College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia.
College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia; Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia.
J Environ Manage. 2023 Aug 1;339:117890. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117890. Epub 2023 Apr 11.
Protected Areas (PAs) are set aside for biodiversity conservation but at the same time they are recognized for their role in supporting development goals. However, the benefits provided by PAs also come with costs to local people. Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDPs) are a PA management approach that aim to maximize local benefits through enhancing conservation and development outcomes, while also reducing costs. We implemented a household level survey in two PAs in Nepal managed using an ICDP approach to assess local people's perceived benefits and costs and determine if this approach was achieving its intended outcomes. Since both PAs are popular nature-based tourism (NBT) destinations, respondents were asked questions specific to this activity and others more general to the PA. The coded qualitative responses revealed ten categories of benefits and twelve categories of costs. Most respondents perceived extraction benefits from PAs, and when asked to reflect specifically on NBT, they mostly identified economic benefits. Crop and livestock loss was the main perceived costs from PAs, whereas sociocultural costs were the main costs from NBT. Chi square tests showed that proximity to the PA office and residency status had the most significant differences in perceptions of benefits and costs from both PAs and NBT. People perceived very few benefits related to participation, cost mitigation, and conservation, which does not match the intended outcomes of ICDPs. Although there may be practical implications for engaging distant communities in management, this may help to enhance conservation and development outcomes from PAs.
保护区（PAs）是为了保护生物多样性而设立的，但同时它们也被认为在支持发展目标方面发挥了作用。然而，保护区提供的好处也给当地居民带来了成本。综合保护与发展项目（ICDPs）是一种保护区管理方法，旨在通过增强保护和发展成果，同时降低成本，最大限度地提高当地的收益。我们在尼泊尔的两个采用 ICDP 方法管理的保护区进行了一项家庭层面的调查，以评估当地居民对收益和成本的看法，并确定这种方法是否达到了预期的效果。由于这两个保护区都是受欢迎的自然旅游（NBT）目的地，因此要求受访者回答与这项活动有关的问题，以及与保护区更普遍有关的问题。经过编码的定性回应揭示了十种收益类别和十二种成本类别。大多数受访者认为保护区有提取收益，当被要求具体反映自然旅游的经济收益时，他们大多认为是经济收益。作物和牲畜损失是来自保护区的主要感知成本，而社会文化成本是来自 NBT 的主要成本。卡方检验显示，靠近保护区办公室和居住身份对两个保护区和 NBT 的收益和成本感知有最大的差异。人们对参与、成本缓解和保护方面的收益感知很少，这与 ICDP 的预期结果不符。尽管让偏远社区参与管理可能存在实际意义，但这可能有助于提高保护区的保护和发展成果。
