Conservation & Communities

[Rishi]

In his book, Rise & Fall of the Emerald Tigers, WII scientist Raghunandan Singh Chundawat is of the view that we should protect tigers and not tigers inside the protected areas, as there’s a need for a more inclusive conservation model where local communities and the public at large become partners in the conservation effort.
He discusses the larger threats to Indian wildlife beyond Critical Habitats that are tiny core areas within protected reserves, only 3% of the countries land area—and the possible solutions.

In his portrait of the tendu leaf gatherers and herders, he shows an empathy for the tiger’s human neighbors. Drawing on his own experiences of running a specialist wildlife lodge, The Sarai At Toria, he argues private public partnerships can generate revenues which he is particular should be shared with local communities.

He discusses protected areas during the later part of the book where he states that ‘it is risky to entirely depend entirely on the protected area network for conservation’. Here one agrees with him but in a few pages he moves on to say ‘at present, all our conservation eggs are in one, old, basket; protected area network’. For a culture with conservation ethos (albeit with conservation values disappearing fast like he has pointed out) protected areas are fairly recent and surely not the only practice – we have a long-standing culture of community conservation areas, for example.

Also i should mention that the idea for this thread came from @Jimmy's Chitwan National Park Visit thread.

Quote:

(11-30-2018, 02:36 PM)Rishi Wrote: India should start this kind of trekking & foot safari along forest trail in the buffers of our tiger reserves. That'll be reasonably safe & would create livelihood for the local forest dwellers.
I know it's done only in few places, like Satpura & Periyar.
Brilliant!

It's most definitely on my to-do list now.

Yup for the livelihood of the locals, tourist activities in buffer zone is a must, many locals have also been employed as nature guides here apart from their cultural dance which was included in the package.

To reduce forest dependency of the forest dependent communities living in the buffers & fringes/multiple-use forests, it's not enough to simply compensate them for a cattle killed by predators, or crops destroyed by raiding deers, antelopes, pigs, elephants... We must strive to make them stakeholders in conservation. Because outside the protected areas only thing that is keeping an animal alive is the goodwill & tolerance of the locals.

Attempts are being made worldwide, this thread is for all such steps taken in the right direction! Reply