Daniel Charles Miller
Assistant Professor at Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES)

Financial support is critical to achieving global biodiversity conservation goals. However, information about the allocation and the effectiveness of biodiversity aid, the largest source of funding for international conservation, remains lacking. This seminar presents new research on the impacts of international aid for biodiversity conservation in tropical countries. It describes findings from a global study of the effect of conservation funding on threatened species and then focuses on a case study of a conservation aid project implemented in Benin’s W National Park, one the largest protected areas in West Africa. Specially, it examines how the European Union-funded ECOPAS project (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Soudano-Sahélienne) affected mammal species abundance and the ability of households around the Park to access natural and financial capital. Using a mixed methods approach based on a quasi-experimental research design, the study reports on these impacts and explores the key role of contestation over property rights in shaping them. The presentation concludes by placing findings from the W region in broader international context and by sketching out future research directions