Poverty, biodiversity and institutions in forest-agriculture ecotones in the Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya ranges of India

Bawa, Kamaljit S.; Joseph, Gladwin; Setty, Siddappa

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2006.12.023

Cited by 116 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In our study system, pepper, banana, and coconut, and sometimes other economically valuable plants, were intercropped with the arecanut; a range of fruit-producing trees often lined cultivation edges. Consequently, arecanut adds to the conservation case for traditional agriculture, which has been used in India and elsewhere in the tropics to support local livelihoods and biodiversity (31,32).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustaining biodiversity in ancient tropical countryside

Ranganathan

Daniels²,

Chandran³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

145

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With intensifying demands for food and biofuels, a critical threat to biodiversity is agricultural expansion into native tropical ecosystems. Tropical agriculture, particularly intensive agriculture, often supports few native organisms, and consequently has been largely overlooked in conservation planning; yet, recent work in the Neotropics demonstrates that tropical agriculture with certain features can support significant biodiversity, decades after conversion to farmland. It remains unknown whether this conservation value can be sustained for centuries to millennia. Here, we quantify the bird diversity affiliated with agricultural systems in southwest India, a region continuously cultivated for >2,000 years. We show that arecanut palm (Areca catechu) production systems retain 90% of the bird species associated with regional native forest. Two factors promote this high conservation value. First, the system involves intercropping with multiple, usually woody, understory species and, thus, has high vertical structural complexity that is positively correlated with bird species richness. Second, the system encompasses nearby forests, where large quantities of leaf litter are extracted for mulch. The preservation of these forests on productive land traces back to their value in supplying inputs to arecanut cultivation. The long-term biodiversity value of an agricultural ecosystem has not been documented in South and Southeast Asia. Our findings open a new conservation opportunity for this imperiled region that may well extend to other crops. Some of these working lands may be able to sustain native species over long-time scales, indicating that conservation investments in agriculture today could pay off for people and for nature.conservation ͉ working landscapes

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustaining biodiversity in ancient tropical countryside

Ranganathan

Daniels²,

Chandran³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Nowadays, having lost most access to forest resources, they http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss3/art10/ either cultivate land, generally without legal rights, or engage in wage labor in the coffee plantations or for the Forest Department (Menon et al 2009). However, some of them, like the Jenu Kurubas, sustain their livelihood by selling honey and other minor forest products to government sponsored societies (Bawa et al 2007). …”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Local Community Attitudes toward Forests Outside Protected Areas in India. Impact of Legal Awareness, Trust, and Participation.

Macura¹,

Zorondo-Rodríguez²,

Grau-Satorras³

et al. 2011

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The success of long-term sustainable management of natural resources depends on local people's support. Assessing local people's attitudes, taking into account their needs, and respecting their opinions should become a management priority. In India, in the last 20 years, community needs and aspirations in forest management were handled through Joint Forest Management with varying degrees of success. Recently, the Forest Rights Act (2006) was passed to recognize and vest forest rights in forest dwelling communities. This major policy development is still in implementation, but little is known about how this devolution process will affect people's attitudes toward forests. In this paper, we analyze associations between attitudes toward state controlled forests (Reserved Forests) and (i) awareness about the Forest Right Act, (ii) attitudes toward the State Forest Department, and (iii) participation in forest management groups of mostly tribal forest dwellers in the district of Kodagu (Karnataka). We collected information with a structured questionnaire among 247 villagers living under three different land tenure and management regimes: (1) private coffee plantations, (2) Reserved Forest, and (3) National Park. The results of the multivariate analyses show that people are more likely to appreciate Reserved Forests if they have more knowledge about the Forest Rights Act and if they have positive attitudes toward the State Forest Department. A sobering result in our sample is that participation in formal forest management groups is negatively associated to attitudes toward Reserved Forests, suggesting the Joint Forest Management model doesn't necessarily help the transition from coercion to consent. Increasing local people awareness about their rights and improving their relations with the formal forest stewards remain priorities for sustainable forest management to emerge in India.

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“…The participatory resource monitoring project was part of a larger project that sought to build the capacity of the Soligas to increase their income and sustainably manage NTFP. One part of this effort was the establishment of Soliga-run enterprises for the processing and value addition of amla and other NTFP (Bawa et al 2007). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%