Livelihood Strategies in Southern India: Conservation and Poverty Reduction in Forest Fringes PDF
Preview Livelihood Strategies in Southern India: Conservation and Poverty Reduction in Forest Fringes
Seema Purushothaman Rosa Abraham Editors Livelihood Strategies in Southern India Conservation and Poverty Reduction in Forest Fringes Livelihood Strategies in Southern India Seema Purushothaman (cid:129) Rosa Abraham Editors Livelihood Strategies in Southern India Conservation and Poverty Reduction in Forest Fringes Editors Seema Purushothaman Rosa Abraham Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore, India Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology Bangalore , India and the Environment Bangalore, India ISBN 978-81-322-1625-4 ISBN 978-81-322-1626-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-1626-1 Springer New Delhi Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955021 © Springer India 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword This book on Livelihood Strategies in Southern India addresses the important issue of the impact of land-use change on the livelihoods of rural communities living in the margins of forests. The setting is the Western Ghats, one of the global biodiver- sity hotspots along the west coast of India, a landscape of immense importance for conservation of biodiversity and the economic well-being of a myriad of ethnic communities. Living on the margins of forests, often with uncertain land tenure, literally squeezed between natural, largely forested, habitats, and areas of extensive agriculture, these communities feel the brunt of protectionist conservation mea- sures, without the benefi ts of agrarian polices, and subsidies that apply to revenue– generating agricultural lands with secure tenure, and access to markets. The economic well-being of rural communities living at the margins of forests as well as the sustainable use of land and natural resources they utilize is critical for con- serving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services the surrounding natural ecosys- tems provide. Thus, understanding the way these communities use natural resources and how these uses are impacted by forces extrinsic to the area is an important issue for the whole society. It is only through such an understanding we can bring about neces- sary changes in policies and governance affecting the use of land and natural resources. The ten case studies presented in this volume from one, but very heterogeneous, landscape provide a wealth of information, but no generalizations. Land-use change is so rapid that most communities appear to be in transition. Typically, and tradition- ally, communities at the margin of forests used, and still use, a combination of ecosystem goods and services: small-scale agricultural lands for subsistence level agriculture, and adjoining forest ecosystems for fodder, fuelwood, fi ber, construc- tion and materials, and a wide variety of non-timber forest products for their own use, and for earning cash income. However, the communities described in various chapters of the book, because of environmental and economic changes, seem to have their patterns of livelihoods changing fast. Some are into cash crops (Chap. 2 ), and others into ecotourism (Chap. 5 ). Still others are involved in new entrepreneurial activities, based on crafts from the Lantana weed (Chap. 4 ). In other cases, urbanization is opening up new possibilities and creating additional livelihood options (Chap. 3 ). v vi Foreword More important, the economic impact of rapid changes in landscape, driven largely by economic and land-use policies on local communities, is not clear. Although most authors seem to imply that changes have a negative impact—and this might very well be the case—it would have been nice to see some data on changes in people’s incomes or some other measure of well-being, as a result of ecological or economic changes. Thus, in the ever-changing landscape, which, to begin with, is very heteroge- neous, one wonders to what extent the neat distinction of forest dependent commu- nities into three types by Fisher et al. 1997, to which reference is made in the fi rst chapter on page 1 of the Introduction, still holds. If the goal is to really understand the livelihood dynamics of communities that are partly dependent on forests and partly on agriculture, then we need data on contributions of these two sectors on rural incomes, and how these contributions are changing our time. More critically, we need to understand how both the forest as well as agricultural policies are affect- ing these contributions, the way the land is used, and how such usage is impacting forest resources, including ecosystem services. Therefore the data on livelihoods presented by these chapters are important, and clearly point out huge gaps in our knowledge. The main issue is the small size of the land holding, and in many cases uncertain tenure over the holding, though few chapters in the volume make an explicit reference to these two parameters. The land holding in most cases is not large enough to provide even subsistence level outputs. Thus surrounding ecosystems, generally forests, are an important source of prod- ucts and services for consumption and sale. Developmental challenge is how to generate a rich and diversifi ed portfolio of services and goods from agriculture and local ecosystems, and how to sustain their fl ows. Indeed, institutions and policies are needed, as also repeatedly mentioned in the last set of chapters in the volume. The targets of these polices must be the well-being of people living in and around forests—people that have been neglected for too long, along with the special landscapes they occupy. The policies cannot address land use, forest conservation, non-timber forest species extraction, agriculture, or ecotourism— to cite just a few examples—in isolation. It is the socio-ecological systems, with all their diverse uses of natural resources, that ought to be the center of attention. Clearly the book addresses a set of critical and pressing needs, and makes an admirable effort to draw attention to the plight of small landholders living in forest landscapes. Policy makers should realize that millions of farmers with small holdings in biodiversity rich areas offer the potential to make gains in conservation, food security and poverty alleviation. University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA Kamaljit S. Bawa Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, India www.kbawa.com June 2013 Acknowledgements The editors are grateful to Prof. Kamaljit S. Bawa for writing the foreword. We gratefully acknowledge Ms. Sheetal Patil, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore, India, for her support and help in com- piling and coordinating the chapters. We are also grateful to all authors for their valuable contribution, and also thank anonymous reviewers for their feedback. We thank ATREE for hosting the research that contributed to most of the chapters and Azim Premji University for its support and encouragement. vviiii Contents 1 Reconciling Conservation and Livelihoods in the Forest Fringes: An Introduction ................................................. 1 Seema Purushothaman and Rosa Abraham 2 Changing Livelihood Strategies: The Experience of the Valaiyars of Karandhai Malai, Tamil Nadu ............................... 19 Kanmani Venkateswaran, Siddhartha Krishnan, Poosanavel Saravanan, M.C. Kiran, and S.C. Gladwin Joseph 3 Distinct Livelihood Patterns Among Communities: The Case of Kanakapura, Karnataka ................................................... 33 A. Kavitha, S.C. Gladwin Joseph, Nitin D. Rai, and Rosa Abraham 4 Diversity as a Livelihood Strategy Near Mudumalai, Tamil Nadu: An Inquiry ................................................... 49 Tarsh Thekaekara, Nishita Vasanth, and Thomas F. Thornton 5 Community-Driven Ecotourism Near Bangalore: Adapting to Change ................................................................................ 71 Priya Gupta, Seema Purushothaman, Benson Issac, and Akai Mao 6 Conservation and Coffee Production: Creating Synergies in Kodagu, Karnataka ........................................... 89 Rosa Abraham, Seema Purushothaman, and Soubadra Devy 7 Rural Collectives for Livelihoods and Conservation: Lessons from Malè Mahadeswara Hills, Karnataka ........................... 109 B. Dhanya, Seema Purushothaman, and Sheetal Patil 8 Village Commons, Livelihoods and Governance: An Assessment of Karnataka’s Experience .......................................... 135 Sharachchandra Lele, Seema Purushothaman, and Sham Kashyap ix
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