Protection and management of wild life through community based conservation

The community based conservation models built on local ecological knowledge system that after integration of traditional knowledge with current advancement in conservation scenario. Mostly it is a self imposed restriction for the protection and management of forest and wild life. The community participation is essential for the maintenance of essential ecological service like Soil Conservation, water security, stock of genes etc. The initiatives taken by the local community is much older than Government initiated conservation programme, but the vital role played by the local community remains unrecognized, both at National and International level. Policy and principles has been laid down for conservation of nature through participatory approach. Most of the developed and developing countries of the world already adopted the method of Community Based Conservation (CBC) and the National Forest Policy of 1988 of India adopted the policy of joint Forest Management in the manner of community based conservation with an object to involve local people residing in and around the Protected Areas for the protection, regeneration and management of forest wealth.

State sponsored Community Based Conservation initiatives were taken mostly under Forest Act 1927, Wild Life Act 1972, Bio-Diversity Act 2002, Forest Rights Act 2007, National Wild Life Action Plan-2002-2016. Eco Development Committee, Eco Tourism, Van Samrakhna Samiti, Village Forest Protection Committee, Conservation Reserve Management Committee, Joint Forest Management Committee, Gram Sabha are some of the examples of State sponsored conservation initiatives, where as in addition to it the local community voluntarily united to protect the forest and wild life for their enhancement of lively hood, security and income generating activities. The present study is an analysis of how the local communities of Odisha by applying their traditional knowledge and skill protected the wild life and prevented the degradation of natural environment through Community Based Conservation.