Managing Protected Areas with Buffer Zone Management Initiatives in
Nepal
Ever growing population is one of the major causes that exerts pressure
in natural resources. This is a major set back in sustainable and
effective management of biodiversity conservation.
Buffer zone - International Perspective:
Buffer zone can reduce the damaging effect of human activities on
totally protected areas if we practice biodiversity conservation in buffer
zone around the protected area.One good example of a success storey is
the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Northern Congo.The key to success is
engaging the local communities and assisting them in their efforts to
improve their economic, social and political status.
In Thailand, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is
establishing a working model for effective buffer zone management at Kaeng
Krachan National Park.
In Nepal, with financial and technical support of UNDP, the Department
of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation implemented Park and People
Progrmme (PPP) and a follow - up Participatory Conservation Programme
(PCP) since 1995.The program has been phased out in December, 2006.The
programme has resulted in the improvement of park - people relationship
thereby leading to living in harmony with nature.Strengthening of
buffer zone institutions and promoting targeted community development
activities along with capacity development of the communities and protected
area staff.The buffer zone programme was grounded on the reality that
the community based participatory biodiversity conservation can only be
successful if people's participation is ensured in natural resource
management.The participatory conervation approach is entirely rooted on
the acceptance by the people making them the real stewards of
conservation.
Like in Nepal, most protected areas lie in world's poorest
countries.Most poverty is rural and protected areas lie in the same part of the
country.So the question rises as if the protected areas are for the rural
poor or for the rich urban elite or for the noted environmentalist who
always raise voice for environmental conservation !!??
Respected Aajans, dear bloggers and all my classmates, what are your
opinion ?? what is the situation in your respective countries?? Please
comment and suggest for better pro-poor protected area management tools
and practices from your own experiences as well..........
(note: This blog is posted by Bhoj, but shows alexk as blogger)
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9 comments:
I would like to share with you through my basic understanding, most living where the protected areas around are rural poor, their lives depend on the exploitation of that areas’ resources, some are using for enough food, some for economically profit
(more than enough). But if we consider these areas for conserving sound environment, the proper management is needed indeed, very important. In our country, we had done community based natural resource management project funded by CIDA, the project was giving a good practice for rural poor including community tree replanting. During this exercise, we used micro credit tool for supporting rural poor. So, we could sustain our project successfully.
In discussing an issue such as the "buffer Zone", one should challenge the original "concept" or philosophical/theoretical roots of the term. For example, question should aim at clarifying and/or critiquing its ecological features or meaning.
As graduate students, this is the time to challenge every "packaged" knowledge or policy statements have been used.
Learn to be bold and not easily accepting the old thoughts and ideas!
In response to Bodj , Akompab says
National parks, wildlife reserves and other types of protected areas are at the forefront of efforts to conserve biological diversity. But many are in crises as conflicts of interest have arisen between protected area management and local people living nearby or even within the boundaries of the areas. This is why buffer zones are very important.
Buffer zones have a different role in conservation. They need to have a different role for them to have what we call a” logical existence”. If not the only role will be to extend the park boundaries under a designation that raises less opposition. A situation that was the reverse in the past decade, but which is gradually leading to changes..
The changes which have occurred during the past decades have been described as “Paradigm Shift” in planning and management of protected areas {Dudley et al 2000}. Attributes of the old paradigm include the exclusion of local community’s monopoly control by central government, protectionist policy, prohibition of traditional uses of wild life resources. This old paradigm has shifted to the new one.
The attributes of the new paradigm include shifts in the role of government from implementing regulations, decentralization of decision making involving stakeholders in protected area planning and management. Therefore conservation strategies should be linked to ensure that some benefits of protected areas accrue to local people because the long term benefits of protected areas are local people.
With more than one third of the its half million square kilometer covered by tropical forest, Cameroon is second only to Congo in the diversity of its forest dwelling primates and among the top five countries in the diversity of plant species. Cameroon is therefore committed to community participation in managing certain gazette forest and protected areas.
For example WWF has trained forest guards and is implementing patrols and recording anti poaching results.WWF”s work in Cameroon puts a special emphasis on creating the next generation of protected area staff, but also people with stake in the protection of high biodiversity.
Therefore I think failure of protected areas is the lack of participation in conservation projects .Participation here refers to collective action of the local people. According to the World Bank{ 1995}, a new set of incentives have been launched in an attempt to reconcile the management of protected areas with the social and economic needs of the local people.
Summarily as a better tool, I suggest that projects should find ways of shifting from commonly passive , incentives driven participation to a more interactive and holistic end such as community self mobilization.
As well as Mr. Bhoj and other people mentioned about the important role of buffer zone. It is recognized that buffer zone model is extremely necessary for biological diversity conservation and socioeconomic development in sustainable development way. In addition, buffer zone mitigates considerably conflicts in term of natural resource benefits sharing among communities.
As a rule, buffer zone projects have been performed and applied in many protected areas world-wide. For instance, buffer zone is applied in the national park in Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, etc to protect forest and so do it in The Caribbean in order to protect coastal area (http://www.unep.org).
