Rural communities are important stewards of forests that provide valuable ecological services. This makes them vital allies to outside organizations seeking to support conservation and development initiatives. However, rural communities also have priorities and needs that may not align with the goals of conservation and development projects. This makes effective engagement of communities by outside organizations an important challenge. When rural communities lose traditional livelihood options, they prioritize economic benefits as a condition for participating in projects, and they exhibit “project fatigue” when many projects are imposed on their time. We reflect on our experience in seeking to align the goals of a conservation and development project with community priorities in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Acre, Brazil. Our project featured capacity building for monitoring forest health to foster participation in payments for ecosystem services programs. Although we pursued prior consultations and designed participatory activities, and although we combined knowledge transmission with skills training, participation declined. That prompted our team to consult with community members, which generated important insights about expectations of immediate economic remuneration, community political cultures, communicative practices, and differences among local constituencies. These insights motivated adaptation of our practices via several strategies, such as focusing on young adults and holding workshops as part of community assemblies, which aligned project goals with the priorities of community members to improve project outcomes.

中文翻译：

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使保护和发展目标与农村社区优先事项保持一致：巴西采掘保护区森林健康监测的能力建设

农村社区是森林的重要管理者，提供宝贵的生态服务。这使他们成为寻求支持保护和发展计划的外部组织的重要盟友。然而，农村社区也有可能与保护和发展项目的目标不一致的优先事项和需求。这使得外部组织有效地参与社区成为一项重要挑战。当农村社区失去传统的生计选择时，他们将经济利益作为参与项目的条件，当许多项目被强加于他们的时间时，他们表现出“项目疲劳”。我们反思了我们在巴西阿克里奇科门德斯采掘保护区寻求使保护和发展项目的目标与社区优先事项保持一致的经验。我们的项目以监测森林健康的能力建设为特色，以促进对生态系统服务项目的支付。虽然我们进行了事前协商，设计了参与式活动，虽然我们将知识传播与技能培训相结合，但参与度却有所下降。这促使我们的团队与社区成员进行协商，从而产生了关于对直接经济报酬的期望、社区政治文化、交流实践以及当地选区之间差异的重要见解。这些见解促使我们通过多种策略来调整我们的实践，例如关注年轻人并作为社区集会的一部分举办研讨会，将项目目标与社区成员的优先事项保持一致，以改善项目成果。