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Conservation Effectiveness across State and Community Forests:The Case of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India


Affiliations
1 Centre of Ecology, Development and Research, 41/1, Vasanth Vihar, Dehradun 246 006, India
2 Department of Environmental Studies, North-Eastern Hill University, Mawkynroh, Shillong 793 022, India
3 Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Royal Enclave, Sriramapura, Jakkur Post, Bengaluru 560 064, India
 

Despite decades of concerted global conservation efforts, biodiversity loss continues unabated, making it important to assess the effectiveness of conservation approaches. Using forest cover as a proxy for conservation effectiveness, we analysed land-use and land-cover changes across a community and a state forest of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India. Forest losses in the community lands (77.94 sq. km) were higher compared to the state forest (11.48 sq. km) between 1994 and 2014, and were driven by mining, industry, plantations and agriculture. We examined the role of policies and institutional arrangements as larger drivers of forest change within the context of conservation effectiveness.

Keywords

Community Forest, Conservation Effectiveness, Forest Change, Protected Areas.
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  • Conservation Effectiveness across State and Community Forests:The Case of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India

Abstract Views: 197  |  PDF Views: 83

Authors

Rajkamal Goswami
Centre of Ecology, Development and Research, 41/1, Vasanth Vihar, Dehradun 246 006, India
Muneeswaran Mariappan
Centre of Ecology, Development and Research, 41/1, Vasanth Vihar, Dehradun 246 006, India
Thangjam Somendro Singh
Department of Environmental Studies, North-Eastern Hill University, Mawkynroh, Shillong 793 022, India
T. Ganesh
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Royal Enclave, Sriramapura, Jakkur Post, Bengaluru 560 064, India

Abstract


Despite decades of concerted global conservation efforts, biodiversity loss continues unabated, making it important to assess the effectiveness of conservation approaches. Using forest cover as a proxy for conservation effectiveness, we analysed land-use and land-cover changes across a community and a state forest of Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India. Forest losses in the community lands (77.94 sq. km) were higher compared to the state forest (11.48 sq. km) between 1994 and 2014, and were driven by mining, industry, plantations and agriculture. We examined the role of policies and institutional arrangements as larger drivers of forest change within the context of conservation effectiveness.

Keywords


Community Forest, Conservation Effectiveness, Forest Change, Protected Areas.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv111%2Fi2%2F380-387