Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: learning from experiences of participatory biodiversity assessment -- Introduction -- Definitions -- Biodiversity -- Assessment, monitoring, evaluation and indicators -- Participation -- Reviewing the issues in PAMEB -- Who trusts whose knowledge? -- Effectiveness: matching objectives and outcomes -- Lessons from the case studies -- Trust, ownership and participation -- Planning and practicalities -- Methods and training -- Managing data -- Institutions and governance -- Impact of PAMEB -- Conclusions -- Ten lessons for policy-makers and planners -- REFERENCES -- 2 Monitoring and assessment of biodiversity under the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international agreements -- Introduction -- The role of information, monitoring and assessment in biodiversity-related treaties -- The Convention on Biological Diversity -- Participatory biodiversity assessment and monitoring and the CBD -- The role of civil society under the CBD -- Identification and monitoring of components of biodiversity -- Impact assessment -- National biodiversity strategies and action plans and national reports -- Other biodiversity-related conventions -- International agreements and instruments addressing public participation -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 3 The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: a multi-scale assessment for global stakeholders -- Introduction -- The ecosystem service approach -- Stakeholder participation in assessments - building credibility, relevance and legitimacy -- Defining biodiversity and assessment approaches at the global scale -- Assessment design and stakeholder participation -- How biodiversity was assessed at the global scale -- Defining biodiversity and assessment approaches at subglobal scales.

Assessment design and stakeholder participation -- How the concept of biodiversity was applied at the subglobal scale -- How biodiversity was assessed at the subglobal scale -- Information and process outcomes of the subglobal assessments -- Lessons learned across scales -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 4 Conservation of biological diversity in El Salvador shade coffee: the importance of taxonomic capacity for participatory assessments -- Background -- Biodiversity value of shade coffee systems -- Shade coffee production under threat: the need for economic sustainability -- Shade coffee production in a national policy context -- Taxonomic capacity in El Salvador -- Scarcity of baseline biodiversity data -- Poor access to biodiversity data -- Lack of taxonomists and trained support staff -- Local knowledge -- What we were trying to do -- Field guides -- Biodiversity monitoring techniques and issues course -- What we found -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 5 Taking stock of nature in species-rich but economically poor areas: an emerging discipline of locally based monitoring -- Introduction -- Ranger-based monitoring of Ghana's savannah reserves -- What we did and why -- What was the outcome and why? -- Community-based monitoring of Philippine protected forests -- What we did and why -- What was the outcome and why? -- Community-based monitoring of village forests in Tanzania -- What we did and why -- What was the outcome and why? -- Community-based monitoring of Namibian conservancies -- What we did and why -- What was the outcome and why? -- The potential for positive developments from locally based monitoring -- Cost to local stakeholders -- Cost to others -- Accuracy and precision -- Promptness of decision-making -- Potential for local empowerment -- Ease of feeding into national and international schemes -- Research needs.

Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 6 Researching local perspectives on biodiversity in tropical landscapes: lessons from ten case studies -- CIFOR's Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment approach -- The basic approach -- Overview of the ten case studies -- Case studies -- 1. Malinau (Kalimantan, Indonesia) -- 2. Gorongosa National Park (Mozambique) -- 3. Ottotomo (Cameroon) -- 4. Palawan (Philippines) -- 5. Gunung Lumut Protection Forest (Kalimantan, Indonesia) -- 6. Mamberamo (Papua, Indonesia) -- 7. Thua Thien Hue Province (Vietnam) -- 8. Ivindo National Park (Gabon) -- 9. Uttaranchal (India) -- 10. Pando (Bolivia) -- Analysis of case study experience -- Lessons learned -- Data quality and interpretation -- Impact -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 7 Participatory resources monitoring in SW China: lessons after five years -- Introduction -- Institutional context in which PRM was introduced -- Rationale for developing a participatory tool for biodiversity monitoring -- PRM approach -- Methods for PRM evaluation -- Outcome of PRM evaluation in 2002 -- Process -- Value and perceptions -- Management actions -- Social change -- Outcome in 2006 -- Values and perceptions -- Proposed management actions -- Social change -- Costs and benefits -- Why has PRM not been sustainable? -- 1. Lack of motivation -- 2. Management staff do not perceive monitoring and the involvement of local people as a management tool -- 3. Changing socio-economic environment -- 4. Lack of institutionalization -- Can these problems be overcome in the future? -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 8 Forest inventory in Nepal - technical power or social empowerment? -- Nepal's community forestry programme and stakeholders -- The call for scientific forest inventory -- Developing the inventory guidelines - technocratic domination.

Revising the inventory guidelines - from technocratic domination to limited deliberation -- Reconciling different knowledges in participation -- Scaling up participatory forest inventory - taking knowledge into account -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 9 Perceptions of landscape change in British Columbia's Northwest: implications for biodiversity and participatory management -- Introduction -- Research setting and landscape history -- Methods -- Results -- Balance of impacts -- Perceptions of cultural disturbance -- Perceptions of care or visible stewardship -- Discussion: implications for landscape planning and research -- REFERENCES -- 10 How thousands planned for a billion: lessons from India on decentralized, participatory planning -- Biological diversity in India -- Dependence on natural resources -- The framework for preparing Indias National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) -- Tools used to elicit people's participation in the planning process -- Public hearings: an example from Sikkim -- Biodiversity festivals: examples from Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim -- Interactive radio drama: an example from Karnataka -- Positive spin-offs of the NBSAP process -- Local implementation of plan recommendations -- Capacity building -- Awareness raising -- Political problems: finalizing the National Plan -- Why this turn of events? -- Emerging lessons and conclusion -- Balancing limited resources with ambitious plans -- Need for more orientation -- Challenge of implementation and raising expectations -- Need for a clear political strategy -- Process vs product -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 11 Inside monitoring: a comparison of bird monitoring groups in Slovenia and the United Kingdom -- Social capital -- Methods -- Slovenia -- Bird watching and bird study association of Slovenia (DOPPS) -- United Kingdom.

Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club -- Amateurs, volunteers and serious leisure -- Birdwatching and social capital -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 12 The personal and political of volunteers' data: towards a national biodiversity database for the UK -- The supply side: growth of biological recording -- From supply to demand: data needs in policy context -- A national network -- Initial resistance -- Addressing the issues -- Next steps -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- 13 Improving forest management through participatory monitoring: a comparative case study of four community-based forestry organizations in the Western United States -- Introduction -- Community-based forestry in the USA -- Community-based science -- The Ford Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Project -- Introduction to the four case studies -- Ecological and social context -- Monitoring goals and projects -- Strategies to involve local people -- Watershed Research and Training Center's Post Mountain collaborative stewardship project -- Wallowa Resources' Upper Joseph Creek Watershed Assessment project -- Public Lands Partnership's Burn Canyon project -- Jobs and Biodiversity Coalition's Mill Site project -- Ecological benefits of participatory monitoring for four CBF groups -- Social benefits of participatory monitoring by four CBF Groups -- Incorporating local ecological knowledge -- Challenges and costs of participatory monitoring -- Issues of sustainability and replicability -- Conclusions and implications -- Acknowledgements -- REFERENCES -- Index.