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Environmental Impact Assessment Review xx (2006) xxx–xxxwww.el

Adverse impacts of pasture abandonment in Himalayanprotected areas: Testing the efficiency of a Natural

Resource Management Plan (NRMP)

Sunil Nautiyal ⁎, Harald Kaechele

Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Institute of Socioeconomics,Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Muencheberg, Germany

Received 25 August 2006; received in revised form 26 September 2006; accepted 4 October 2006

Abstract

The high elevational areas in the Himalayas of India are dominated by forests and alpine pastures. Thereare many protected areas in the region, including Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) and Valley ofFlowers (VOF) where natural resource management plan (NRMP) has been implemented for the conservationof biodiversity. This has affected the traditional animal husbandry system, as well as the vegetation dynamicsof alpine pastures. An integrated approach to studying the impact of NRMP in the region has been applied byus. First, a survey was conducted regarding livestock management, data pertaining the livestock husbandry,the role of animal husbandry in economics of rural household, and socioeconomics. Second, field based studyon phytosociology of some important alpine herbs was done to enumerate the density and species richness indifferent land mark of the region. Thereafter, satellite data and Geographic Information System (GIS) wereused to develop a land cover map of the area and to note changes in the landscape over time afterimplementation of NRMP. From an economic point of view the implementation of such plan is a setback tothe rural economy. However, the ecological perspective of such models is a threat to the diversity of alpinepastures. The invasion of bushes/thorny bushes/shrubs and weeds with their luxuriant growth is changing thevegetation index and dynamics. Consequently, the diversity of herbs in alpine pastures of the HimalayanMountains is in jeopardy. Overall, the situation is leading to landscape change in the region. This study ishelpful for generating useful outcomes and strategies considering the question or debate “is grazing good orbad for pasture ecosystems in the Himalayas?”.© 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP); Conservation; Landscape change; Protected areas; Livestockmanagement; Remote sensing; Vegetation dynamics

⁎ Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: sunil.nautiyal@zalf.de, nautiyal_sunil@rediffmail.com (S. Nautiyal).

0195-9255/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2006.10.003

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1. Introduction

India's recognition as one of the four “mega-diversity” countries of Asia is derived largelyfrom two of its most important biodiversity “hot-spots”: the Himalayas, including the north-eastern hills along the northern border, and the Western Ghats in peninsular India(Ramakrishnan, 2000). The Himalayas cover 18% of the geographical area and extend over12 states of India. In the context of the global agenda many programmes have been implementedfor conservation and management of biodiversity in the Himalayas. These have aimed to keepthe rich biodiversity of the region and limit threats to biodiversity at the local and regional level.The implementation of a Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP)–that includes creation ofprotected areas in the form of sanctuaries, national parks and biosphere reserves–is an examplefor conservation of biodiversity and management of ecosystems in the region. The lifestyle andmajor activities of the people to sustain their livelihood in the region revolve around theirlivestock husbandry and the traditional livestock-based farming system. These are closelylinked to the surrounding resources/forests and mutually reinforcing. Various studies have beencarried out on the symbiotic interactions among humans, animals, and plants from theperspectives of geographers, economist, biologists and botanists (Anderson, 1952; Harlan,1975; Cincotta et al., 1992; Gooch, 1992; McCorkle, 1992; Kuznar, 1994; Rao and Saxena,1994, 1996; Maikhuri et al., 1996; Kaechele and Dabbert, 2002; Nautiyal et al., 2003; Rao et al.,2003). In developing countries, conservation has mainly focused on a segregated approach andmainly adopted from the North American approach for management of the area based on strictnatural preservation and exclusion of human interaction and dependency despite the fact that indeveloping countries the human–ecosystem interaction is more complex and closelyinterwoven to support conservation options and the sustainable livelihood of the local people(Colchester, 1997; Ramphal, 1993; Hjortso et al., 2006). Many studies have indicated thatfollowing the segregated approach for conservation and management without emphasising themultifunctional values of ecosystems/landscape and society can lead to conflicts betweenconservation and utilisation of the resources. This is widely termed as resource–people conflictand has been identified as a major hurdle for sustainable management of the ecosystems/landscape (Pimbert and Pretty, 1997; Nautiyal, 1998; Maikhuri et al., 2001; Hjortso et al.,2006). Therefore, the implications related to production and economic objectives of theenvironmental, cultural and social systems need to be emphasised in detail (Benjamin et al.,2005). All over the world historical records indicate that societies have utilised and managed thepastures/rangelands so that the various functions from animal husbandry are used to theiradvantage. Lately, a number of factors imperil the sustainability of animal husbandryoccupations and the management of pastures in the many mountainous regions (Nautiyal et al.,2003). We are aware about the studies done on problems related to overgrazing in pastures suchas ecosystem degradation, erosion, poor quality of feed/fodder as well as consequences of strictnature protection on vegetation dynamics in developing (Singh and Kaur, 1983; Naithani et al.,1992; Swallow and Bromley, 1995; Chakravarty-Kaul, 1998; Kala, 2004; Gebremedhin et al.,2004; Nautiyal et al., 2005) and developed counties (Turner et al., 1994; Sandstrom et al., 2003;Bernues et al., 2005; Vega-Garcia and Chuvieco, 2006; Brandt and Townsend, 2006; Kohleret al., 2006). The present study was an initiative to investigate whether the strict ban associatedwith the implementation of the Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP) in Himalayas ofIndia is good or bad for alpine pastures, as well for the rural economy. Therefore, the mainobjective of the study was to attest the efficiency of NRMP, from an economic and ecologicalperspective, for their applicability in the mountains of the Indian Himalayas.

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2. Location of the study area

The present studywas focused onNandaDevi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) andValley of FlowersNational Park (VOF) representing animal husbandry and alpine ecosystems of the area. These alpinepastures have been banned for livestock grazing for many years in order to conserve the alpinevegetation. The NDBR (30°17′–30° 41′N and 79°40′–80°5′E) and VOF (30°41′–30°48′N and79°33′–79°46′E) are in the high lands (altitude from 1900 to 7817 m [Nanda Devi]) of theUttaranchal State of India. NDBR consists of a core zone (62470 ha) surrounded by a buffer zone(161214 ha). The core area has been a wildlife sanctuary since 1939 and has only been declared as aNational Park since 1982.With inclusion of the buffer zone, the regionwas designated as a biospherereserve in 1988 and in 1992 as a world heritage site. The VOF has an area of 8750 ha and has beenclosed for grazing since 1982 when it was declared a National Park (Fig. 1). During the year 2000,both areas were included in NDBR. Since 1982 domestic livestock grazing has been stopped in bothregions in accordance with the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.

3. Methodology

3.1. Economic analysis of animal husbandry

3.1.1. Review of historical recordsA detailed review of land use policies applicable for the region was conducted using historical

records and government documents. Government records were analysed to estimate the livestockpopulation during the last three decades and were verified with the data recorded from thehouseholds. To estimate the grazing intensity on alpine grazing lands the numbers and details ofall animals were collected using the registration records maintained by the forest check-point atentry points to Biosphere Reserve. As these animals are grazed only in those areas where theirowners' grazing rights exist and these areas are identified by a specific name, segregation of datawas possible. Grazing rights in each alpine pasture were also verified from records of the villages.Using a formula suggested by Bjonness (1980) the grazing intensity was estimated.

3.1.2. Personal observation and data collectionBased on the historical review and information gathered, a detailed query response sheet was

developed for a complete survey of representative villages to assess the livestock holding systems(numbers of animals in each category), source of fodder, grazing areas available/used, annuallivestock management practices (Nautiyal et al., 2003). Data was collected over a period of sixyears (1994–1999) from the villages within NDBR area. However, the data from animalhusbandry was not collected from the villages located adjacent to VOF. It is important to mentionhere that the animal husbandry data was only collected to determine the role of animal husbandryin the rural economy and hindrances to this sector arising from the implementation of the NRMP.The trend was similar in both areas of the region. For economic efficiency estimation, the valueswere converted to monetary terms using the prevailing wage rates for human and animal labourand price of commodities such as manure, feed, meat, milk etc.

3.2. Ecological perspective and land use cover change analysis

The alpine pastures located in the area are a common land resource used by the people to grazetheir livestock herds. So far very limited information has been available regarding the implications

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Fig.1.

