Using a participatory impact assessment framework to evaluate a community-led mangrove and fisheries conservation approach in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Community-based conservation (CBC) has been identified as a solution to biodiversity loss, climate change, and the reduction of rural poverty. The heterogeneity in social and economic inequalities often acts as a barrier to community engagement in resource management and further inhibits the distributional equity of social and ecological outcomes.
This study presents a participatory impact assessment (PIA) framework that evaluated the outcomes of a cross-sector community-led conservation initiative. Community members involved in the program identified activities and outcomes for the Conservation Cooperative (CC), ranking the influence of the former on the latter as well as their daily life through multiple focus group discussions (FGDs). Participants were asked to rank the impact of activities on outcomes and the scale of the outcome which was totaled to identify the most impactful program activities and outcomes during the project period.
Community members reported improved inco...