Protected Areas

CSF is working with the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which is the Brazilian National Park Service, on financial aspects of businesses operating in national parks. Starting with five protected areas, in the Atlantic Coastal Forest, the Amazon and the Cerrado, CSF will training and assist ICMBio staff on financial planning to provide services that will improve visitor's access and experience in the parks and strengthen the tie between Brazilians and their parks.

In 2002-2003 CSF conducted economic study of Tanzania's national parks, providing a basis for changes in the parks' entry fees. This East African country has some of the most impressive wildlife and landscapes in the world, with famous parks such as Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Gombe Stream. CSF worked with course graduate Ezekiel Dembe of Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) and other TANAPA staff to develop a strategy aimed at improving the economic performance of the parks without compromising nature protection.

Working with Peruvian biologist Carmela Landeo, CSF helped examine the real economic impact of roads and logging on Amazonian indigenous communities. Landeo, who participated in CSF's first training in 1999, studied changes wrought in the forest and in household incomes where industrial timber extraction has drawn indigenous villages toward the cash economy. Landeo studied the communities of Shintuya and Shipeteari, both on the fringes of the Manu National Park and the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.