Protected areas and rights movements: The inadequacies of Nepal's participatory conservation (original) (raw)
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Diversifying governance models for protected areas serves as one strategy to address some of the challenges they are facing. This paper explores the potential of local communities to be the primary actor in the governance of the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) following its planned handover to them in 2012. In doing so, the paper serves as an important baseline from which to monitor a new experiment in protected area governance. During the summer of 2007, the executive members and implementing staff of the Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMCs) were interviewed and local villagers surveyed. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to assess the CAMCs' capacities to manage ACA without outside support. All CAMCs had more than a decade of managerial experience and considerable local support. Villagers largely considered the CAMCs as legitimate institutions, and their executive members as trustworthy. CAMC members were confident about assuming management responsibility of the area. The devolution of power to an overarching local council to govern ACA will present some challenges, especially with regard to lowerperforming CAMCs. However, key factors identified in the literature as critical to good governance portend positive prospects for the transition.
Nepal is known as one of the world's most conservation-friendly countries, with more than 18% of its total area as protected areas. However, because of the top-down, bureaucratically oriented, exclusionary governance systems practised in the protected areas, there is tension between park authorities and local people that ultimately causes livelihood insecurities. Most of the sufferers from the poor conservation governing systems in Nepal are poor, marginalised and indigenous people. As indigenous people are the victims of protected area management systems, an intense debate on the property rights and prior rights of indigenous people has emerged. To shed light on this debate, the author has employed the conceptual framework of legal pluralism, thereby providing better understanding of the conflict between the customary rights exercised by the indigenous communities and the formal legal arrangements of the state. The study presented in this paper was conducted in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Eastern Nepal. The study reveals that the main cause of the conflict between park authorities and local people was the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1973, which makes provisions such as prohibition of access for domestic animals and birds for drinking water and grazing, in areas used by local people for these very purposes. Realising the complexity of the conflict, the government of Nepal initiated a participatory conservation project (called Park-People Programme). However, this participatory approach is not able to provide benefits to the poor and marginal sections of society mainly because the participatory process as well as outcome of the participatory approach was captured by the powerful elites.
Contested law: Slow response to demands for reformulating protected area legal framework in Nepal
2011
This paper examines the legal framework of Protected Areas (PAs) in Nepal -that includes several types and categories of PAs such as national parks, wildlife reserves, conservation areas and buffer zones. Laws concerning PAs are examined against the contexts of international agreements, conventions, and accepted standards as well as the national ground realities. The legal framework is critically analysed through seven key analytical and inter-related variables: the process of declaration, governance types, power sharing, management plan, tenure and local access to resources, equity and sharing of benefits and compliance and enforcement. We use content analysis, interviews and participant observations as the key methods in securing data. It is observed that many of the legal and regulatory provisions are founded in a different historical context. They have not been timely revised to suit to the current socio-political and ecological realities. The existing legal provisions neither reflect the contemporary conservation discourses and practices nor respond to the popular demands emerged particularly in the post-conflict political dynamics in Nepal.
Policies and Legal Frameworks of Protected Area Management in Nepal
Environmental Management in Asia, 2010
The Protected Area (PA) is a common resource, and provides basic necessities for livelihoods. As a result, access to this resource is very much of interest to local communities. The success of PA management depends on the socioeconomics and politics of the governing countries and communities. This study examines the policy implementation that encourages the conservation of biological diversity. It was carried out in the Langtang National Park and its surrounding buffer area in the central Himalayan region of Nepal. It was found that local communities are heavily dependent on park resources for their livelihoods. Protected Area policies that provide access to grazing, and firewood collection from the park area are considered conducive to acceptance. However, the traditional rights over these resources are still the issue of park-people conflict. Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are still "locked resources" for local communities. The present PA policy fails to incorporate the issue of wildlife crop damage and livestock depredation. The rights and responsibilities of buffer zone (BZ) institutions are poorly delineated. There is a need to encourage local participation in buffer zone management activities. It is necessary to review the existing root causes of park-people conflict. The roles, responsibilities and authorities of BZ institutions need to be clearly delineated. It is suggested that the buffer zone management council (BZMC) be strengthened as an apex decision making body, whose role should not be limited to the BZ boundary. Furthermore, the policy should address the issue of wildlife damage and mechanisms to compensate such loss would be an asset in PA governance. Local communities should be given management rights, at least to forest areas near the settlements. A long term and prescribed management plan for MAPs is necessary. The equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms help to overcome the major setbacks in sustainability of PA, a common property resource.
WORKSHOP STREAM III: GOVERNANCE OF PROTECTED AREAS (PAs) (NEW WAYS OF WORKING TOGETHER) Chairs
2000
Governance is about power, relationships and accountability. It is about who has influence, who decides, and how decision-makers are held accountable. It can be defined as the interactions among structures, processes and traditions that determine how power is exercised, how decisions are taken on issues of public concern, and how citizens or other stakeholders have their say. Over the last decade or so, the term has progressed from relative obscurity to widespread usage. Governance improvements are advocated on issues of public information, transparency and accountability in decision-making, fair treatment of social concerns, equitable sharing of the costs and benefits of conservation, strategic vision and actual effectiveness of management.
