Sunil Nautiyal

Analysis and resolution of protected area–people conflicts in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India

Conflicts between local people and protected area managers are a common problem in developing countries, but in many cases there has been little attempt to comprehensively characterize the underlying problems. Resource uses, management practices, economy and peoples perceptions of problems and likely solutions were analysed in two villages near and two villages away from the core zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the Indian Himalaya. Agriculture, although practised on less than 1% of the area, was the primary occupation of local people. Six annual crops of a total of 22 and all four horticultural crops on private farms were damaged by wildlife, but Reserve management provided compensation only for livestock killing by wildlife and compensation amounted to only 4–10% of the total assessed monetary value of killed livestock. A variety of wild plant products were used locally but 27 were marketed by more than 50% of surveyed families; income from wild products was substantially lower than that from crops and livestock. A sociocultural change from a subsistence to a market economy, together with changes in traditional land/resource rights and institutions, has led to a number of changes in land-use and management practices. The livestock population has declined, agricultural area has remained the same and people have started cultivating medicinal species in the last 20 years. These changes seem complementary to the goal of conservation. However, changes such as abandonment of some traditional food crops and stress on cash crops lacking fodder value, requiring substantial manure inputs derived from forest litter and livestock excreta, and causing severe soil erosion, seem to counter the goal of environmental conservation. Some government-managed Reserve Forest sites were similar to the Community Forests in terms of species richness, basal area and soil physico-chemical properties. Two Reserve Forest sites showed basal areas of 160.5–191.5 m 2 /ha, exceeding the highest values reported so far from the region. The formal institutional framework of resource management seems to be not as effective as the traditional informal system. The Reserve Management Plan lays more emphasis on legal protection than on the sustainable livelihood of local communities and has led to conflicts between local people and reserve managers. Plantation of fodder and medicinal species in degraded forest lands, suppression of economic exploitation of local people in the market, enhancement of local knowledge of the economic potential of biodiversity, incentives for cultivation of crops with comparative advantages and lesser risks of damage by wildlife, and rejuvenation of the traditional involvement of the whole village community in decison-making, could be the options for resolving conflicts between people and protected areas in this case.

Conservation policy-people conflicts: a case study from Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (a World Heritage Site), India.

Perceptions of local people towards conservation policy and related management interventions, nature and magnitude of policy–people conflicts and, possible options for conflict resolution were analysed in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site in Indian Himalaya. Peoples perceptions were discerned through participatory discussions covering 419 households distributed in 10 villages in the buffer zone. Traditional uncodified rights of local people were substantially reduced through policy interventions set in since 1860s. Local people as well as tourists were excluded from the core zone covering an area of 625 km2 since 1982. Deterioration of rural economy due to damage to crop and livestock by wildlife and, termination of opportunities of income from wild medicinal plant resources and tourism in the core zone were the key negative impacts of conservation policy felt by more than 90% of respondents. Mean annual economic loss per household was estimated as Rs 1285, Rs 1195 and Rs 156 due to damage caused by wildlife to food crops, fruit trees and beehives, respectively, Rs 1587 due to ban on collection of wild medicinal plants for marketing and Rs 7904 due to ban on tourism in the core zone. Reserve authority granted compensation of livestock killed by wildlife but it was hardly 5% of the market value of killed livestock as assessed by the people. People did not appreciate much the present benefits from the reserve management in the form of wages for carrying out afforestation work, partial compensation of livestock depredation and availability of solar power devices, wool, and spinning devices. Approximately 95% respondents identified empowerment of local people in respect of realising income from timber from dead/diseased trees in community forests, income from medicinal plants in buffer zone and opening of core zone for tourism as potential development options. Improvement in rural economy, the prime concern of local people, has not received as much attention as legal enforcement of protection by the reserve management. There is a need for developing policies and management actions that serve the economic interests of local people together with enhancement of environmental conservation goal.

