Human resettlement and tiger conservation – Socio-economic assessment of pastoralists reveals a rare conservation opportunity in a human-dominated landscape

Abstract

Resettlement of people for conservation is a contentious issue, but remains an important policy for conserving species like tigers which require vast, inviolate habitats. Recommendations to resettle communities should ideally be supported with careful evaluation of the needs of wildlife, socio-economic characteristics of dependent communities and their attitudes, and we present one such case study. Using a semi-structured questionnaire survey of 158 households across a gradient of tiger occupancy, we found overwhelming preference for resettlement among pastoralist Gujjars and hence an unexpected conservation opportunity to expand inviolate areas for tigers in the western Terai Arc Landscape. The main ‘push factors’ identified were declining forest productivity adversely affecting incomes and lack of access to education and health facilities. Thus, our findings represent a rare instance where excessive extraction of natural resources, recognized to be detrimental for biodiversity, is also the primary driver for resettlement. The desire for resettlement was also re-enforced by losses of livestock to diseases (72.7%) and carnivores (25.1%), which was uncompensated in 89% of the cases, and positive experiences from previously resettled households. Demand for resettlement was uniformly strong regardless of local tiger occupancy, but we suggest that funding for resettlement be prioritized for households in high tiger occupancy areas, given higher livestock depredation and possibilities for conflict. Our findings, therefore, represent a novel landscape-level conservation strategy that takes account of socio-economic circumstances across a gradient of predator pressure, and could build a constituency for tiger conservation among local communities consistent with national and global objectives.