Study of ecological, socio-economic and livelihood dimensions of grazing exclusion in protected forests of West Sikkim
Centre for Development Finance (CDF) at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Chennai, in collaboration with the Department of Forest Environment and Wildlife Management, Sikkim (DFEWM) conducted this study to evaluate grazing exclusion policy in protected forests in West Sikkim. The goal of the study was to examine the effect of grazing exclusion on the health of forest ecosystems and also to understand the social and livelihood impacts on the forest dependent local communities living in fringe villages of the study area. Secondly through this study it was envisaged to develop a holistic framework that would be further used for a larger study on assessing grazing exclusion policy at State-wide level. The study was conducted across Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary (BRS) and a part of buffer zone of Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve (KBR) in the West District of Sikkim.