Communities and biodiversity: Lessons from South Asia

Abstract

In this paper the authors have profiled a number of community-led conservation initiatives underway in several South Asian countries. Faced with degraded landscapes and resulting impoverishment, the local people who are most affected by the loss or increase of biodiversity are taking action. Altogether, the initiatives show that decentralized and site-specific decision-making, which considers the livelihoods of people and provides impartial information to those affected, is fundamental to success Neema Pathak is a member of Kalpavriksh, an environmental research and action group. She has coordinated a directory of protected areas in Maharashtra state in India, and jointly coordinated a project on community involvement in wildlife management in South Asia. She is currently putting together a detailed directory of community conservation biodiversity areas in India. Ashish Kothari is a founder-member of Kalpavriksh. Over the last two decades he has coordinated or worked on a number of processes relating to conservation, local communities, and development. He is the author or editor of over 10 books, and is on two expert commissions of The World Conservation Union (I.U.C.N.). He is currently coordinating the Technical and Policy Core Group of India's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan process