Role of Community Forests in Faunal Diversity Conservation: A Case Study of Community Forests within Satbariya Range Post of Dang District

Abstract

A study was conducted to identify the role of community forests in the conservation of faunal diversity in various community forests practiced in the Satbariya Range Post of Dang district. The study aimed to understand and evaluate the role of community forests in biodiversity, especially faunal conservation efforts. Different methods such as questionnaire survey, group discussion and line transect methods were used to collect data for the determination of faunal diversity, abundance and distribution pattern of the wild animals and wildlife-people conflict. The variance to mean ratio was used to determine distribution pattern and chi-square test was used to test hypothesis that the prominent wildlife species were uniformly distributed in all habitat types in the study area. A total of 25 mammals, 16 herpetofauna and 163 bird species were recorded in the study area. Altogether, 251 different signs of the wild fauna were encountered in ten transects taken in the area. Over 93% of the local respondents agreed that the wildlife has dramatically increased due to establishment of community forests in the areas. Seasonal visits of wild elephant and blue bull to the area indicated availability of suitable habitat for the species as they were not seen before the establishment of the community forests. However, the local peoples suffered from economic loss due to the increasing number of the wildlife in the community forest as they damaged their crops and killed their livestock. High incidences of wildlife poaching were found in these community forests.

Key words: community forestry program; human-wildlife conflict; wildlife abundance

DOI: 10.3126/njst.v9i0.3174

Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 9 (2008) 111-117