Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Impacts of Community Based Conservation in National Park Buffer Zones

该项目将审查国家公园周围缓冲区社区保护(CBC)项目的政治和社会经济影响。该项目将调查生物多样性保护、文化特性和农村发展之间的复杂相互作用，以了解缓冲区和CBC项目如何塑造农村财产制度，复制或缓解社会经济不平等，并为新的政治主观性和土著领土主张提供信息。该项目重点关注南亚的国家公园缓冲区，这是一个具有重要战略意义的政治动荡地区，也是全球生物多样性的重要贡献者，并以尼泊尔为例，尼泊尔经历了毛派煽动的叛乱和CBC项目的扩张。以社区为基础的保护项目旨在促进农村社会经济发展和政治参与，减少土地分配方面的政治紧张局势，并为农村生物多样性保护创造条件。这类项目的实际经历好坏参半。该项目预计将扩大对这类项目的影响的了解，以协助国际政策制定努力，改进保护和发展规划。研究结果将通过在美国、尼泊尔和其他地方的研讨会和会议上发表演讲来传播。该项目还可能通过传播与保护生物学相关的成果来促进STEM教育，并通过传播有关尼泊尔农村政治状况的知识来支持美国的安全利益。这项研究还将为佛罗里达国际大学的学术项目做出贡献，这是一所为少数族裔服务的公立机构，为毕业生在具有全球竞争力的劳动力市场上取得成功做好准备。CBC项目如何与围绕领土主张和土地权的身份政治相交以及产生什么影响的问题是核心问题，但在科学文献中尚未得到解决。在一个极端，研究认为土著人民和少数族裔流离失所是主要结果。在另一种极端情况下，一些研究认为，建立社区中心加强了当地社区的土地权和土著人民的领土主张。这项研究的结果将被用来改进不同结果的理论化。主要问题是：1)CBC倡议对社会经济不平等有什么影响，反之亦然；2)CBC倡议如何牵涉到国家形成和社会认同的形成；以及3)CBC倡议对农村财产关系和土著领土主张有什么影响？该项目在对尼泊尔两个缓冲区社区的广泛实地研究中采用了人种学和定量方法的混合。研究方法包括参与者观察、深度半结构访谈和文献分析。

This project will examine the political and socio-economic effects of community-based conservation (CBC) projects in buffer zones surrounding national parks. The project will investigate the complex interplay between biodiversity conservation, cultural identity, and rural development in order to understand how buffer zones and CBC projects shape rural property regimes, reproduce or alleviate socioeconomic inequalities, and inform new political subjectivities and indigenous territorial claims. The project focuses on national park buffer zones in South Asia, a strategically important, politically volatile region and a vital contributor to global biodiversity, and the specific case of Nepal, which has experienced both a Maoist-inspired insurgency and an expansion in CBC projects. Community-based conservation projects are intended to promote rural socio-economic development and political participation, reduce political tensions over land distribution, and create the conditions of biodiversity conservation in the countryside. Actual experiences of such projects are mixed. This project is expected to expand understanding of the effects of such projects in order to aid international policy-making efforts to improve conservation and development planning. Findings will be disseminated through presentations in workshops and conferences in the U.S., Nepal, and elsewhere. The project may also promote STEM education through the dissemination of results relevant to conservation biology and support U.S. security interests through the dissemination of knowledge about Nepal's rural political conditions. The research will also contribute to academic programs at Florida International University, a minority-serving public institution that prepare graduates for success in a globally competitive workforce. Questions of how and to what effect CBC projects intersect with identity politics surrounding territorial claims and land rights are central, but unsettled in the scientific literature. At one extreme, studies have identified the displacement of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities as a chief outcome. At the other extreme, some studies have credited the introduction of CBCs with strengthening local community land rights and indigenous peoples' territorial claims. Findings from this study will be used to improve the theorization of disparate outcomes. The primary questions pursued are: 1) what effects do CBC initiatives have on socioeconomic inequalities and vice versa; 2) how are CBC initiatives implicated in state making and social identity formation; and 3) what effects do CBC initiatives have on rural property relations and indigenous territorial claims? The project employs a mix of ethnographic and quantitative methods in an extended field study of two buffer zone communities in Nepal. Methods include participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and document analysis.