Analysing trends in the development of Conservation Enterprises in Greater Virunga Landscape

Attaining biodiversity conservation in developing countries remains a daunting challenge. Over the last two decades, the conservation enterprises’ approach has been advanced as appropriate in channelling conservation benefits to indigenous communities and hence helping to ameliorate the problem. However, it is very crucial to understand how this approach plays out in practice. Using data generated through extensive documentary reviews, key stakeholder interviews, focus group discussions and GIS surveys, this paper analyses the emergence and the trends in development of conservation enterprises in the Greater Virunga Landscape. It elaborates the typologies and characteristics of the enterprises in this landscape, their implications on community development vs gender dimensions of engagement and spatial distribution. We conclude by portraying how the neoliberal approach of engaging the market in nature conservation is getting entrenched in developing countries.