Role of Local Population in Biodiversity Protection

The inclusion of local population in the protection of biodiversity is of great importance and plays a major role in creating strategies for management of protected areas and plans for protection of species.

Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration underlines that environmental issues are best solved with active participation of the general public. This method proved to be very successful, which can be seen through the numerous successful environmental campaigns and activities implemented in South America and Africa with the inclusion of local native population.

Research has shown that the local population can contribute a lot to protection of forests and afforestation, protection and monitoring of endangered species, monitoring climate change as well as protection of specific ecosystems. However, the local population has the greatest role in sustainable use of natural resources and sustainable food production.

Through various activities the Nature Conservation Programme for several years now has been directly involving the local population in the protection of nature through rational use of nature. People in the Bregalnica region are increasingly more respectful of forests and their importance, they start to engage in sustainable farming, take care of the land and open their doors to tourists.

Active participation and inclusion of the local population in all activities for protection are more than necessary for achieving the goals and creating sustainable systems that would have minimum impact on nature.