0913-B3

Areas of people's concern: experiences gathered from managing bufferzone of Royal Chitawan National Park, Nepal

Keshav P. Devkota ¹

Abstract:

The concept of bufferzone management necessitates the participation of local people in biodiversity conservation. On the other hand, protection area management objectives need to be aimed at providing services to local people for sustainable managment. Normally management plan prepared by outsider do not consider both sides. I have tried here how bufferzone management council work to fulfil the twin objectives- conserving biodiversity while supporting local people. The case is based on a bufferzone management of a national park in Nepal.

Introduction:

The Fourth Amendment of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act, 1973 introduced the concept of buffer zones in the network of parks and protected areas and surrounding agricultural land. This concept was developed for people based conservation policy and regulations, through capacity building of local communities and mitigating the park-people conflict.

Parks and People Project, with the financial and technical assistance of UNDP, has launched various activities in the project areas to achieve twin objectives of increasing the socio-economic level of the bufferzone communities, and conserving the biodiversity of parks/reserves and their surrounding. Initially local grass roots organizations such as User Groups (UGs), Function Groups (FGs), User Committees (UCs) were formed and support for the following activities were facilitated:

• skill enhancement training
• income generation
• productive infrastructure development
• conservation education and awareness
• bufferzone community forestry development
• eco-tourism

People's active participation for the cause of biodiversity conservation is the only tool in sustaining bufferzone activities from hostility to harmony. Accordingly Royal Chitawan National Park Bufferzone Management Council (RCNPBMC) of was formed in March 1998. The implementation of the Bufferzone Management Guideline came at a time when the bufferzone communities of Royal Chitawan National Park (RCNP) have realised the need to undertake participatory biodiversity conservation initiatives aimed at mitigating the park-people conflict. The bufferzone communities of RCNP aimed to work cohesively following the Bufferzone Management Guideline and raise their socio-economic status by optimally utilising rupees 25 million that is given to the RCNPBMC annually through the national park revenue.

The forestry activities planted 550,000 saplings of different species in the buffer zone. The project introduced local infrastructure development (e.g., irrigation canal, deep tubewell boring, drinking water supply, community roads, river embankment, fish pond, etc.). Skill enhancement activity was conducted through organizing training courses for vegetable farming, crop management, agro-forestry, bamboo craft making, tailoring, hotel management. Villagers were trained as village specialists on veterinary medicine, community health and nutrition; these specialists are now rendering services to their village communities and earning income for their families' livelihood. Conservation and environmental awareness programes were organized in most of the villages in bofferzone.

An eco-tourism management plan for RCNP has been prepared for the implementation by national authorities. Accordingly, a souvenir shop has been established through joint assistance of PPP and IUCN-Nepal; community members for selling souvenir items produced by the buffer zone communities run it.

RCNPBMC area is 750 square km and extended to 37 village development committees and municipalities of four districts. Over 250,000 people live in this boffer zone. Formation of this council has been very effective to smoothen the relation between park management and local people. Also the provision to redirect fund raised through revenue by park to the local development has played significant role in motivating people toward conservation. During this short span of RCNBMC, development efforts in local level have taken rigorously.

People's concerns

The council organized a meeting on April 2001, where activities conducted each of 37 forest users groups and their respective progress reports were presented. In totality activities implemented in the council area is presented in table 1.

Table 1: Activities done in first three years

Specific areas

I have tried to present people concerns as presented in the meeting, mainly through assessing share of local participation. On the basis of last first years evaluation, each FUG is spending about a million Nepali rupees annually for local development as per the their plan. The mount includes the value of local participation. When local people feel the programme is useful for them they do not hesitate to participate voluntarily. So more the people participate in particular programme, more will be their concern in that programme. When such programmes are in the annual programme the users committees are comfortable in implementing such activities. On the basis of the reports submitted in the council meeting, I have noted that the following activities are people's concern regarding local development.

Road and Culvert (bridge):

Many FUGs are involved in developing road system in the village, which include gravelling, constructing bridge and culverts. Local people have cordially supported such programme by contributing volunteer labour.

Irrigation system improvement

Almost all FUGs have shown their great concern in developing and maintaining irrigation canal. Besides the budget provided from RCNPBMC, people are contributing a lot. Works include: canal construction, upgrading, check dam. Also some users groups construct irrigation ponds.

River control

Twenty FUGs are spending their budget and local contribution in constructing retaining wall to secure from the river. Mainly the users located near Rapti, Narayani, and Riu river have their top concern of protecting from flood and erosion.

School building construction

Almost all FUGs are demonstrating their serious concern in school building,. Building for primary and high school are of prime importance for users. They contribute hugh labour and material to achieve the higher targets from the fund provided .Activities included are building, roofing, furniture and school ground.

Water-supply

Water supply, mainly for drinking purpose, gets higher priority in many of the users group. Mostly such activities include constructing wells.

The above given activities are prime for local development. However depending upon the situation, users are contributing in many other development activities, such as health post construction, biogas development, plantation, awareness programme, etc.

Conclusion

RCNPBMC is able to identity the appropriate need of local people. Supporting such needy activities resulted in high participation of local people in conserving buffer zone and national park. The experiences could be useful in other places as well.

¹ Chairperson
Royal Chitawan National Park Bufferzone Management Council
Gaurigunj, Bharatpur-8, Chitawan Nepal
Phone 977 56 23 950 Fax 977 56 24 275
[email protected] and [email protected]