Bethlehem Astella Abebe, Kelly Jones

Community-based conservation (CBC), albeit lauded as a more just alternative than command-and-control conservation approaches, is riddled by equity concerns. This study measures perceptions of equity and examines how household, institutional, and program design characteristics affect multiple dimensions of equity in a CBC program in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. Informed by a prior in-depth qualitative study, we develop locally relevant indicators about perceptions of distributive, procedural, and recognition equity. We conduct 200 household surveys in four kebeles (smallest administrative unit), two from a ‘new CBC model’ that involves community-based power sharing and two kebeles from the ‘original CBC model’ that does not involve community-based power sharing. We find slightly negative perceptions of all three dimensions of equity across the four kebeles. Gender and wealth are strong determinants of perceptions of distributive equity, with women and poorer households having more negative perceptions. Social capital, both internal community cohesion (bonding social capital) and strong relationships with external organizations (linking social capital), positively affect all three dimensions of equity but have the largest impact on procedural and recognition equity. Finally, we find that communities in the ‘new CBC model’ have higher perceived equity than communities involved in the ‘original CBC model’. These findings highlight the need to strengthen weak ties with external organizations, facilitate intra-community cohesion, and design programs that emphasize power-sharing to facilitate more equitable conservation outcomes. Our results also suggest that more attention is still needed in incorporating marginalized groups into CBC programs.