Over the last few decades, many countries around the globe have tried different ways to incorporate local communities into forest management and conservation activities. Protected areas in India have had significant impacts on local communities, primarily through the physical removal of people. The indigenous Soliga tribal community has been living in the forest for centuries, and they are known as the people of the bamboo. In the case of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) a protected area where Soligas reside and are dependent on the forest for livelihood and subsistence needs. Efforts to integrate local communities in the management and enhance community benefits from the forests have been undertaken, including participatory resource monitoring, value addition for forest products, and co-management under the policy Forest Rights Act.
The Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 was used to empower forest-dependent communities with the right to access forests for their well-being. Our work has facilitated the provisioning of forest rights to 77 Gramasabhas (decentralized community governance system), which includes 83 villages and 5433 families with 21,732 members, and 2007 households have received cultivation rights. These two accomplishments are important milestones and created history under the protected area regime in India. To develop an inclusive co-management plan, ten Gramasabha workshops have been conducted, in which around 1200 members participated. Meetings were focused on encouraging the community to develop community-led co-management plans for conservation and livelihood enhancements under FRA.
They felt that Lantana camara (invasive species) spread was a major threat to the forest. Control of traditional forest fires is contributing to canopy fires and litter fires would help us to conserve biodiversity. The community felt that they needed to strengthen Grama sabha at the village level under the FRA and cooperation from the forest department and other stakeholders. We follow an enterprise-based conservation model to address some of the biodiversity conservation issues with community participation.
