TY - JOUR
T1 - An observation to the new initiative of community conservation guard posts in the pilot Three-River-Source National Park
AU - Zhao, Xiang
AU - Zhu, Ziyun
AU - Lu, Zhi
AU - Xiao, Lingyun
AU - Mei, Sonamtso
AU - Wang, Hao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/2/20
Y1 - 2018/2/20
N2 - Community-based conservation has been proven as an effective approach for biodiversity conservation, and is an important part for National Parks in China. As the first pilot of the new national park system in China, the Three-River-Source National Park initiated a new arrangement to employ 16,621 villagers from each household living in the national park to serve as conservation guards. Local Tibetan herders take the main responsibility of Sanjiangyuan conservation and in return receive payments from the national park. Such an arrangement coincides with local people’s willingness of participating in conservation, influenced by traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture. However, in addition to conservation, poverty alleviation is set as a priority target especially when guards were selected, which to certain extent compromised the effectiveness of conservation. While understanding the needs of poverty alleviation, we analyzed institutional rationales of such a selection, and made policy suggestions that conservation targets should become the first priority and more resources and space should be allocated to local governments and communities for self-governance on conservation decisions and actions. NGOs may also contribute to assist these practices.
AB - Community-based conservation has been proven as an effective approach for biodiversity conservation, and is an important part for National Parks in China. As the first pilot of the new national park system in China, the Three-River-Source National Park initiated a new arrangement to employ 16,621 villagers from each household living in the national park to serve as conservation guards. Local Tibetan herders take the main responsibility of Sanjiangyuan conservation and in return receive payments from the national park. Such an arrangement coincides with local people’s willingness of participating in conservation, influenced by traditional Tibetan Buddhist culture. However, in addition to conservation, poverty alleviation is set as a priority target especially when guards were selected, which to certain extent compromised the effectiveness of conservation. While understanding the needs of poverty alleviation, we analyzed institutional rationales of such a selection, and made policy suggestions that conservation targets should become the first priority and more resources and space should be allocated to local governments and communities for self-governance on conservation decisions and actions. NGOs may also contribute to assist these practices.
KW - Community conservation guard posts
KW - Community-based conservation
KW - National park
KW - Three-River-Source region
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046849781&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17520/biods.2017311
DO - 10.17520/biods.2017311
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85046849781
SN - 1005-0094
VL - 26
SP - 210
EP - 216
JO - Biodiversity Science
JF - Biodiversity Science
IS - 2
ER -