Biodiversity Utilisation and Conservation

The rich biological diversity in the hotspot region of the Indian Eastern Himalaya has been degraded due to various human activities (e.g. shifting agriculture, commercial logging) and also due to frequent landslides in the hills and floods in the valleys. In this region, most forested lands are owned by indigenous people, but lack authentic policies for land use and landholding. The resource management patterns vary among the tribal groups and have a tremendous bearing on the resource economics. Further, concerns have increased on the linkages between biological diversity and climate change. Therefore, assessment and monitoring biodiversity has been crucial, both in terms of dimensions and scale of the problem. Nevertheless, there has been a growing interest on the adaptive management of ecosystem based or the traditional ecological knowledge of the indigenous people and/or integrating such knowledge into policy interventions. This synthesis volume is an attempt to consummate the ecological issues of biodiversity utilization and conservation with that of socio-cultural and economic dimensions that would help have a holistic view on natural resources management for biological conservation. In the present book 23 chapters covering broad aspects of biodiversity utilization, traditional land use systems and their conservation have been presented by various experts based on cases studies carried out in different parts of the Himalayan region. Traditional bio-resource utilization and their conservation practices among different tribes inhabiting in North-east India have also been documented in this book apart from the status of biological diversity in different habitats conditions ranging from agroforest and cropland to wetlands and protected areas. This book will be of invaluable resource for students, teachers, researchers, development practitioners and conservation workers interested in understanding the linkages between commercialization of biodiversity, livelihoods and natural resources conservation.