India is a mega-biodiversity nation, comprising a wide spectrum of vertebrates as well as invertebrates. Rapid urbanization, widespread deforestation, expansion of human settlements, agricultural lands, and industries, etc., are having a serious, toxic, and hazardous impact on our pristine environment as well as on our rich biodiversity. With the ever-increasing population and never-ending demand for resource utilization, the adversities associated with them are intensifying extravagantly.
Biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resource management are the needs of the hour.
Moreover, a change in the behavioural attitude of the masses is extremely crucial in order to maintain equilibrium in the environment. The SDGs and MDGs would hold no significance if the greater mass was not educated or made aware of the current scenarios and the detrimental effects of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. As per the 6th IPCC Assessment Report, it is evident that if sustainable intervention approaches and emission control technologies are not put into play immediately, we would not be able to limit the warming of the earth within the reach of 1.5–2 degrees Celsius. Therefore, conservation and protection of our precious mother nature and our pristine biodiversity should be immediately prioritized so that we do not have to bear the disastrous and catastrophic repercussions of our own activities.
The role of the community is instrumental in the management and conservation of our bioresources. The indigenous knowledge of the local communities, coupled with modern technologies and scientific pedagogies, would yield fruitful outcomes. Stakeholder engagement, networking, and holding meetings as well as debates and discussions are imperative for the successful implementation of any conservation practice or policy. Many communities lack basic education and the necessary skills and training to systematically carry out any programme in their respective regions. Therefore, imparting proper education and training through various skill development initiatives and workshops should be an integral component of any community-based conservation plan or policy.
Sustainable cultivation, harvesting, and collection of NTFPs is of vital importance as it has huge potential to generate economic benefits for the farmers of the community-conserved areas.
The establishment of an efficient and transparent supply chain is mandatory to prevent the exploitation of farmers by various middlemen and other third-party agencies. Respecting the ethical, cultural, and religious rights of the communities is necessary before exerting any kind of pressure on their homelands. Many communities are dependent on forest resources for firewood, fuel, and fodder. It is true that overexploitation of forest resources is diminishing the resource stock as well as leading to huge-scale deforestation and desertification. However, before putting a ban on such activities, it is of utter importance to the policymakers and the planners to think about alternative livelihood opportunities such as agroforestry, sustainable agriculture, horticulture, watershed management, etc. that would sustain the residents. Simply enforcing a strict law on the communities without any alternatives would lead to clashes, violence, and chaos, thereby worsening the situation to a large extent.
Community-based conservation not only provides benefits in terms of environmental health protection but also aids in enhancing food and livelihood security, women’s empowerment, motivated environmental stewardship, and controlling environmental catastrophes such as soil erosion and landslides. Monitoring and evaluation of the actions and schemes of the communities should be executed on a periodic basis to understand the effectiveness of the respective programmes as well as to keep a check on the progress and efficacy of the conservation efforts.
Engaging the youth from the communities in practises of anti-poaching and patrolling would yield significant results in controlling wildlife crime-related activities in the protected regions or areas. Therefore, youths need to be especially targeted in various educational and sensitization programmes to enhance their capacity for biodiversity and wildlife conservation. The communities living in the fringe areas suffer challenges and issues of human-wildlife conflict on a regular basis. In retaliation, the local residents kill, poison, or electrocute the animals, thereby leading to mass-scale animal deaths as well as biodiversity loss. To promote harmonious coexistence between the communities and the animals, various cost-effective intervention strategies need to be deployed. Low-cost solar-powered electrified fences and bio-fences (thorny bamboo fences) are some of the cost-effective tools that can act as powerful animal deterrents. Enhancement of the food cover within the forests through plantation drives and afforestation programmes can also prevent the animals from straying out into the human settlements. In the event of any casualties, compensation should be provided to the families of the deceased without any failure by the government.
The communities can create a local eco-development fund where the study tour or hospitality operators could deposit a fee for conducting various activities within the jurisdiction of the community reserves or areas, which they can later utilise in various capacity-building programmes or activities. Regular monitoring and inspection should be a part of their daily routine in order to ensure the sanctity and decorum of the community-conserved regions.n area monitor or inspection team can be formed by the community itself to carry out various activities such as de-weeding, watering the plants, patrolling, waste management, etc. The communities need to be made aware of the fact that they are extremely vulnerable to the loss of forest and wildlife, which would lead to various disastrous and devastating situations such as floods, desertification, landslides, water scarcity, and climate change. They will be the first ones to face nature’s wrath in the form of exhaustion of food and fodder sources, drying out of water bodies, and loss of land to floods and landslides. Therefore, it is extremely important for them to conserve and manage the natural forests and biodiversity prevalent in their regions. Encroachment on the areas to merely satisfy their economic needs would not address their vulnerabilities and would ultimately create more commotion in their lives. Therefore, alternative livelihood opportunities through the implementation of various models such as agroforestry, sustainable harvesting, the production of NTFPs, sustainable agriculture and horticulture, etc. would reduce the dependency on the natural vegetation systems and restore balance and equilibrium in the ecosystem.
In conclusion, if the vulnerabilities of the communities are addressed properly through sustainable interventions and policy reforms, there will not be any reckless exploiters of the forest. People will take pride in their natural heritage and will also understand that the forests have sustained them for ages and that the lives, livelihoods, and stakes of future generations are intricately dependent on them.