Locationof

stud

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inIndian

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alayan

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ntainchain.

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of the restrictions imposed on such kinds of common land resources, thus efforts are being taken tounderstand the ecological perspective of alpine pastures in terms of vegetation dynamics. At thestart of this study, sampling was done for the population study of important medicinal and alpineherbs in the region. The emphasis was on those species which are presently categorised as rare,endangered or threatened, and have huge economic potential as well as high social value. Tendifferent habitats of the selected species were identified for the population study; these hadvariations in aspect, slope, and soil condition. The sampling for ecological analysis was donefollowing the standard method “species-area curve” (Misra, 1968) and “running mean method”was adopted (Kershaw, 1964;Mueller-Dombois and Ellenberg, 1974; both are cited in Squiers andWistendahl, 1976) for determination of quadrats to be laid down to enumerate the species in thehabitat types. Following this method normally 15–20 quadrats are required for herbaceousvegetation to cover optimum number of the individual and maximum number of species. We laiddown 20 quadrats (1 m×1m) andmean density (individual of species per unit area) of each specieswas calculated within its habitat type and density was calculated using the following formula:

d ¼ xnN

d=density, xn= total number of individual of a species in all quadrates; N=total number ofquadrats studied.

Satellite data were used after having enough information about the field conditions andknowledge of the plant community. Visual observation with remote sensing data is a very good toolfor comprehending the changes in alpine ecosystem while emphasising the interaction betweenanthropogenic and natural resource systems during the past few decades. The analysis of remotesensing imagery gives geographic and temporal information regarding land use and land coverchange analysis and is helpful to understand the extent of human dimensions on environmentalchange and the outcome of human actions across the landscape. Satellite imagery — Landsat-3(path/row, 156/039 (Multi-Spectral Scanner-MSS)) and Landsat-7 ETM+ (path/row, 145/039) wereused to cover the study area. Two dates of images for 1979 and 2002 of the same month wererectified to a common UTM coordinate system. The acquisition dates of the imagery were 20thOctober 1979 and 23rd October 2002 respectively. The image rectification was completed andimages rectified and restoredmanually using the ENVI image tomap registrationmethod. A satellitedifferential GPS was used in the field (accuracy ≈2 m) to collect geo-referenced information forgeometric correction of the satellite imagery using the ground control points (GCPs). Easilyrecognisable landscape features — such as confluence of the rivers, water channels, agriculture,village, different forest types etc. were recorded and used to correct the images with the help ofArcGIS 9.0. For this approach the ETM+ imagery of the region was selected as a base map of thearea. Once the coefficients for the equations were determined, the distorted image coordinates formap position could be precisely estimated, expressing this in mathematical notation (Lillesand et al.,2004).

x ¼ f 1ðX ; Y Þ y ¼ f 2ðX ; Y Þ

Where

(x,y) Distorted-image coordinates (column, row)(X,Y ) Correct (map) coordinatesf 1, f 2 Transformation functions

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Fig. 2. Diagram showing decision tree classifier. In example each box is a node where test is applied to split the data in tosequentially smaller groups.

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After the geometric correction, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) wascalculated while using the following formula (Rouse et al., 1974).

NDVI ¼ NIR−RedNIRþ Red

(Where “NIR” is value of Near-Infrared Radiation from a pixel).The land cover map of different alpine pastures was developed following a decision tree

classification method. The Decision Tree classifier performs multistage classifications by using aseries of binary decisions to place pixels into classes. Here we have followed the methodologygiven by Friedl and Brodley (1997) for decision tree classification of land cover from remotelysensed data. The classification procedure is presented in example given in Fig. 2.

4. Results

4.1. The economic aspect of implementation of NRMP

The number of livestock reared by people living in NDBR area at different points of time isdepicted in Fig. 3. There is sharp decline in sheep and goat population in the area. This is because thesheep and goat population is out-grazing, hence was affected through the implementation of NRMPin the region. However, we found that the numbers of other animals – such as cattle, horses andmules, though reduced – did not show any such drastic change due to land use change policies in theregion. Domesticated yak population is totally extinct from the region. Analysis of data indicated the

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Fig. 3. Livestock population at different points of time in study area.

