Analysis and resolution of protected area - people conflicts in Nanda DeviBiosphere Reserve, India

Conflicts between local people and protected area managers are a common pro blem in developing countries, but in many cases there has been little attem pt to comprehensively characterize the underlying problems. Resource uses, management practices, economy and people's perceptions of problems and like ly solutions were analysed in two villages near and two villages away from the core zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the Indian Himalaya. Agric ulture, although practised on less than 1% of the area, was the primary occ upation of local people. Six annual crops of a total of 22 and all four hor ticultural crops on private farms were damaged by wildlife, but Reserve man agement provided compensation only for livestock killing by wildlife and co mpensation amounted to only 4-10% of the total assessed monetary value of k illed livestock. A variety of wild plant products were used locally but 27 were marketed by more than 50% of surveyed families; income from wild produ cts was substantially lower than that from crops and livestock. A sociocult ural change from a subsistence to a market economy, together with changes i n 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 comp lementary to the goal of conservation. However, changes such as abandonment of some traditional food crops and stress on cash crops lacking fodder val ue, requiring substantial manure inputs derived from forest litter and live stock excreta, and causing severe soil erosion, seem to counter the goal of environmental conservation. Some government-managed Reserve Forest sites w ere similar to the Community Forests in terms of species richness, basal ar ea and soil physico-chemical properties. Two Reserve Forest sites showed ba sal 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 managem ent seems to be not as effective as the traditional informal system. The Re serve Management Plan lays more emphasis on legal protection than on the su stainable livelihood of local communities and has led to conflicts between local people and reserve managers. Plantation of fodder and medicinal speci es in degraded forest lands, suppression of economic exploitation of local people in the market, enhancement of local knowledge of the economic potent ial of biodiversity, incentives for cultivation of crops with comparative a dvantages and lesser risks of damage by wildlife, and rejuvenation of the t raditional involvement of the whole village community in decison-making, co uld be the options for resolving conflicts between people and protected are as in this case.