The role of informal protected areas in maintaining biodiversity in the Western Ghats of India (original) (raw)
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Collaborative conservation strategies for protecting and managing natural resources help in creating a healthy ecosystem. A collaborative approach gives a chance in which conservation issues are targeted collectively by using an adaptive management of whole ecosystems, including human communities. The idea is to conserve the local landscape, wildlife and resources by the community and for the community. Collaborative conservation strategies also apply widely for ecosystem management in informal protected areas. In this paper the role of a collaborative conservation of an informal site is discussed, to demonstrate how it may help in maintaining and managing the biodiversity. Additionally, the conservation of formal protected areas and the adjoining cultivated landscape is compared with the biodiversity of the informal landscape. It was found that there is no significant difference in biodiversity richness between the formal and informal protected sites. The paper also focuses on the ...
Maintaining the Biodiversity of Informal Protected Areas: A Collaborative Conservational Approach
2014
Collaborative conservation strategies for protecting and managing natural resources help in creating a healthy eco-system. A collaborative approach gives a chance in which conservation issues are targeted collectively by using an adaptive management of whole ecosystems, including human communities. The idea is to conserve the local landscape, wildlife and resources by the community and for the community. Collaborative conservation strategies also apply widely for ecosystem management in informal protected areas. In this paper the role of a collaborative conservation of an informal site is discussed, to demonstrate how it may help in maintaining and managing the biodiversity. Additionally, the conservation of formal protected areas and the adjoining cultivated landscape is compared with the biodiversity of the informal landscape. It was found that there is no significant difference in biodiversity richness between the formal and informal protected sites. The paper also focuses on the...
Biological Conservation, 2010
The view that biodiversity-rich areas partially or largely managed by local residents, sometimes referred to as community-conserved areas (CCAs), can be effective in biological conservation has gained considerable ground over the past decade. In this paper, we review available scientific information on the conservation effectiveness of such areas globally. We compiled studies undertaken during the last 5 years (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)) that use quantifiable ecological attributes to: (1) compare CCAs with strictly protected areas (SPAs); compare CCAs with open-access ecosystems and (3) study trends in biological attributes of CCAs over time. We found that there were few consistent differences in diversity/species richness of flora or fauna protected under the two types of management or in deforestation rates. However, CCAs tend to harbour a species complement distinct from that of SPAs and show lowered abundances of monitored taxa that are of conservation importance. CCAs conserve biological values more effectively than openaccess areas. Also, biological values tend to decline in CCAs over time. We conclude that CCAs could represent a significant improvement over open-access areas in terms of conservation effectiveness, yet fall short of the needs of comprehensive biological conservation. While extremely few studies have been undertaken in India, the trends seen largely concur with global ones. This review, based on a limited sample size, is only a beginning, and is expected to serve as an invitation for further research to address both the question of biological effectiveness of diverse forest governance regimes as well as the socio-economic, demographic and institutional reasons underlying these differences.
Protected areas and biodiversity conservation in India
Biological Conservation, 2019
Three well-supported generalizations in conservation biology are that developing tropical countries will experience the greatest biodiversity declines in the near future, they are some of the least studied areas in the world, and in these regions especially, protection requires local community support. We assess these generalizations in an evaluation of protected areas in India. The 5% of India officially protected covers most ecoregions and protected areas have been an important reason why India has suffered no documented species extinctions in the past 70 years. India has strong legislation favouring conservation, government investment focused on 50 Tiger Reserves, and government compensation schemes that facilitate local support, all of which brighten future prospects. However, many protected areas are too small to maintain a full complement of species, making connectivity and species use of buffer zones a crucial issue. Conservation success and challenges vary across regions according to their development status. In less developed areas, notably the biodiverse northeast Himalaya, protected areas maintaining the highest biodiversity result from locally-focused efforts by dedicated individuals. Across India, we demonstrate considerable opportunities to increase local income through ecotourism. Our evaluation confirms a lack of data, increasing threats, and the importance of local support. Research on biodiversity in buffer zones, development of long-term monitoring schemes, and assessment of cash and conservation benefits from tourism are in particular need. For policy makers, two main goals should be the development of monitoring plans for 'eco-sensitive zones' around protected areas, and a strong emphasis on preserving established protected areas.
Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation: Impacts Upon Local Populations
This paper focuses upon the experiences of local populations inhabiting or utilising protected areas in Africa, Asia and South America. It argues that dominant conservation paradigms have framed local people as destroyers of nature, legitimising their physical, economic and cultural displacement in a bid to 'save' areas of nature.
Global Ecology and Conservation
Small-sized protected areas face increasing pressures from developmental activities and are often rendered inadequate and isolated to conserve wide-ranging species. However, in situations where wildlife persists outside protected areas, conservation goals may be met by aligning the ecological needs of wildlife with the socioeconomic needs of local communities and offsetting losses arising due to shared spaces. We explore the potential of a tea-plantation dominated landscape of multiple land-use in northeastern India to conserve the Asian elephant and the Indian leopard. We assess conservation potential by identifying predictors of species use of particular habitats using species distribution models and identify challenges by reviewing the available literature. Elephants used 680 km 2 of this 1200 km 2 non-forested landscape; within this area, habitats with a higher proportion of deciduous forest patches were favored. Leopards were found to be ubiquitous in tea-plantation and used~950 km 2 of the study area, with the proportion of tea cover being the single best predictor of leopard habitat-use. With more than 30 human deaths and 100 injuries per year caused by these two species in the study area alone, the high frequency of human casualties and economic losses remain the prime hurdles to long-term conservation efforts. We discuss specific mitigation measures to reduce human casualties and call for the inclusion of important stakeholders in the mitigation process. The study provides a template for identifying conservation-compatible landscapes outside protected areas and a framework for identifying challenges and potential to mitigate current or future conservation conflicts.
Journal for Nature Conservation, 2020
A growing number of conservationists argue that effective management of human modified ecosystems is preferable to protecting undisturbed forest ecosystems. Hence, this study evaluated the efficiency of the two alternatives for the conservation of vulnerable tree species by comparing the distinctiveness of species composition, species richness, and evenness of local assemblages. The study was conducted in Mafhela and Thathe Vondo Forest Reserves, South Africa. The result showed that all land-use regimes in Mafhela became distinct from each other, lost species, became uneven, and tree species were replaced by shrubs along the land-use gradient compared with State-protected indigenous forest. In contrast to Mafhela, the State-protected indigenous forest in Thathe Vondo was not exceptionally distinct from the other land-use regimes. The contrast reflects the difference in the condition of the forest landscape complexity of the two Forest Reserves that moderate the resilience and stabil...
Conventional managed forests and sacred groves are seldom assessed to determine their effectiveness in biodiversity conservation strategies. This study investigated tree and insect diversity in Jachie sacred grove (JSG) and Nkrabea forest reserve (NFR) in Ashanti region, Ghana. The study area constituted eight plots of 50 × 50 m along two 300 m long transects. Insects were sampled in eight pitfall traps, diagonally between the transects. Out of 150 individuals, 13 species in NFR and 15 species from JSG were registered. Celtis mildbraedii was the most dominant species in NFR = 43.18% and JSG = 23.58%. Mean DBH showed a significant relationship with basal area in NFR and JSG. Tree diversity and richness were higher in JSG (í µí°» í® í° = 1.43–2.3 ± 0.10; í µí°· = 1.8–3.69 ± 0.30) compared to NFR (í µí°» í® í° = 0.86–1.56 ± 0.09; í µí°· = 1.1–2.3 ± 0.57). However, insect diversity was higher in NFR (í µí°» í® í° = 1.34 ± 0.10) than in JSG (í µí°» í® í° = 0.5 ± 0.005). Camponotus furvus and Pachycondyla tarsata were most abundant in JSG and NFR, respectively. These findings will help conservationists work closely with traditional authorities in protecting sacred groves as key biodiversity hotspots.