Human–Wildlife Conflict and Gender in Protected Area Borderlands: A Case Study of Costs, Perceptions, and Vulnerabilities from Uttarakhand (Uttaranchal), India

Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) is a growing problem for communities located at the borders of protected areas. Such conflicts commonly take place as crop-raiding events and as attack by wild animals, among other forms. This paper uses a feminist political ecology approach to examine these two problems in an agricultural village located at the border of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal), India. Specifically, it investigates the following three questions: What are the “visible” and “hidden” costs of such conflict with wildlife? To what extent are these costs differentially borne by men and women? How do villagers perceive any such differences? Survey and interview data were collected from over 100 individuals in the study site over a period of 9 months in 2003–2004. It was found that for participants in this study, costs of HWC included decreased food security, changes to workload, decreased physical and psychological wellbeing, economic hardship, and at times an increase in illegal or dangerous activities. The research also showed that although women in the study area bore a disproportionate burden of these effects, roughly half of survey respondents perceived that men and women were equally affected. A possible explanation for this gap considers the relationships between gendered uses of space, work, status, and identity. The findings illustrate the importance of addressing both visible and hidden costs of HWC for members of park communities and support a call for increased gender-sensitivity in HWC research

Gender and Climate Change in the Indian Himalayas: Global Threats, Local Vulnerabilities, and Livelihood Diversification at the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve

Global climate change has numerous implications for members of mountain communities who feel the impacts in both physical and social dimensions. In the western Himalayas of India, a majority of residents maintain a livelihood strategy that includes a combination of subsistence or small-scale agriculture, livestock rearing, seasonal or long-term migration, and localized natural resource extraction. While warming temperatures, irregular patterns of precipitation and snowmelt, and changing biological systems present challenges to the viability of these traditional livelihood portfolios in general, we find that climate change is also undermining local communities’ livelihood assets in gender-specific ways. In this paper, we present a case study from the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (Uttarakhand, India) that both outlines the implications of climate change for women farmers in the area and highlights the potential for ecotourism (as a form of livelihood diversification) to strengthen both key livelihood assets of women and local communities’ adaptive capacity more broadly. The paper intentionally employs a categorical focus on women but also addresses issues of inter-group and gender diversity. With this special issue in mind, suggestions for related research are proposed for consideration by climate scientists and social systems and/or policy modelers seeking to support gender justice through socially transformative perspectives and frameworks

Carbon, Cookstoves, and Kitchens: Case Studies of Fuelwood Use and the Potential for Ethanol Substitutability in Rural India, Vietnam, and Tanzania

Fuelwood constitutes the primary domestic cooking fuel in many rural communities throughout the Global South. Unsustainable levels of fuelwood consumption, however, contribute not only to local forest degradation but also to global climate change through the release of black carbon and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Moreover, as a driver of indoor air pollution, it also negatively affects human health. Indoor air pollution linked to cooking smoke is among the leading causes of preventable respiratory disease, and negatively impacts women and children through disproportionate and repeated exposure. While many cleaner and more efficient alternate stove designs have been developed for use in fuelwood-dependent communities, culturally-based user incompatibilities and technical design problems can lead to lack of widespread adoption. Although fuelwood dependence has also been offset by the availability of subsidized commercially-available fuels such as kerosene or liquid petroleum gas (LPG), the need persists for a clean, efficient, locally available, and sustainable fuel source for use in household cooking. This poster presents the results of three related, pilot project case studies about the potential for alcohol-fueled stoves to serve as a pathway to fuelwood substitution. The poster explores questions of cultural feasibility and the related roles of gender/class/ethnicity dynamics within a community, cooking and fuel preferences of stove users, and religious considerations related to non-consumptive alcohol use. Our study raises important issues for advocates of alternative technologies to consider, including the potential for resource capture by elites, openings for promotion of gender equity, and opportunities for socially and environmentally sustainable development

Ecodevelopment, Gender, and Empowerment: Perspectives from India’s Protected Area Communities

Book abstract: Feminism has re-shaped the way we think about equality, power relations and social change. Recent feminist scholarship has provided new theoretical frameworks, methodologies and empirical analyses of how gender and feminism are situated within the development process.Global Perspectives on Gender and Space: Engaging Feminism and Development draws upon this framework to explore the effects of globalization on development in diverse geographical contexts. It explores how women’s and men’s lives are gendered in specific spaces as well as across multiple landscapes

Impact of inactivated poliovirus vaccine on mucosal immunity: implications for the polio eradication endgame.

