including the six previously identified key principles for information and skill sharing with communities, as well as current aspects of DOC’s practice requiring attention and potential actions. This took place in two processes:
- Working with a small group of DOC staff from around the country in a workshop held in Wellington in November 2006
- Holding a similar workshop with people working on kiwi recovery as part of the Kiwi Hui in April 2007
The focus of the action research stage (the two workshops) was on:
- Discussing the findings of the six key principles identified during the literature review (addressed in section 2). Encouraging these principles to be used as part of the community conservation project that the workshop participants were involved with
- Discussing examples of good and bad practice and potential actions to improve conservation skills sharing