- Title
- Impact of environmental governance on local livelihoods in forest protected areas of Bangladesh: a study of Lawachara National Park
- Creator
- Uddin, Mohammad Nashir
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Forest protected areas (FPAs) are great sources of natural resources that play a vital role in the livelihoods of a large number of local people in developing countries. A co-management-based participatory approach to protected area governance has been adopted and implemented in many countries. The main purpose of this approach is to overcome the complex challenges of resource conservation and inclusion of resource dependent local people in the governance practice. Authors claim that this governance practice encompasses FPA conservation and considers forest-dependent local people’s livelihoods. However, the practice is criticised by the researchers for its limited achievement through donor-funded programs. Therefore, it is important to examine the efficacy of existing governance in forest protected areas. Hence, this research examines how and to what extent local people and their livelihoods are affected by the co-management-based governance practice in a selected FPA in Bangladesh. An integrated review of the relevant literature was undertaken to understand the issues and determinants of environmental governance of FPAs and local livelihoods. A mixed-methods research design with an interpretative phenomenological approach was applied. Household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were employed to collect field data. A combined thematic-interpretative analysis process was employed to analyse the transcribed and translated data. The findings are presented and discussed under several themes and subthemes to address the research objectives and research questions. A major finding of this study is that the local people, irrespective of place of residence, gender, age, race or position in the society, believed that FPA governance was useful for the survival of the forest. However, the local people had shallow understanding about co-management activities. They believed that there were limited and inequitable gains in the livelihood improvement from the implemented governance practices. Moreover, the influential people dominated the activities of the existing governance. As a result, participation of local people was limited. Furthermore, the influential people were damaging the forest through their illegal exploitation. To overcome the challenges for protecting the forest and improving the livelihoods of the people around the forest, increased participation, awareness and capacity enhancement of local people, benefit sharing; and political and social commitment are essential. Reduction of donor dependency and diversification of income sources along with committed leadership are necessary to ensure future sustainability.
- Subject
- environmental governance; Bangladesh; Lawachara National Park; forest protected areas
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1416446
- Identifier
- uon:37058
- Rights
- Copyright 2020 Mohammad Nashir Uddin
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 333 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |