Belonging, Protected Areas, and Participatory Management: The Case of Kaziranga National Park (Assam) and of the Misings' Shifting Territory

Author(s):  
Joëlle Smadja
Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inger Måren ◽  
Lila Sharma

Legal protection has been used as means of conserving forests and associated biodiversity in many regions of the world since the eighteenth century. However, most forests in the global south, even those within protected areas, are influenced by human activities. Himalayan forests harbour much of the biodiversity of the region, maintain subsistence livelihoods, and provide regional and global ecosystem services like water regulation, flood control, and carbon sequestration. Yet few studies have quantitatively studied the impacts of legal protection on forest health and biodiversity. We assess woody biodiversity and forest health in relation to legal protection and biomass extraction in forests inside and outside Langtang National Park in Nepal (n = 180). We found more woody species in protected forests. Of the 69 woody species recorded, 47% occurred at both sites. Within protected forests, we found differences in forest health largely related to the intensity of biomass extraction expressed as walking distance to settlement. The closer the forest was to settlements, the heavier degradation it suffered, showing that within agro-forestry systems in the Himalayas, the resource-consumer distance is typically determining the intensity of biomass extraction. Our research brings forth the need to better address the drivers of resource extraction from protected areas in order to mitigate this degradation. It also brings forth the need to contribute to the development of appropriate participatory management programmes outside areas of formal protection in order to sustain both biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery from these forests for the future.


Author(s):  
Ntiranyibagira Elysée ◽  
Uwiringiyimana Thacienne ◽  
Nsengumuremyi Concorde ◽  
Kibogo Andrew ◽  
Muhirwa Fabien ◽  
...  

In Africa, protected areas are facing hudge illegal exploitations and accelerated degradation. Illegal exploitations are interesting indicators of local socio-economic needs and hostility of populations to conservation activities. The study aimed to develop a specific method for the analysis of illegal exploitations and the promotion of successful participatory management. Basically, the Multicriteria method used to determine the impact and the gravity of illegal exploitations relies on three criteria based on offenses themselves and affected resources. The method combines statistical analysis of management data using ANOVA and χ² tests, field observations and semi-structured interviews for validation. For the tested Rusizi national Park, the findings showed that the number of supervised exploitations increased from 1988 to 2015 while the number of supervised operators is limited and highly fluctuating between resources and periods. The public integration ratio is 8 0/000 and corresponds to 61 supervised operators of which 84% are involved in vegetal resources exploitations. In total, 10 illegal exploitations whose impact values range from 1 to 20 and belong to very high and high impact classes were reported.  Average, 651 cases of which 71% cover direct cuts of vegetation were reported annually. Statistically, the most damaging illegal exploitations are made of tree and vegetation cuts, cattle grazing and fishing. Illegal exploitations are seasonal and more important in dry season than in rainy season. They are more important in Delta sector than in Palmeraie sector. The shift from gracious exploitations to lucrative operations, over-taxation of supervised exploitations, low ratio of public integration, political conflicts and unarmed protection contributed to increase and strengthen significantly illegal exploitations. Ultimately, the results revealed the limits of participatory management on illegal exploitations. Consequently, the success of participatory management in Rusizi national Park requires strategic and concerted development projects, more responsive regulatory measures and relevant partnerships with peripheral village.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
SHAPNA MEDHI ◽  

In India, the indigenous people designated as the scheduled tribes (STs) by the Indian constitution have been dependent on forests for their survival. However, with the declaration of protected areas, the conservation plans have mostly overlooked the dependence of these tribes on nature. This paper looks into the adverse impact of conservation on two tribes, the Karbi and Mising, residing on the areas adjacent to the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) of Assam, India. It points out that the case of KNP shows a marked deviation regarding support for conservation by the marginalised communities inspite of hardships. It shows how conservation efforts have further aggravated their conditions. The study was conducted through in-depth interviews with respondents of two villages – a Karbi village and Mising village located on the fringes of the KNP. This paper also takes a cursory glance on the community related initiatives undertaken on the fringes of the KNP for the betterment of the socio-economic conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Zachary D. Miller ◽  
Wayne Freimund ◽  
Stefani A. Crabtree ◽  
Ethan P. Ryan

Cultural resources are commonly defined as resources that provide material evidence of past human activities. These resources are unique, as they are both finite and non-renewable. This provides a challenge for traditional visitor use management since these resources have no limits of acceptable change. However, with nearly every national park in the US containing cultural resources, coupled with ever-growing visitation, it is essential that managers of parks and protected areas have the ability to make science-informed decisions about cultural resources in the context of visitor use management. We propose a framework that can help provide context and exploration for these challenges. Drawing on previous literature, this framework includes risk-based approaches to decision making about visitor use; visitor cognitions related to cultural resources; emotions, mood, and affect related to cultural resource experiences; creating and evaluating interpretive programs; deviant visitor behaviors related to cultural resources; and co-management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. e01451
Author(s):  
Jason J. Scullion ◽  
Jacqueline Fahrenholz ◽  
Victor Huaytalla ◽  
Edgardo M. Rengifo ◽  
Elisabeth Lang

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cormac Walsh

AbstractNational parks and other large protected areas play an increasingly important role in the context of global social and environmental challenges. Nevertheless, they continue to be rooted in local places and cannot be separated out from their socio-cultural and historical context. Protected areas furthermore are increasingly understood to constitute critical sites of struggle whereby the very meanings of nature, landscape, and nature-society relations are up for debate. This paper examines governance arrangements and discursive practices pertaining to the management of the Danish Wadden Sea National Park and reflects on the relationship between pluralist institutional structures and pluralist, relational understandings of nature and landscape.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan POPA ◽  
Claudiu COMAN ◽  
Stelian A. BORZ ◽  
Dan M. NITA ◽  
Codrin CODREANU ◽  
...  

In the last two decades different methodologies for assessing the economic implications of protected areas have been developed within the framework of "Total Economic Value", taking into account not only goods and services that have a price and a market but also those not priced or marketed. The present paper, by using a number of recognized methodologies applied by environmental economists around the world, estimates the economic value of ecosystem services of Piatra Craiului National Park, in one of the first attempts to frame ecosystem services valuation in Romania. The approach and results include a benefit distribution analysis, for both the economic sectors and the groups of beneficiaries. Even if the data are not comprehensive and depend on several assumptions, the paper provides very important practical and policy-relevant information on the economic value of Piatra Craiului National Park, in an attempt to stimulate increasing of the budgetary allocation and economic policy priority for protected areas in Romania.


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