Policy, Institutions, Values and Biodiversity Conservation in Vanuatu

This chapter discusses the approach adopted in reconciling the national agenda for biodiversity conservation with local needs for development and conservation in Vanuatu, a small island state in the South Western Pacific, and to draw policy implications. It presents the relevant implications for integrated conservation-development projects (ICDPs), and a comparison of relevant aspects of conservation leases. The chapter considers relevant institutional and policy aspects and then presents local people's views and their implications. The research process was guided by a need for policy relevance, and rigour, which is a necessary condition for good quality academic research. Constructivist methodology guided the research process, and it had important implications for the research process. The ecological economic framework adopted combines elements that are characteristic of the established ecological economics literature with elements taken fom the rural development literature. The chapter concludes with a discussion of issues relevant to ICDPs and national conservation policy.