The Livelihood-Energy-Conservation Nexus:Intervention strategies to promote conservation in rural villages located near wildlife sanctuaries

摘要

For poverty-stricken communities located near the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary, harvesting natural resources from forests within designated sanctuaries constitute a critical source of livelihood. Kumbhalgarh sanctuary meets household and market demand for fuelwood, timber, grassy fodder, and non-timber forest produce. Approximately 160 villages depend on this sanctuary for a variety of products and the sanctuary is being denuded at an unmistakable rate. This study utilizes marginalized community-based group model building and expert testament to trace and scrutinize local livelihood behavior patterns in order to identify routes of intervention. The resulting System Dynamics Model of village livelihood and extraction from sanctuary highlights employment, buffer zone management, and household energy efficiency as three potential routes that could directly reinforce conservation efforts and reduce sanctuary degradation without disrupting the livelihoods of the implicated communities. Strategies of intervention are developed and justified in this paper