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

本项目将研究在国家公园周围缓冲区开展的以社区为基础的保护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，文化认同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，再现或减轻社会经济不平等，并告知新的政治主体和土著领土要求。该项目的重点是南亚的国家公园缓冲区，这是一个具有重要战略意义、政治动荡的地区，也是全球生物多样性的重要贡献者，以及尼泊尔的具体情况，尼泊尔经历了毛派煽动的叛乱和CBC项目的扩大。以社区为基础的养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，并在农村创造养护生物多样性的条件。这类项目的实际经验好坏参半。预计该项目将扩大对这些项目影响的了解，以协助国际决策努力，改善保护和发展规划。调查结果将通过在美国举行的研讨会和会议上的演讲传播，尼泊尔和其他地方。该项目还可以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。这项研究还将有助于佛罗里达国际大学的学术课程，这是一所为少数民族服务的公共机构，为毕业生在具有全球竞争力的劳动力中取得成功做好准备。 CBC项目如何以及如何与围绕领土主张和土地权利的身份政治相交的问题是核心，但在科学文献中尚未解决。在一个极端，研究报告指出，土著人民和少数民族流离失所是一个主要结果。在另一个极端，一些研究认为，社区性商业合同的采用加强了当地社区的土地权利和土著人民的领土要求。本研究的发现将用于改进不同结果的理论化。追求的主要问题是：1）什么样的影响做CBC的举措对社会经济不平等，反之亦然; 2）如何是CBC的举措牵连在国家决策和社会认同的形成;和3）什么样的影响做CBC的举措对农村财产关系和土著领土要求？该项目在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。研究方法包括参与式观察、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.