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number of families owning/rearing the bullocks and cows showed a marginal increase, while thoseowning/rearing the sheep and goats showed a drastic decline. The data pertaining to animalhusbandry for the villages located adjacent to the VOF is not presented here — however, localpeople in this area admitted that the livestock population declined rapidly due to execution of theNRMP.

Sheep and goat rearing is an integral part of the rural economy and these animals need the opengrazing land throughout the year. Before the implementation of NRMP all pastures in NDBR andVOF were accessible for grazing. Name of the pastures, number of animal units, duration anddays spent for grazing is presented in Table 1. After land segregation in 1982 eight pastures viz.,

Table 1The approximate area (ha), duration and days spent for grazing in different pasture lands of the study region

Name of the pasture DVS No. of grazinganimals (AU)

Duration for grazing(April to October)

Approximate areain hectare

Days spentfor grazing

Dharansi 12 1200±150 May to mid June 320 25Dibrugetha 18 1800±150 May to mid June 480 43Bhitartoli 25 1000±90 May to June first week 250 35Deudi 30 2000±180 Mid May to mid June 520 45Sarson patal 35 5500±500 July to mid September 1250 70Seni kharak 10 1000±80 April last week to mid June 268 55Lata kharak 10 1000±80 April last week to mid June 267 55Ramni 22 1500±120 Mid June to July 400 38Dronagiri 5 2000±230 Mid May to June first week 328 24Kaga 4 800±100 May first week to mid June 214 15Sirwans 6 2500±300 Mid June to July 387 25Kalakhal 5 1200±120 July first to last week 187 22Choping 12 3000±250 August first to last week 340 23Bagni 5 3000±250 July to August first week 323 32Nandi Kund 10 4000±300 July to mid August 654 35*VOF 06 – Mid April to mid October – –

DVS = distance from the nearest village settlements.* Before implementation of NRMP many herds used to come to the valley between April and October.– Data not available.

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Table 2The grazing intensity on the pasture lands before and after the creation of National Park and Biosphere Reserve

Total no.oflivestockunits

Totalno. ofpastures

Average no. of livestockunit on per pasture forfodder/feed requirements

Approximatearea (ha)available forgrazing

Grazingintensitybased onlivestock unit

NDBRBefore creation of

national park21,000 15 1400±140 6188±125.0 3 livestock

unit/haAfter creation of

national park and biosphere reserve14,500 07 2071±190 2433±73.0 6 livestock

unit/haVOF – – – – –

– Data not available.

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Dharansi, Dibrugetha, Bhitartoli, Deudi, Sarson patal, Seni kharak, Ramni have been included inthe core zone of the reserve and Lata kharak is located at the boundary of the core zone. Therefore,at present seven pastures are only available for grazing. The biggest pasture is Sarson patal (nowlocated in core zone) had been supporting maximum number of livestock unit for maximum daysin a year followed by Nandi kund, Bagni, Choping, Sirwans of the buffer zone. In viewpoint oflivestock support, Kaga is smallest pasture located in buffer zone of NDBR. The grazing intensityhas been increased 3 animal units per ha of pasture land to 6 animal units per ha of pasture landfrom not-segregated to segregated landscape respectively (shown in Table 2).

Fig. 4 shows the declining trend in contribution of animal husbandry in rural economy atdifferent points of time. The maximum share of income among the sources came from animalhusbandry (40%) during 1970–80. However, after three decades this sector only contributedapproximately 18% of the region's farmers' gross income.

4.2. Ecological aspect of the implementation of NRMP in the region

The density (individual/m2) of important medicinal and aromatic plants with in the studyregion has been presented in Table 3. Study shows that Allium humile is densely populated(5.2310±0.206) in the area followed by Megacarpaea polyandra (1.010±0.043), Picrorhizakurrooa (0.670±0.023), Tanacetum longifolium (0.613±0.057). Density of Podophyllumhexandrum (0.045±0.005) was lowest among the species selected for the population study.The occurrence of medicinal and aromatic plant species that were selected for the population

Fig. 4. The percent contribution of animal husbandry in total income coming from different sectors of village ecosystem.

