Local communities and Indigenous peoples have made considerable contributions towards maintaining some of the Earth’s most fragile ecosystems. Since the onset of the industrial revolution, they have been challenged by the same forces that threaten ecology, as pressures from extractive industries and unrestrictive infrastructure development. Climate change and other global trends are likely to accelerate the loss of the natural habitats and resources upon which they depend.
Conservation approaches planned with communities and indigenous peoples can help manage any negative social impacts and provide lasting incentives along with efficient sustainable management of natural resources. Direct involvement of local communities and supporting them to maintain the natural resources they depend on and preserve is a very important measure to be taken on an administrative level, to conserve biodiversity.
There is a level of negligence towards the role of rural communities in contributing to nature. When it comes to administrative decisions, they are seen as people who don't understand how life works, society works. People in policymaking do not really reach out to people who are actually living close to nature. Having said that, they can also be exploitative at times. But, their living standards are still very basic and their contribution is mostly positive. Community involvement can take form in many ways. It can occur by supporting people-led efforts to secure the availability of clean energy, and thus reducing a need to cut down wildlife-rich forests. Or it may include training small scale farmers on sustainable farming practices to improve their yields. Another way could be ensuring communities are the direct benefactors of tourists visiting to see endangered wildlife. There have been many significant efforts which are collaborations of governments or organizations and the local people. Gabon is a country in Central Africa that is prone to illegal mining and logging along with the local people and developed the Loango and Moukalaba-Doudou national parks. Uganda has been on the threat of losing about 92,000 hectares of green cover annually and plants only 5,000 hectares. Similarly, in 2017, the Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve (SBVCR) in Arunachal Pradesh was officially declared as a protected area for the indigenous Bugun Liocichla bird. It was achieved with the efforts taken by the native Bugun tribe of the state and formalized by the Forest Department of Arunachal Pradesh. The reserve also has a management committee that comprises both forest department officials and several members of the Bugun tribe to ensure the legal protection of the bird and the harmonious survival of the community. All the indigenous people whether Gonds, Bigas of Central India or Kaandis of South have had a very close link with the land, which teaches us a lot. If we rule them out we also give away any learning from people who have lived for thousands of years alongside their resources. Biligiri Rangana temple in Karnataka is a great example. Overthere Soliga people have been living beside tigers and still, the tiger population has been thriving. When people are given ownership and made part of the process they take responsibility. If they are forcefully dissociated from their environment, the feeling of concern also goes away. We are not able to provide solutions to them and work with them. So every community has something to teach us. It is essential to go to the grassroots level first.
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