Community-level incentive mechanisms for the conservation of crop wild relatives: A Malawi case study

Despite being an increasingly important source of genes for crop breeding aimed at improv-
ing food security and climate change adaptation, crop wild relatives (CWRs) are globally threatened.
A root cause of CWR conservation challenges is a lack of institutions and payment mechanisms by
which the beneficiaries of CWR conservation services (such as breeders) could compensate those
who can supply them. Given that CWR conservation generates important public good values, for the
significant proportion of CWRs found outside of protected areas, there is a strong justification for
the design of incentive mechanisms to support landowners whose management practices positively
contribute to CWR conservation. This paper contributes to facilitating an improved understanding of
the costs of in situ CWR conservation incentive mechanisms, based on a case study application of
payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services across 13 community groups in three districts in
Malawi. Results demonstrate a high willingness to participate in conservation activities, with average
conservation tender bids per community group being a modest MWK 20,000 (USD 25) p.a. and
covering 22 species of CWRs across 17 related crops. As such, there appears to be significant potential
for community engagement in CWR conservation activities that is complementary to that required in
protected areas and can be achieved at modest cost where appropriate incentive mechanisms can be
implemented