Agroforestry systems in the rural landscape : a case study in Garhwal Himalaya, India

A mid altitude (700–1200 m amsl.) village in Garhwal Himalaya was analysed in terms of energy and economic efficiency of different land use-land cover types constituting the landscape. Simultaneous agroforestry, sequential agroforestry, home garden and community forests accounted for 27.47%, 27.47%, 1.1% and 43.96% of the total geographical area of the village. Simultaneous agroforestry is the traditional land use involving substantial input of manure derived from forest litter and animal excreta and was practised on terraced slopes in private ownership. Tree cover in this system was represented by nine species with total average density of 390 trees ha−1, Grewia optiva and Boehmeria rugulosa being the most dominant. Sequential agroforestry system involving slash-burn practice and cultivation on unterraced slopes without tillage and manuring was an illicit land use on community lands where forestry land use is desirable as per the government policy. Per ha annual energy input in simultaneous agroforestry system was 305267 MJ compared to 279 MJ in sequential agroforestry and 27047 MJ in home garden. In monetary terms, highest per ha annual output was obtained from simultaneous agroforestry (Rs 25370, Rs 35 = US

Promoting ecotourism in the buffer zone areas of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve: An option to resolve people—policy conflict

1) followed by home garden (Rs 18200) and sequential agroforestry (Rs 9426). Local food, fodder and fuelwood production was in excess of the local consumption. While most of the surplus food was stored, surplus fodder and fuelwood were sold for cash. Production in simultaneous agroforestry system in private lands was sustained with substantial biomass and nutrient inputs from the community and government forests. Land use-land cover changes in the region are driven by the interaction of ecological, policy and human factors. It is concluded that present policy of treating forests and agriculture as closed and independent ecological or production systems needs to be replaced by an integrated land use policy.

AGROECOSYSTEM FUNCTION AROUND A HIMALAYAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE

The fascination for mountains, breathtaking natural beauty, rich cultural diversity, socioeconomic traditions, history and lifestyles attract mountaineers, trekkers, naturalists ascetics, explorers and cultural tourists from all over the world to the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) and adjoining areas. Expedition/mountaineering and tourism, as a livelihood option for the people living in the buffer zone areas of NDBR, was important, next to animal husbandry and agriculture. Until 1960, Bhotiya people in the buffer zone of NDBR and adjoining areas had a good trade relationship with Tibet. Closure of Indo-Tibetan trade due to the Indo-China war of 1962, followed by imposition of conservation policies due to creation of Nanda Devi National Park in 1982 and Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in 1988, caused all consumptive uses and expedition/ mountaineering to be banned in the core zone, which has not only affected the local economy to a large extent but also created conflict between local people and reserve authorities. The ban on tourism is the most severe concern of the local people as it provided significant income. Of the three complementary functions of a biosphere reserve, viz. conservation, development and logistic support (research and education), the management is biased towards achieving conservation by legal protection which may not be sustainable in the long term. People have started raising a voice against the ban on expedition/tourism in the core zone but have not yet damaged the core zone area. This paper deals with the history of expeditions and the impact on the local economy, identification of model ecotrekking/expedition routes and potential sites, and designing appropriate strategies/action plans for sustainable ecotourism. This will not only help to resolve the local people-policy conflicts and improve the local economy but will also help to achieve the biodiversity conservation goal.

Conserving the Himalayan forests: approaches and implications of different conservation regimes

