Socio-economic Impact of Chitwan National Park Buffer Zone Management Program A Case Study of Kerunga User Committee, Jagatpur, Chitwan

Abstract

Buffer zone management program was introduced for the first time around Chitwan National Park to minimize park people conflict. Of the total 30 to 50% of the revenue generated from the park is released back to concern park to conduct community development, livelihood upliftment and conservation activities in its buffer zone area. But the impact of this investment in socio-economic aspect of buffer zone communities has not yet well assessed. The Kerunga User Committee was selected to examine the socio-economic impact and to assess the level of people participation in bufferzone management program. Household survey, group discussions, interviews, field visits and the existing records were reviewed to collect the data. Among the total users,100 respondents were asked to prioritized the most preferred 5 different activities by giving 5 points for most favored one and 1 to the least liked one to conduct the detail study. Similarly 6 user groups out of the 84 were porposively selected to conduct group discussions and to get other detail information. The irrigation/boring program was highly preferred program followed by bio-gas, river trainig, electric fencing and road gravelling respectivly among other several activities. During the period between 2060/061 to 2065/066, the program had invested Rs.4573650/- to construct 82 irrigation wells, 165 bio-gas plants, 10.5 Km of electrict fence, about 1593 cubic metres river dam making and 4.9 Km local road gravelling and maintenance including other several community development and conservation activities. Community development program got Rs.1450795/- the 32 percentage of total fund followed by conservation program, income generation program, conservation education and administrative expenditure with 29%, 20%, 10% and 9% of the total fund respectively. Among the 84 user groups only 70% (59 user groups) were performing saving collection and 30% (25 user groups) had stoped doing so. The program developement and fund investiment were conducted through consensus process. The inclusiveness has been considered according to the caste compositon of the society to formed the user commitees and other mechanisms. The poor, dalits and janajati people had been given priority to take part in different vocational trainings. The buffer zone management program has contributed a lot to uplift the socio-economic status of the buffer zone communities, but further detail study covering the whole buffer zone area needs to organize so the overall contribution can be assessed and a valid decision regarding to its improvements and continuation can be made.