Biodiversity Conservation through Participatory Monitoring: A Case Study from People’s Protected Area Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh

Abstract

Biodiversity plays a significant role in maintaining the life support system of the people and provide them with livelihood opportunities. Forests are the repository of biodiversity. Often such biodiversity resources face the threats of degradation and extinction due to over exploitation and lack of monitoring mechanism. People living in the forest fringe areas can play important role in conservation of biodiversity provided they are properly oriented, their capacity is built and they are empowered to check the drivers of degradation. The present paper focuses on how the floral biodiversity resources of Dugli Jabarra and Sankra Chandanbehera PPAs under Dhamtari Forest Division in Chattisgarh are conserved through active participation of the Joint Forest Management Committee members. Forest fringe dwellers are organized in the form of Joint Forest Management Committees to protect and conserve the biodiversity, sensitized to adopt non destructive harvesting practices of biodiversity, their capacity is built for resource survey to measure the status of biodiversity at a regular interval and take corrective action to reverse the process of degradation. Such empowerment of people has brought positive changes in the status of biodiversity and the substantial increase in the income of the people through biodiversity based livelihood.