Park - People conflict in Langtang National Park, Nepal

Out of 23 village units that are dependent on Park resources for wood and pasture, nine village units were randomly selected for detailed investigation. The investigation included structured questionnaire interviews of 212 randomly selected heads of households and 62 Park staff (who were currently working in different units within the Park administrative system). In addition, a self-administered questionnaire survey was done. This comprised 33 office-heads of Rasuwa administrative district headquarters at Dhunche located inside the Park boundary. Some in-depth interviews were carried out with selected people such as local leaders and wildlife biologists to get some additional qualitative information. A comparative study is made of local people's understanding of the purpose of Langtang National Park with the other two groups (i.e., Park staff and office-heads). This study revealed a positive perception of each group on the issue and made it obvious that purposes of the Park do not appear to be an area of conflict between the park administration and the local population, but the degree of commitment to these purposes is less strongly held by local people. Wild-pig was found to be the principal crop raiding animal, followed by Himalayan black bear, monkey and deer species. This resulted in resentment of the local people towards the Park administration. Adoption of wild-pig farming by capturing young wild-pigs and selective culling of old ones has been proposed as a solution to the problem and also a source for income generation for the local people through meat trading. Adoption of land-use zoning and the declaration of "buffer-zones" have been proposed as a solution to the problems of crop and livestock depredation by other park wildlife through implementation of community forest resource development activities in the buffer areas. Buffer zones can function as multiple-use management areas for the purposes of reducing the movement of park wildlife towards settlements, reducing encroachment of the park by the domestic stock of local people and providing the local people with access to additional Park resources in the future. Tourism is seen as a source of national and local income in the Park area. Although no negative impacts of tourism have been reported from this study, the adoption of a proper tourism planning procedure is needed to reduce or prevent negative impacts in the future. The majority of the local people and the park staff are familiar with each other. The local people have perceived that the park staff were helpful and friendly. These positive relations can facilitate the involvement of local people in decision making regarding Park-people related problems in the future