Public participation: Rhetoric or reality? An analysis of planning and management in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve

Sustainable development has been advocated in response to environmental deterioration, including the loss of biodiversity. Traditional models of biodiversity conservation, such as protected areas, have been coupled with detrimental impacts to ecosystems and social systems. Consequently, protected areas have often been associated with rising levels of conflict between the civic sector and those making the decisions. Biosphere reserves have evolved out of a responsibility to resolve conflict by reconciling the needs of humans with the need to maintain ecological integrity and biodiversity. Effective planning and management are necessary to achieve the mandate of a biosphere reserve. Since government is typically the lead actor in planning and management for conservation, of particular importance to these processes are the roles, dynamics and processes pertaining to civic and private sector participation. Participatory approaches are seen as a key way to link conservation and sustainable development.; The purpose of this research then, was to investigate participation in planning and management activities in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve located in Uttaranchal, India. Given the history of conflict in the NDBR, studying the roles and the participation of these sectors is valuable for informing environmental policies and practices. The specific objectives were to: (1) describe the background and context of planning and management in the NDBR; (2) determine the roles of the public, private and civic sectors during selected planning and management activities; (3) describe what members in each of the sectors thought the roles were, and what the roles should be; (4) investigate the extent of civic and private sector participation in those activities; and, (5) evaluate the effectiveness of the participation.; The research design used a qualitative, exploratory, case study strategy to consider two empirical cases of participatory processes in a biosphere reserve context. Data collection methods included key informant analysis, informal semi-structured interviews, participant observation and the review of secondary data sources. Data collection was guided by a framework developed from attributes of public participation processes as indicated in the literature.; Centralized decision making for the establishment of both protected areas and biosphere reserves still persists in India. However, eco-development and microplanning have emerged as two government-initiated mechanisms that provide greater opportunity for the general public to have a role in conservation-related planning and management activities. The research findings include the identification of a wide variety of roles being played by the public sector in these processes, fewer roles being played by the civic sector and a minimal number of roles being played by the private sector. One important and positive outcome was that relationships had improved between the sectors involved in both processes.; In the first case study, two community-based Eco-Development Committees (EDCs) helped the state Forest and Wildlife Department carry out various management functions, particularly solid waste management. The results demonstrate that the EDCs had a central role in managing the solid waste and traffic along the trekking/pilgrimage route bypassing their villages. The cooperation of small private enterprises was an important factor in the EDCs' success. In addition, the EDCs were educating and informing others about the biodiversity in the valley. Civic and private sector involvement in decision making was minimal and accountability was lacking.; The second case considered a village-level planning process, referred to as microplanning. The village of Lata was selected to study this process because it had developed a village microplan in 2002 and was in the implementation phase. It was discovered that the people of Lata did have the opportunity to decide which developmental and conservati...