Author: Vasant Saberwal
Mahesh Rangarajan/
Editor(s): Vasant Saberwal / Mahesh Rangarajan
Publisher: Permanent Black
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 423
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8178241412
Description
In this book, biologists, sociologists, historians and activists come together to search out solutions to the key problems of contemporary conservation practices. Much of the world’s wildlife and biological diversity is located in less developed countries where there is intense competition for resources between people and wildlife. Common questions face all such countries. Should the state or should local communities manage natural resources? Should western science or local knowledge form the basis of national park management? Sharply opposed dualities of this kind have begun preventing people from perceiving a viable middle ground that will enable effective conservation practices.
Focusing on India, but also exploring comparable situations in Africa, this book makes the case for a better exploration of this middle ground, and argues for the need to involve not just urban enthusiasts, scientists and foresters but also the villager. Contributors debate the exclusionary aspects of Indian conservation even as they urge the need to look past romantic notions of egalitarian village republics that will cherish their forests. Biologists demonstrate how, in specific instances, human interference has changed protected areas. Some articles stress the value of local participation in conservation. The book calls for more imaginative handling of an inherently difficult political situation. In a world rapidly losing its ecological heritage, these are questions relevant to all of us.
REVIEWS
Treads a new path with its synthesis, insight and objectivity and taxonomic and geographic range.
-The Book Review
A timely volume that explores the controversies and contradictions in Indian wildlife conservation.
-Social Change
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
INTRODUCTION
VASANT K SAVERWAL AND MAHESH RANGARAJAN
PART I
BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVES
1. Why big, fierce animals are threatened: conserving large mammals in densely populated landscapes
M D MADHUSUDAN AND CHARUDUTT MISHRA
2. The anatomy of ignorance or ecology in a fragmented landscape: do we know what really counts?
RENEE BORGES
3. Ecology and objective based management: case study of the Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan
BETH MIDDLETON
4. Conservation outside protected areas: case study of bustard protection
ASAD R RAHMANI
PART II
THE NATURE OF ECOLOGICAL SCIENCE
5. The authoritarian biologist and the arrogance of anti-humanism: wildlife conservation in the third world
RAMACHANDRA GUHA
6. Sustainability and the Scientist’s Burden
SHARACHCHANDRA LELE AND RICHARD B NORGAARD
PART III
POLITICS AND CONSERVATION
7. The Politics of Ecology: The debate on wildlife and people in India, 1970-95
MAHESH RANGARAJAN
8. Conservation by state fiat
VASANT K SABERWAL
PART IV
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
9. States, communities and conservation: the practice of ecodevelopment in the great Himalayan National Park
AMITA BAVISKAR
10. Forging a consensus in Rajaji National Park: an interview
B M S RATHORE
11. Community approaches to conservation: some comparisons from Africa and India
ALAN RODGERS, DAWN HARTLEY AND SULTANA BASHIR
12. Reflections on community involvement in conservation
K SIVARAMAKRISHNAN