An analysis of conservation attitudes and awareness around Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India: implications for conservation and development

Abstract

Kaziranga National Park and World Heritage Site, Assam, India, situated in a region with a large and diverse human population, was recently expanded due to its global importance for the conservation of many endangered species. Here, we develop detailed demographic and socio-economic profiles of residents around Kaziranga to study conservation attitudes and awareness using a semi-structured survey of 590 households in 37 villages. Results show high variation in attitudes and awareness as a function of ethno-religious group, educational level, and socioeconomic and immigration status, indicating more and different needs for economic interventions within some communities than others. We found a high degree of conservation awareness, but most people expressed negative conservation attitudes and almost all lost crops to wildlife. We highlight the complexity of conflict in the area and present a basis for electing a microsite planning approach for conservation and development in areas characterized by high ethnic diversity, high human population densities, and land-dependent large mammals that pose economic risks. The findings imply that highly localized development schemes and participatory approaches to resource management at the village level, coupled with greater efforts at education, are especially needed to achieve conservation and development goals in such cases.

Beyond the “General Public”: Implications of Audience Characteristics for Promoting Species Conservation in the Western Ghats Hotspot, India

“…Age is less relevant in our context probably due to the ineffectiveness of current conservation campaigns towards potentially dangerous species or an indifferent reaction to species from all age groups. Similarly, age neither had an effect on conservation attitudes among local communities around the Kaziranga National Park of India (Heinen and Shrivastava 2009) nor had an effect on species appreciation among local communities in Tanzania (Kaltenborn et al 2006). This was unlike at the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) of India where younger respondents showed stronger support for tiger conservation (Arjunan et al 2006) or the Seychelles where older people were more willing to pay for bird conservation projects (Veríssimo et al 2009).…”

“…The Indian peafowl is the national bird and the tiger is the national animal and a key flagship for conservation in the country. These differences could have resulted from an increased access to educational institutions and materials and a resulting increase in educational level, as was recorded in the case of local communities in Tanzania and India (Heinen and Shrivastava 2009), and school children in Guyana (Kaltenborn et al 2006;Mulder et al 2009). Further these relationships can be partially explained by the correlation between education and other audience characteristics.…”

“…Conservation attitudes have been found to differ among the different socio-ethnic groups residing around Kaziranga National Park in India (Heinen and Shrivastava 2009), although in the case of the crocodiles in the Philippines this was not found (van der Ploeg et al 2011). In our case, given the discrepancies in sample size since the two respondents from ''other Indian states'' were both conservation researchers from the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh and only one respondent was from a foreign country (USA), we are only able to discuss the differences between the respondents from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.…”

Local Community Attitudes toward Forests Outside Protected Areas in India. Impact of Legal Awareness, Trust, and Participation.

“…From this research we know that individual, household, and community socioeconomic characteristics such as age, length of residency, ethnicity, gender, affluence, schooling, land ownership, household size, occupation, and geographical proximity can partially determine attitudes toward protected areas (Infield and Namara 2001, Mehta and Heinen 2001, Heinen and Shrivastava 2009, Shibia 2010, although determinants often prove to be casespecific.…”

“…However, higher level of awareness on regulations can be associated to negative conservation attitudes (Heinen and Shrivastava 2009). The lack of involvement of the local community in the decision making processes and in forest management groups are also important determinants of negative attitudes toward protected areas (Silori 2007).…”