The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
You rightly suggest that the Protected Areas (PAs) at present do not cover much of the biodiversity that survives around the tropics. Yet, would the area that needs to be brought under the PA regime be disproportionately high to cover the species with small ranges sizes or high degree of …
more than 15 proposals to de-notify protected forests across the country were put on hold when the standing committee of the National Wildlife Board (nwb) requested for detailed information on each of them during its second meeting on December 25, 2003, at Delhi. The standing committee rejected two proposals outright, …
function openmap(){ var popurl="image/20040115/15-map.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=550,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } the biggest threat protected areas across the country face right now is from their purported protector
The policy discourse on management of protected areas (PAs) has come a long way from purely conservationist strategies to participatory approaches. In between these two there is a wide range of options that combine different elements of resource sharing, market regulation and privatization. Located in western part of India, Gir …
analysis of 11,000 mammalian, amphibian and bird species shows major gaps in conservation practices. At least 709 bird, mammalian and amphibian species, threatened with extinction, currently have no protection whatsoever within their habitats, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the world's protected area system. In addition, many existing protected …
Conservationists are up in arms at the Nepal government's new policy of handing over management of some national parks, as well as other protected areas, to non-governmental organisations and private institutions. The forestland in question comprises 79 per cent of the country's total protected area. The perception is that only …
the Union ministry of environment and forests (mo ef) has taken strong exception to Himachal Pradesh's (hp) decision to denotify a part of its forestland. Under a notification issued in 1952, hp declared all wasteland and tracts on which the state government had proprietary rights as protected areas. However, in …
The unique assemblages of flora and fauna in the Himalayan region make it one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on the Indian subcontinent. Seventy-five protected areas (PAs) encompassing 9.48% of the region have been created to conserve this biodiversity and the fragile Himalayan landscape. However, this has engendered conflicts …
As a young man, David Western spent four years herding cattle and goats with red-robed Masai tribesmen in the Kenyan bush. There, he found something remarkable. While cattle grazing is believed to lead to deforestation and the destruction of wildlife, Western learned what the Masai already knew: his cattle fertilized …
How can one conserve a wildlife sanctuary better? By flagrantly trespassing on one part of it. Then picking up the tab for planting trees on another in recompense. This is precisely the logic underlying a petition filed by Essar Oil Limited in the Supreme Court (sc). The case, scheduled to …
Human survival-biodiversity conservation interdependence is globally recognized and scientifically established. The inadequacy of the current national and international policy and legal framework to contain and limit the forces triggering disequilibria in human survival-biodiversity conservation linkages has prompted national and international policy makers to search for innovative and workable solutions for …
A major conservation issue, particularly in the tropics, is habitat loss and fragmentation due to developmental activities and increasing human populations. Ecologists today recognise that much of the once pristine forests that are now secondary forests, as well as large areas outside existing conservation resources, harbouring significant levels of biological …
The designation of Protected Areas (PAs) for biodiversity conservation had had negative implications for communities that derive their sustenance from such areas. Apart from restrictions on resource use, there have also been instances of people being displaced from areas that they had inhabited and that had been designated subsequently as …
Background of the study is the multi-State India Eco-development Project sponsored by IDA/GEF at the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, one of the seven Protected Areas (PAs) with the central objective of conserving biodiversity in and around PAs over 5 years (1996-97 to 2000-2001). The Village Eco Development Component (VEC) …
In a move that may render nearly half a million families homeless, Thailand's senate recently withheld the passage of the much-awaited community forestry bill (cfb). The proposed legislation that has been blocked was meant to hand over control of forests to the people residing in them. Instead, the country's upper …
Most protected areas in Bhutan are threatened. A major risk is being posed by poaching and fire. The poachers mainly prey on musk deer, blood pheasant and black bear. Musk pod, musk skin, bear bile, rhino horn and snow leopard skin have huge markets in Nepal and India, states a …
This book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the joint forest management (JFM) programme. The beginnings of this initiative can be dated to the early 1970s, when people had just begun to question the 'industrialise at all costs' policy. However, it took another decade and a half …
two incidents of recent deer deaths have brought home the stark reality that so-called protected areas are no longer safe havens for these animals. Official apathy is to be blamed in both the incidents, though they took place in two ends of the country. The first incident occured in Jammu …
To conserve unprotected land as national parks and ecological reserves, Brazil recently cancelled thousands of false and undocumented land ownership claims in the Amazon region. The strictly protected lands will be used to implement the first phase of the Amazon Region Protected Areas project, aiming to create 28.5 million hectares …