Structure and functions of the agroecosystems in the buffer zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (Uttaranchal Himalaya) inhabited by Bhotiya communities were studied using ecological and economic currencies to assess the impact of the conservation policies on the traditional agroecosystems of the buffer zone along an elevational gradient over a period of two years. Implementation of conservation policies has tremendously curtailed the availability of natural resources which sustained the agroecosystems of this region since time immemorial. Three representative villages—Lata at lower elevation *The authors are grateful to Dr. L. M. S. Palni, Director, G. B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development for the use of the facilities and to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, MacArthur Foundation (Washington), UNESCO Regional Office (New Delhi) and Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (Nairobi) for financial support. The views expressed here are of the author’s and not necessarily of the organizations with which they are affiliated. 71 2002, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. (1900-2400m amsl), Tolma at middle elevation (2400-2800m amsl), and Malari at higher elevation (2800-3600m amsl)—were considered for the study. Rain-fed cultivation on steep terraced slopes is the predominant form of land use and only 8 percent of the total cultivated land is irrigated. Over 31 species of food value comprising cereals, pseudocereals, millets, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables, etc. and eight species of medicinal and aromatic plants are grown in the traditional agroecosystems of the study area. However, recently the acreages of many of these crops, such as Eleusine coracana, Fagopyrum esculentum, and Panicum miliaceum, have declined by 25 percent to 50 percent within the last three decades (1970-75 to 1990-95) due to various reasons. Grain/tuber and crop by-product yield (kg/ha) of the crops found common in the area was recorded maximum at higher elevation region of the NDBR as compared to lower and middle elevation regions except for Hordeum himalayens and Triticum aestivum. Energy output to input ratio of different crops grown under rain-fed conditions ranged between 0.97 and 4.3 at lower elevation, 0.95 and 4.25 at middle elevation, and 1.5 and 4.9 at higher elevation. However, under irrigated conditions, which exist only in the higher elevation zone in the study area, the energy efficiency ratio of crops grown was recorded between 1.8 and 6.3. In general, the energy efficiency (considering all the outputs—grain or tuber yield, crop by-product, fruits, fuel, and herbaceous fodder from the agroecosystems) was observed to be higher for the summer and winter season crops of the lower and middle elevation regions of the buffer zone than for the summer season crops of higher elevation. However, the monetary output-to-input ratio was found to be higher for medicinal plants cultivation at all the elevation regions (output-to-input ratio ranging between 10 and 13) than for the kitchen garden (output-to-input ratio ranging from 4.7 to 5.6) and crops grown in agricultural land at higher, middle, and lower elevation regions (output-to-input ratio ranging between 2.3 and 5.19). Among the agricultural crops cultivated in the buffer zone, monetary output-to-input ratio was obtained maximum for the mixed cropping of Solanum tuberosum (potato) and Phaseolus vulgaris (kidney bean) among the crop combinations at all the elevations. This ratio was 7.6 under irrigated conditions and 7.2 in rain-fed condition at higher elevation. The ratio was observed least for Hordeum himalayens (0.59) at lower elevation. The yield potential and energy efficiency of some of the crops of the NDBR buffer zone have been compared with crops of different agroecosystems of the Himalayan region. It has been found the crops of the study area are giving lower returns in terms of yield and showing lower efficiency in terms of energy compared to crops of the other agroecosystems of the Himalayan region. INTRODUCTION The agroecosystems in the buffer zone area of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India (NDBR) are largely dependent on the surrounding forests for natural resources. Farming systems have evolved through the process of trial and error 72 / NAUTIYAL ET AL.

The Role of Cultural Values in Agrobiodiversity Conservation: A Case Study from Uttarakhand, Himalaya

The conservation of Himalayan forests is big concern in view of global agenda. Many studies in this endeavor reported that the rate of forests degradation is posing a severe threat to the landscape and existing biodiversity in the Himalayas. Currently there many conservation approaches exists and of them four are widely recognized (1) Conservation through traditional religious beliefs “traditional conserved forests” (TCF); (2) Conservation through governmental planning and schemes “government conserved forests” (GCF); (3) Conservation through creation of protected areas (PAF); and (4) Conservation through community efforts “community conserved forests” (CCF). Our hypothesis in this direction says that all the conservation approaches lead to same results concerning to forest conservation. To testify our hypothesis we have studied the forests of each conservation regimes and evaluated them based on the identified indicators. We have done empirical studies and following the cloud-free satellite data were used for last three decades (such as Multi-Spectral Scanner, Linear Imaging and Self Scanning, and Enhanced Thematic Mapper ) to study a change in vegetation dynamics of the mountain forests in multi-temporal dimension. Our research concluded that community conservation approach have greater significance for biodiversity conservation and management in the Himalayan region. Here we support the model of CCF for forest ecosystem conservation, alongside the sustainable livelihood of the mountain societies. But every conservation regimes has its own importance in viewpoint of the particular objectives. Therefore, we suggests advancement and revision of PAF and GCF however, some elements of CCF can be introduced in TCF for making up it more sound in view of rapid socio-economic and cultural changes taking place in the communities.

