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 |
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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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