Drivers of prohibited natural resource collection in Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Yabiku, S. T., Sullivan, A., York, A., Zhao, Q. , Glick, J. E., Hall, S. J., Ghimire, D. J. and An, L. (2022) Drivers of prohibited natural resource collection in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Environmental Conservation, 49(2), pp. 114-121. (doi: 10.1017/S0376892922000121)

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Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are critical for achieving conservation, economic and development goals, but the factors that lead households to engage in prohibited resource collection in PAs are not well understood. We examine collection behaviours in community forests and the protected Chitwan National Park in Chitwan, Nepal. Our approach incorporates household and ecological data, including structured interviews, spatially explicit data on collection behaviours measured with computer tablets and a systematic field survey of invasive species. We pair our data with a framework that considers factors related to a household’s demand for resources, barriers to prohibited resource collection, barriers to legal resource collection and alternatives to resource collection. The analysis identifies key drivers of prohibited collection, including sociodemographic variables and perceptions of an invasive plant (Mikania micrantha). The social-ecological systems approach reveals that household perceptions of the presence of M. micrantha were more strongly associated with resource collection decisions than the actual ecologically measured presence of the plant. We explore the policy implications of our findings for PAs and propose that employing a social-ecological systems approach leads to conservation policy and scientific insights that are not possible to achieve with social or ecological approaches alone.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This research was supported by National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1211498, Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program. Support was provided by the Population Research Institute at Pennsylvania State University, which is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD041025). Dr Qunshan Zhao has received UK ESRC’s ongoing support for the Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) (ES/L011921/1 and ES/S007105/1).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Zhao, Dr Qunshan
Authors: Yabiku, S. T., Sullivan, A., York, A., Zhao, Q., Glick, J. E., Hall, S. J., Ghimire, D. J., and An, L.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
Journal Name:Environmental Conservation
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
ISSN:0376-8929
ISSN (Online):1469-4387
Published Online:07 April 2022
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2022 The Authors
First Published:First published in Environmental Conservation 49(2): 114-121
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
190698Urban Big Data Research CentreNick BaileyEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC)ES/L011921/1S&PS - Urban Big Data
304042UBDC Centre TransitionNick BaileyEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC)ES/S007105/1S&PS - Administration