New hope or new liability: a panel discussion.

There are many new issues and dilemmas surrounding conservation concessions. This event is an opportunity for conservation professionals, scholars and interested citizens to come together to discuss and give shape to the issues and dilemmas surrounding this important new policy initiative from a major UK charity.

• Conservation concessions are a free-market approach to protected area conservation.
• Land management rights are purchased from the government in the same way as a logging concession.
• They provide the potential for the quick and effective protection of valuable, bio-diverse forests.
• Problems could arise from the scale of the operations because NGOs will be facing a new level of accountability requirements.
• There is concern over whether NGOs have the experience, capacity and legitimacy to cope with this challenge.

The goal of this event is both to produce an insightful and reflective discussion that will contribute to the improvement of the quality of conservation action and also to advance the thinking concerning the nature of accountability regimes for NGOs. This relates to the work at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship on the development of management tools for NGOs. A key determinant of the capacity of an NGO to act depends on the perception of their legitimacy; judgements regarding legitimacy are partly based on perceptions of transparency and accountability. This event will address whether this type of panel discussion could, or should, form part of an enhanced accountability regime for NGOs which would increase their ability to deliver on their mission.

See Background for further information