The polio eradication endgame aims to bring transmission of all polioviruses to a halt. To achieve this aim, it is essential to block viral replication in individuals via induction of a robust mucosal immune response. Although it has long been recognized that inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) is incapable of inducing a strong mucosal response on its own, it has recently become clear that IPV may boost immunity in the intestinal mucosa among individuals previously immunized with oral poliovirus vaccine. Indeed, mucosal protection appears to be stronger following a booster dose of IPV than oral poliovirus vaccine, especially in older children. Here, we review the available evidence regarding the impact of IPV on mucosal immunity, and consider the implications of this evidence for the polio eradication endgame. We conclude that the implementation of IPV in both routine and supplementary immunization activities has the potential to play a key role in halting poliovirus transmission, and thereby hasten the eradication of polio

The political ecology of human-wildlife conflict: Producing wilderness, insecurity, and displacement in the Limpopo National Park

Like conservation-induced displacement, human-wildlife conflict (HWC) has potentially negative implications for communities in and around protected areas. While the ways in which displacement emerges from the creation of 'wilderness' conservation landscapes are well documented, how the production of 'wilderness' articulates with intensifications in HWC remains under examined both empirically and conceptually. Using a political-ecological approach, I analyse increases of HWC in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park (LNP) and the subsequent losses of fields and livestock, as well as forms of physical displacement suffered by resident communities. While intensifications of encounters between wildlife on the one hand and people and livestock on the other result in part from increases in wildlife populations, I argue that HWC and the ways in which it constitutes and contributes to various forms of displacement results more centrally from changing relations between wildlife and people and the power and authority to manage conflict between them. Both of these contributing factors, moreover, are the consequence of practices that aim to transform the LNP into a wilderness landscape of conservation and tourism. HWC and its negative impacts are thus not natural phenomena, but are the result of political decisions to create a particular type of conservation landscape

Metropolitan housing development in urban fringe areas - a case study of three metropolitan cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose: The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane plays an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa. The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector, financial and business services, retail and wholesale trade, etc. The rapid urban population, increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted to considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities. The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures. Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines, these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers. Research Design/ Methodology: This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), Municipal Annual Reports, Growth Development Strategies, and among other sectoral documents on housing sector. Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included: eradication of housing backlogs, spatial restructuring of housing, provision of choice in terms of location, tenure and housing typology. Findings: The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region, namely: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane. The paper discuss the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on: formal and informal settlements, housing segregation and the backlogs, current institutional arrangements, role of public private participation, and scope for alternate mechanisms. The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas

Making great places in slums/ informal settlements

According to UN-Habitat (2007) “a slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing and squalor”. The word slum is generally used to describe low-income settlements with deprived conditions. (UN-Habitat, 2006). There is no universally agreed definition of the word slum. As conditions differ from country to country, different scholars from various countries define the term “slum” differently. Definitions mainly include: illegal, poorly-constructed settlements without basic services, even when some of them are relatively more different and have proper structures? An informal settlement can be defined as stated by Huchzermeyer and Karam (2006) as those settlements that were not planned by nor have formal permission to exist from government. Srinivas (1991) defines informal settlement/ slums as an area where the urban poor resides and usually have no access to tenure rights and are forced to ‘squat’ on vacant land either private or public. While slums/ informal settlements differ in size and other characteristics in different counties, but what most slums/informal settlements share in common are the lack of reliable basic services such as the supply of clean water, electricity, timely law enforcement and proper services. (UN-Habitat 2007). Place making is a described as an approach that is used to inspire and encourage communities to create their own space/ places. Place making is how we collectively shape our public realm to maximize shared value (Project for public spaces, 2009). The focus on place making was intended to remind planners of the human aspect of city-building and the ultimate goal is to create places that people use, that inspire social interaction and promote community stewardship (Urban Strategy Inc., 2008). This paper highlights critical determinants of place making in slums/informal settlements. In the context of slums/ informal settlements, firstly it covers what great places are and what constitutes as a great place. Secondly it covers the characteristics of a great place/ place making and how we can upgrade slums/ informal settlements in to great places. Lastly what is the perception of communities of great places and what they think is needed to make their settlement a “great place”. The paper is based on a research study of Kaya Sands slums/ informal settlements of Midrand, South Africa

A place-based approach to spatial transformation : a case study of transit oriented development (TOD), Johannesburg

The Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model is increasingly gaining momentum and becoming widely adopted by many cities in addressing a wide range of spatial development challenges within their communities. Development of this nature advocates for a return to a city form that is compact, higher in density, and supported by strategic nodes that promote public transit ridership and nonmotorized transport options over auto use. These elements fundamentally constitute the building blocks of TOD. In the wake of this increasing global awareness for TOD, this paper presents empirical findings of TOD perceptions in three nodal areas located along the Louis Botha development corridor in City of Johannesburg (COJ). Premised on a mixed methods approach, the paper provides an insight into current development typologies in the said corridor while equally interrogating the perceptions of residents toward TOD planning and implementation thereof. The paper also deliberates on the nexus between TOD and place making, out of which a mutually inclusive relationship is established. While the findings of this study reflect a rather poor public awareness of TOD and place making, several other points have been identified. Continued revitalisation programs and design improvements are required. Also, issues of parking planning and management will ultimately require a renewed focus in light of the anticipated Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) service along Louis Botha corridor. The paper culminates in the formulation of a set of TOD key determinants derived from the data analysis exercise. Though not necessarily intended to be standard reference points, the paper emphasizes the importance of these determinants in corridor oriented development