Natural resource management in a protected area of the Indian Himalayas: a modeling approach for anthropogenic interactions on ecosystem

Abstract The role of socio-cultural values in biodiversity conservation is an integral part of the people living in Uttarakhand, Central Himalaya, India. Still, there exist many rules and regulations set up by earlier generations for the conservation and management of the resources. To a certain extent the present generation is going through the same philosophy following the ideas set up by their ancestors for conservation and management of the resources that would lead to a healthy environment. Due to a variety of reasons the area under traditional crops is declining very fast in the region but undoubtedly many of the crop varieties are still conserved in the region because of their socio-cultural and religious values. The traditional festival called “Harela” is one the festivals in Uttarakhand which encourages people to conserve and manage their traditional crop diversity. These kinds of activities of the people need to be emphasized in detail, keeping in view the rapid socio-economic and cultural changes taking place in the societies.

Conservation of crop diversity for sustainable landscape development in the mountains of the Indian Himalayan region

The concept of ecosystem conservation as a broad theme came into existence during the 1970s under the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Indian Government followed this approach and chose the method to segregate the landscape for conservation of the ecosystem as well as for the development of the local economy and its people. We have examined the effect of this policy and concurrently developed a theoretical modeling approach to understand how human behavior is changing under shifting political, socioeconomic and environmental conditions. A specific focus has been on how the landscape is changing in the mountains of the Indian Himalayan region where about 10% of the total geographical area is converted into protected landscape for conservation of biodiversity. For local people living in the Himalayan mountains in India, agriculture is the main land use activity and is strongly linked to the forests in providing sustainability. There are several branches in the rural ecosystems where the local people’s economy was centered. These include agriculture, animal husbandry, medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation, forest resource collection, tourism and other occupations. The greatest proportion of the population was engaged in the agriculture sector, whose contribution is high in the rural economy (61%); followed by animal husbandry (19%), forest resource collection for economic gain (18%), and medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation (1.5%). However, three decades ago the animal husbandry branch of the rural ecosystem was contributing the maximum share towards rural household income (40%) followed by tourism (35.2%), and lastly agriculture (14%). The desire of farmers to secure the optimum output from agricultural land use has resulted in an increase for resource collection from the forests. The people’s perception (n=1,648) regarding overall changes occurring in the region was varied and most showed that the current trend within rural ecosystems has emerged because of the implementation of conservation policies/creation of national park and biosphere reserve (80%), followed by limitation (22%), climate (20%), population growth (7%), national economy (10%) and least by socioeconomic change (5%). The theoretical agent model developed here draws attention to agent/farmer behavior and land resource use for his livelihood in the temporal dimension. The current study would be helpful to introduce new approaches for the development of the methodological and theoretical aspects associated with the complex human and ecosystem interactions in the Himalayan mountains for sustainable landscape development.

Resource flows of villages with contrasting lifestyles in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Central Himalaya, India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the conservation and management of crop diversity in traditional agro‐ecosystems as a crucial component for sustainable landscape development in the mountains of the Indian Himalayan region. The results indicate that mountain farming has the potential to produce good output from a low input system where farmers still use local resources and locally developed technology.Design/methodology/approach – The discussion of major issues in this paper is based on our empirical study involving a survey of the area and field‐based experiments to evaluate the productivity in traditional mountain farming systems. Additionally, landscape change was monitored with the use of satellite data.Findings – The paper finds that the rate of genetic erosion within the study area during the last three decades is documented and the factors responsible for such erosion identified. The efficiency of traditional agro‐ecosystems of Himalayan Mountains in terms of energy and monetary ...