Doctoral Dissertation Research: Subsistence and Biodiversity Conservation in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, West Bengal, India

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One of the greatest challenges confronting the managers of the world's protected areas is achieving effective biodiversity conservation while adhering to principles of social justice for the people living at the edge of protected areas. The history of protected-area management indicates that there is a shift from the conventional exclusionary method of conservation to a more participatory approach, an approach that includes local communities in the management process. In spite of the growth of the participatory approach in resource management worldwide, conflicts over resource use and traditional means of livelihood in and around the protected areas are common. The impact of biodiversity conservation on the local people's livelihoods in developing nations like India is poorly understood by many resource decision-makers. The regulation of forest-based fishing in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, located in the state of West Bengal, India, creates an ongoing struggle over resource use in the rivers and creeks of the reserve. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore the conflicts between the biosphere's resource managers and local stakeholders over the resource use of the Sundarban mangrove forests. The doctoral student will examine the causes, characteristics, and spatial extent of such conflicts. The project will be organized around three specific issues: (1) whether the present restrictions on forest-based fishing are influenced by past colonial forest management policies; (2) the impact of tiger conservation on the local people's livelihoods in the region, and (3) the use of ecotourism as an alternative way to improve livelihood in the region. Semi-structured interviews, participant observation, focus-groups, community mapping, and survey will provide data on the issue of impact of biodiversity conservation on the subsistence of the rural populace of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve.Project outcomes will elucidate the attitudes of local people towards biodiversity conservation and shed new light on the involvement of local people in the resource management policies of the biosphere reserve. Through the use of a political ecology approach, the project will address processes of local community participation in protected-area management in the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere in developing nations, thereby helping to develop more effective resource management and local community development strategies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.