However, not do all of those projects achieve success. Some buffer zone projects fully failed caused by many reasons. That is, as those followed:
- Top down approach in the way to do project that leads to the communities do not participate directly in the project;
- Lack of money;
- Lack of skilled technical and management professionals in the field of natural resource management. This problem often occurs in the undeveloped countries.
- Inequity in natural resource sharing among communities;
- Sector conflicts: For instance, oil, mining exploitation in conservation areas (Dermawan TRIWIBOWO, et al 2001);
- Over interference of politics;
- Illegal encroachment and exploiting inside the protected areas.
In my opinion, I think the complete participation of local people in natural resource conservation along with socioeconomic development is the first prerequisite for success. To achieve it, the benefits of natural resource should be shared equally and enhancing of natural resource management ability for stakeholder, manager must be considered.
The inclusion of the principal stakeholders is a major obstacle to successful buffer zone management programs. Many of the current programs are mired by a power play between impoverished, underrepresented locals and government officers over the accessibility to animals, fodder and firewood in these zones. The growth in population may further stress these areas, however this is largely the result of encroachment on indigenous lands by the wealthy (Jones and Carswell, 2004). Although, these zones provide improved conservation of the national park areas, they fail to sustain the food needs of local farmers with small landholdings (Paudel).
Appropriate forms of management in these zones depend on a buy-in from the local people. If the ability of minorities to augment their income is prevented by the policies in place, conservation may be impaired by increased poaching conducted under the auspices of park officials. Therefore, small enterprise loans, and alternative sources of income should be supported by NGOs and local government bodies. The development of agroforestry, raising of fruit trees, support of alternative cooking fuels programs provide further creates buffers upon the buffer zone (WWF Nepal). Moreover, land holdings in these zones, should include the locals residents of the area in management decisions. It is important to create means to give the poor ownership of their lands, as they will be less apt to engage in practices that will damage local ecology. Long-term management strategies should involve education programs in the local schools, with the objective of empowering future generations of indigenous people to govern the buffer zones alongside government officials.
Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos are interested in the creation of transboundary biodiversity conservation areas (TBCA), sometimes called buffer zones, due to an increasing pressure on biodiversity from trade in plants and animals across the border, coupled with environmental, economic, and political reasons.
Trisurat, Yongyut (Transboundary biodiversity conservation of the Pha Taem Protected Forest Complex:A bioregional approach, Applied Geography 26 (2006) 260–275) presents the results from wildlife monitoring at Pha Taem Protected Forests Complex, which reveals that endangered wildlife species such as the wild elephant, banteng and tiger seasonally migrate across the tri-national borders.
Many buffer zones appear to benefit both biodiversity and humans. For example, revenue has been generated from ecotourism activities in Baghmara community forest (Jones, Samantha, 2005). The study of the southern Sweden buffer zone shows that the forest in potential buffer zones had relatively high conservation value, when compared with reserves and other non-protected forest (Thorell, Maria and Götmark, Frank, 2004). Conservation experts in Finland were confident that buffer zones would increase plant and insect species diversity, and bird species diversity to a lesser extent (Tattari, Sirkka, et al, 2001).
But, buffer zones seem to cause problems as well, for example, revenue generation from ecotourism is more likely to benefit higher castes than poor castes of the Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal (Jones, Samantha, 2005). In Mongolia, although herders were involved in the establishment of a buffer zone, they became disappointed as they saw area outside of the buffer zone become degraded and they no longer had free access to good land in the buffer zone (http://www.treemail.nl/takh/hnp/biodiv/local.htm).
From my point of view, I agree that due to expanding agriculture and urbanization we need to have buffer zones for protecting biodiversity, which benefit human societies both directly (to promote corporation) and indirectly. But, other impacts to human societies, for example, equity issues and conflicts over natural resource use, should be considered, as well.
If you happen to be poor living in an area that is classified later as a buffer zone, how would you feel, and how you should be compensated?
In response to Bog.. ,Protected areas are a vital contribution to the conservation of the world natural and cultural resource, Their values range from the protection of natural habitats and associated flora, fauna to the maintenance environmental stability of surrounding regions. Protected areas can provide opportunities for rural development and rational use of marginal lands generating income and creating jobs for research and monitoring, for conservation education and for recreation and tourism, As a result, but a few countries have developed systems of protected areas.((UNEP)
IUCN the world conservation union defines protected areas as “Areas of land and or sea specially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity ,and of natural associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means”
Now, many national parks face environmental problems such as uncontrolled and unsustainable use of natural resources, rangeland degradation, threatening habitat and loss of wildlife (WWF 2006) as well as in Northern Brasil, Abrolhos Marine’s rich and unique ecosystems are threatened by activities such as shrimp farms and oil and gas production with environmental impacts (Conservation International 2007). On the other hand, buffer zone is another way to sustainable natural resource and gives many advantages such as reducing erosion, providing shade to control water temperature and wildlife habitat (NRCS 2007).
Therefore, buffer zones project conserve endangered species; additionally, to make buffer zone is more effective; program should promote sustainable use of fauna and flora through improved wetland management and reducing pressure to rangeland, to develop its Buffer zone through enhancing the participation of local people in NP management (WWF 2007).
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