Abstract
Understanding people’s beliefs and attitudes toward protected areas is a key factor in developing successful management plans to conserve those areas over the long-term. Yet, most of the emphasis in understanding people’s perceptions has been on the conflicts that exist between people and protected areas, such as loss of traditional extraction access or damage by wildlife to crops and livestock. This study addresses the need to explore people’s attitudes toward protected areas in a way that allows them to define and describe the values they hold toward the areas and the relevant issues and concepts. Three contrasting protected areas in the southwestern region of Nepal were chosen for this study to gain a broad representation of the values people hold toward different types of protected areas. Three themes emerged that describe the positive perceptions residents have: recreation/esthetics, environmental preservation, and economic benefits. Four themes emerged that describe the negative perceptions: negative economic impacts, belief that benefits are for the government or foreigners, fear of wildlife, and negative interactions with park guards. People’s perceptions are affected by different aspects of the areas, including the size of the area and people’s access to them, management objectives, history, and tourism. The diversity of these perceptions suggests that conservation strategies should recognize both positive and negative perceptions and work to foster and integrate diverse values in order to more accurately reflect the reality and complexity of people’s lives.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel N, Blaikie P (1986) Elephants, people, parks and development: the case of the Luangwa Valley, Zambia. Environ Manag 10(6):735–751
Ajzen I, Fishbein M (1980) Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Allendorf TD (1999) Local residents’ perceptions of protected areas in Nepal: beyond conflicts and economics. PhD thesis, University of Minnesota
Bhatta SR (1994) Beginning with buffer zone management: a case study from Royal Bardia National Park, Nepal. Master’s thesis, Agricultural University of Norway
Boonzaier E (1996) Local responses to conservation in the Richtersveld National Park, South Africa. Biodivers Conserv 5:307–314
Brandon KE, Wells M (1992) Planning for people and parks—design dilemmas. World Dev 20:557–570
Dasmann RF (1984) The relationship between protected areas and indigenous people. In: McNeely JA, Miller KR (eds) National Parks, conservation, and development: the role of protected areas in sustaining society. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, DC
de Boer WF, Baquete DS (1998) Natural resource use, crop damage and attitudes of rural people in the vicinity of the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique. Environ Conserv 25(3):208–218
Dearden P, Chettamart S, Emphandu D, Tanakanjana N (1996) National parks and hills tribes in Northern Thailand: a case study of Doi Inthanon. Soc Nat Resour 9:125–141
Durbin JC, Ralambo JA (1994) The role of local people in the successful maintenance of protected areas in Madagascar. Environ Conserv 21(2):115–120
Fiallo EA, Jacobson SK (1995) Local communities and protected areas: attitudes of rural residents towards conservation and Machalilla National Park, Ecuador. Environ Conserv 22(3):241–249
Furze B, de Lacy T, Birckhead J (1996) Culture, conservation, and biodiversity. Wiley, New York, NY
Gillingham S, Lee PC (1999) The impact of wildlife-related benefits on the conservation attitudes of local people around the Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania. Environ Conserv 26:218–228
Heinen JT (1993) Park-people relations in Kosi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal: a socio-economic analysis. Environ Conserv 20(2):25–34
Hough JL (1988) Obstacles to effective management of conflicts between national parks and surrounding human communities in developing countries. Environ Conserv 15(2):129–136
Infield M (1988) Attitudes of a rural community towards conservation and a local conservation area in Natal, South Africa. Biol Conserv 45:21–46
Infield M (2001) Cultural values: a forgotten strategy for building community support for protected areas in Africa. Conserv Biol 15:800–802
Ite U (1996) Community perceptions of the Cross River National Park, Nigeria. Environ Conserv 23:351–357
Kaltenborg B, Riese H, Hundeide M (1999) National park planning and local participation: some reflections from a mountain region in southern Norway. Mt Res Dev 19:51–61
Kuriyan R (2002) Linking local perceptions of elephants and conservation: Samburu pastoralists in Northern Kenya. Soc Nat Resour 15:949–957
Machlis GE, Tichnell DL (1985) The state of the world’s parks: an international assessment for resource management, policy and research. Westview, Boulder, CO
Maikhuri RK, Nautiyal S, Rao KS, Chandrasekhar K, Gavali R, Saxena KG (2000) Analysis and resolution of protected area-people conflicts in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India. Environ Conserv 27:43–53
Miles MB, Huberman AM (1994) Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA
Müller-Böker U (1991) Knowledge and evaluation of the environment in traditional societies in Nepal. Mt Res Dev 11(2):101–114
Nepal SJ, Weber KE (1995) The quandary of local park-people relations in Nepal’s royal Chitwan National Park. Environ Manag 19:853–866
Newmark WD, Leonard NL, Sariko HI, Gamassa DM (1993) Conservation attitudes of local people living adjacent to five protected areas in Tanzania. Biol Conserv 63:177–183
Norton BG (1989) The cultural approach to conservation biology. In: Western D, Pearl MC (eds) Conservation for the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 241–246
Parry D, Campbell B (1992) Attitudes of rural communities to animal wildlife and its utilization in Chobe Enclave and Mababe Depression, Botswana. Environ Conserv 19(3):245–252
Pathak R (1995) Lumbini as disneyland. Himal 8(6):24–28
Patton MQ (1990) Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA
Raval SR (1994) Wheel of life: perceptions and concerns of the resident peoples for Gir National Park in India. Soc Nat Resour 7:305–320
Stræde S, Helles F (2000) Park-people conflict resolution in Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal: buying time at high cost? Environ Conserv 27:368–381
Studsrød JE, Wegge P (1995) Park-people relationships: the case of damage caused by park animals around the Royal Bardia National Park, Nepal. Environ Conserv 22(2):133–142
Tisdell CA (1995) Issues in biodiversity conservation including the role of local communities. Environ Conserv 22(3):216–228
Upreti BN (1994) Royal Bardia national park. National conservation strategy implementation Project. Kathmandu, Nepal, pp 59
Walpole M, Goodwin H (2001) Local attitudes towards conservation and tourism around Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Environ Conserv 28:160–166
West PC, Brechin SR (1991) Resident peoples and national parks: social dilemmas and strategies in international conservation. University of Arizona Press, Tucson
Western D (1989) Conservation without parks: wildlife in the rural landscape. In: Western D, Pearl MC (eds) Conservation for the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 158–165
World Conservation Monitoring Centre (2004) Protected areas and biodiversity: an overview of key issues. World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge
Zube EH (1986) Local and extra-local perceptions of national parks and protected areas. Landsc Urban Plan 13:11–17
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Allendorf, T.D. Residents’ attitudes toward three protected areas in southwestern Nepal. Biodivers Conserv 16, 2087–2102 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-9092-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-9092-z