National park policy and wildlife problems in Nepal and Bhutan.

Abstract

In this paper the National Park policies of the two Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan are put in a complementary perspective. It aims at investigating the effects of national parks, established by initiatives based on a global discourse having evolved from economically developed countries, on food sufficiency and economic security of the people living in these protected areas. The history and socio-economic perspectives of these policies in general and recently emerging wildlife problems in particular are highlighted. The administrative and financial capacities of both countries turn out not to be adequate to meet emerging stress in the sphere of protecting nature, and wildlife in particular. To meet the goal of integrating prospects of human survival and the conservation of habitats for rare plants and animals locally accepted and appropriate ways of management have to be developed. The management of protected areas in Nepal and Bhutan shows a rather poor capacity or a low degree of acceptance on the side of government administration. The daily life of farmers in protected areas is threatened either by policing or abundance of wildlife and inadequate measures to assist the local population to overcome the shortcomings of nature conservation administration. Compensation schemes for wildlife damages, for instance, could be a helpful instrument to meet ambitious schemes to protect nature and relief the local population in remote areas of least developed countries, where means to make a living from other than subsistence farming are not easily available.