The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
Royal Chitwan National
Park is one of the main
sources of fodder for
many villagers living in
the Park’s buffer zones.
Prabhu Budhathoki
Challenges of landscape-level conservation approaches
The challenges of landscape-level conservation initiatives in Nepal could be summarised as
follows:
Communicating a novel approach and engaging the local communities. There is a
widespread suspicion among rural people that landscape conservation initiatives could be
another way to extend protected areas and control over resource use. As described by
Beresford and Phillips (2000), turning the image of protected areas from one in which
they are “planned against people” to “one in which they are planned with people and,
often for, and by them” requires innovative strategies and greater effort.
Difficulty in coordination between various stakeholders. Due to the nature and scale
of landscape conservation programmes, the challenge of co-coordinating various stake -
holders and government line agencies is obvious. There exists inadequate horizontal
communication between different sectors of government such as forestry, agriculture,
local development as well as vertical communication between different tiers of govern -
ment. The lack of co-ordination between these agencies has resulted in overlapping
remits, inefficient spending of resources, and confusion among the stakeholders. A
careful integration of national, regional and local interests in planning and management
of landscape conservation is vital in order to fulfil the integrated objectives of landscapelevel
conservation.
Inadequate institutional capacity, human resources and necessary skills to deliver
diverse responsibilities. Landscape-level conservation is much more complex and
difficult than national park management. At the landscape level, a biodiversity conser -
vation programme requires a business-like management approach. However, protected
area managers in Nepal often lack many necessary skills and knowledge to deal with the
diverse and complex social and economic issues associated with resource conservation.
Many protected area staff are still making the transition from an insular approach to
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