Conservation Policy Making in Nepal: Problematising the Politics of Civic Resistance
Protected area governance has witnessed a shift from a strict-nature conservation model towards a seemingly more participatory approach in Nepal. Despite some progress, top-down and non-deliberative processes characterise policy making in protected area. However, many civil society actors have increasingly challenged the government to provide space for local people in decision making so that their rights to natural resources are considered. This article examines two key aspects of the politics of policy process: why conservation policy making is often less deliberative than it could be and why civil actors pick up some policy decisions (not others) for contestation. In doing so, we analyse a recent policy decision of the Nepal government on the protected area which encountered civic contestation. Drawing on the review of policy decisions and interviews with government authorities, civic leaders and protected area experts, this paper shows that the government and large conservation organisations continue to shape the policy process while undermining the legitimate voices of local and non-state actors in the conservation policy landscape. Civic resistance as a means of democratising policy processes looks promising, challenging unquestioned authorities of the government and conservation organisations. Nevertheless, the politics of resistance has enjoyed limited success due to the political interests of civic institutions and their leaders, at times overshadowing critical policy agenda such as the severity of rights constrained and issues of poverty and marginalisation. This article suggests that civic actors need to rethink over their politics of resistance in terms of pursuing agenda and strategies to ramp up policy deliberation.
Shifting paradigms for Nepal's protected areas: history, challenges and relationships
Abstract: The modern history of protected area (PA) management in Nepal dates back to 1973 when the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act (1973) was promulgated and Chitwan National Park was established. In the years immediately following these key events, protected area acts and regulations were strictly applied and the role of local people in managing natural resources was neglected. However with the passage of time, and with changes in the socio-political and economic characteristics of Nepal, management regimes have shifted towards a more liberal model which recognizes more clearly the contributions of people living and working within protected areas. Recently, landscape level conservation models including the designation of multiple use areas have been utilized in the development of management plans for protected areas in Nepal. Conservation agencies have attempted to tackle challenges such as land use conflict, poaching and smuggling of wildlife parts and illegal harvesting of highly valued medicinal herbs through regulation, but these efforts are not always successful. We recommend a holistic conflict resolution approach which recognizes and resolves the different needs of all stakeholders.
Environmental governance in Nepal: Moving Towards New Dimension
As good governance is became the catch word in the field of public administration, thereafter, the concept of environmental governance is also accepted as a prerequisite of sustainable development. Government of Nepal has accorded a high priority to resolve and control the further damage of environment. However, the strategies, plans, and programmes of subsequent 30 years have not been overwhelmingly effective. Institutions at all level are weak, the requisite technical skills are commonly lacking and poor morale is a systemic issue. These deficiencies stem from the general weakness of the governing system itself over-staffing, low motivation, political interference in appointments and transfer, inadequate performance recognition, and others are systemic. These in turn affect resource management. The capacity for monitoring the implementation of laws and public expenditure is weak at all levels. Inadequate supervision, poor financial management, dilatory government procedures, and lack of coordination among government entities all lead to poor performance generally and to a serious neglect of environmental issues in particular. Environmentalist and development expert felt that, there is a need to strengthen the public and private sectors, institutions, systems, processes, procedures and practices that support development efforts. Because improved capacity is always crucial to entrench and sustain good environmental governance, and address poverty.
Local governance in Warsaj and Farkhar Districts
2007
Given report is the outcome of a basic investigation into Natural Resources Management-related problem areas in northeastern Afghanistan in fall 2006 within the framework of the Integrated Development, Environment and Sustainability (IDEAS) project. IDEAS is a sub-project of the wider Kunduz River Basin Programme (KRBP), an EU-financed project to approach water management on a catchmentwide scale. Field research was conducted in two districts-Farkhār and Warsaj-of Takhār Province, which have been selected as target areas for upstream water catchments' protection and forest regeneration measures. The IDEAS project is implemented by Concern Worldwide and German Agro Action over the period of three years (2006-2008). The local governance report was meant to assist the project managers to develop a better understanding of structures, logics and mechanism of local decision-making and resources governance at a very early stage of project implementation. In the absence of a baseline study analysis this first report provided a comprehensive overview of local governance structures and highlights their relevance for NRM activities. Based on preliminary findings summarized in the paper, in-depth follow-up research will be conducted in 2007 and 2008. A full version of this paper-incorporating specific details about actors and conflicts-was disseminated by Concern Worldwide and German Agro Action within the KRBP-associated development community in northeastern Afghanistan. If not stated otherwise, all information given in this report is based on empirical findings, thus, an outcome from interviews and focus group discussions with villagers, administrative staff of both districts, Concern's community mobilisers and the IDEAS project manager.