Given the linkages between natural resources and social conflicts, evidence increasingly shows that successful natural resource management requires conflict mitigation and prevention. However, there may be a gap in practice between knowing what processes and tools need to be used to manage conservation conflicts and how to actually implement them. We present learning from a practice-based case study of conflict management in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon that aimed to develop natural resource governance institutions and build stakeholder capacity, including of indigenous groups, to navigate existing conflict resolution mechanisms. Through applying good practices in conservation conflict management and collaborative governance, we generated important lessons on the practical considerations involved in collaborative conservation. These lessons, while specific to our case, could be applied to a variety of protected areas facing complex social-ecological systems dynamics and wicked problems.

The viability of conservation efforts, including protected areas and buffer zones, depends on finding ways to make those strategies more attractive and viable for local populations. This paper presents a pilot study utilizing a rapid rural appraisal of livelihoods in the buffer zone of Tambopata National Reserve in Madre de Dios, Peru, threatened by illegal gold mining and logging. We evaluated three predominant economic activities—artisanal gold mining, Brazil nut harvesting, and fish farming—in terms of potential economic returns. The main research question we ask is whether the latter two potentially sustainable land uses can match or exceed the returns from mining. Contrary to popular belief, we find that enhancing value creation at product origin could make existing forest-friendly livelihoods as or more lucrative than extractive ones. This has implications on local conservation policy encouraging implementable strategies incentivizing sustainable livelihoods in tandem with, and in support of, conservation goals.