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Table 3The density (individual/m2) of important medicinal and aromatic alpine herbs in study region of Himalayas of India

Species In NDBR area

Podophyllum hexandrum Royle 0.045±0.005Pleurospermum angelicoides DC 0.056±0.005Angelica glauca Edgew 0.104±0.015Dactylorhiza hatagirea D.Don 0.290±0.011Paeonia emodi Wall. ex Royle 0.346±0.040Tanacetum longifolium 0.613±0.057Allium humile Kunth 5.2310±0.206Megacarpaea polyandrya Benth. 1.010±0.043Aconitum balfourii Stapf 0.084±0.007Arnebia benthamii Wall 0.111±0.013Rheum australe L. 0.093±0.006Saussurea obvallata (DC.) Edgew 0.151±0.013Picrorhiza kurrooa Royle 0.670±0.023

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study (viz., P. hexandrum, Pleurospermum angelicoides, Anglica glauca, Saussurea obvallata,Dactylorhiza hatagirea, etc.) has found maximum in the areas where bushes/weeds have notinvaded yet followed by the location where bushes/weeds covered less than 20% area. Thenumbers of species are decreasing in increasing of patchiness of the invaded species in alpinepastures. Only one species (Allium) found with the patches covered fully by invaded bushes (Fig.5). Species such as P. hexandrum, A. balfourii, A. benthamii, A. glauca and D. hatagirea arepresently considered critically endangered (Kala et al., 2004) and P. kurrooa, P. angelicoides, S.obvallata are in the endangered category.

Following the in-depth field investigation the objectives of the study were reviewed based on theexisting natural resource management plan (NRMP) in the region. However, it is important to alsoanalyse land cover dynamics in the alpine ecosystems. With visual observation only it is hard togenerate precise conclusions on this aspect. Therefore, a study based on satellite data examiningextractions of vegetation cover in different alpine pastures of the Central Himalaya might be helpful

Fig. 5. Species richness across the different land mark/patches in the region.

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to understand the competence of NRMP. The core zones of NDBR and VOF have been strictlyclosed for grazing since 1982. The land use cover maps have been developed in four categories: (a)for the alpine pastures of whole NDBR region when there was no boundary of core and buffer zone(for the year 1979); (b) for core zone and buffer zone of NDBR after implementation of NRMP (forthe year 2002); (c) for VOF before execution of NRMP (for the year 1979); and (d) for VOF after theexecution of NRMP (for the year 2002) (see Fig. 6). The habitats of many bushes/thorny bushes andweeds having luxuriant growth have expanded in the alpine pastures. This is visualized clearly whencomparing the land cover map of the area for the years 1979 (shown in Fig. 6A, D) and 2002 (Fig.6B, C and E) where significant changes in vegetation dynamics can be seen. There is also debate

Fig. 6. (A–E). Change in alpine land cover in a part of Himalayas, India. A) Land cover map of NDBR pastures beforeimplementation of NRMP (acquisition date of 10.10.1979); B) Land cover map of NDBR core zone pastures afterimplementation NRMP (acquisition date 23.10.2002); C)Land cover map of NDBR buffer zone pasture afterimplementation of NRMP (acquisition date 23.10.2002); D) Land cover map of VOF before implementation of NRMP(acquisition date 20.10.1979); E) Land cover map of VOF after implementation of NRMP (acquisition date 23.10.2002).

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Fig. 6 (continued ).

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Fig. 6 (continued ).

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Fig. 7. Percentage (%) increase from 1979 to 2002 in bushes/weeds/dwarf tree vegetation in alpine pastures of Himalayasof India.

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regarding weeds (Polygonum spp.) choking the entire VOF (Kala, 2002) and NDBR and yearlyexpansion thus threatening the biodiversity of the area.

Analysis of the current study showed that the habitat of bushes/thorny bushes is expanding instrictly protected sites – such as the core zone of NDBR and whole of VOF – in comparison to thebuffer zone and all pastures before execution of NRMP. Between 1979 and 2002, the bushes/weeds increased the establishment in NDBR from 0.66% to 8.74% however, in VOF theexpansion was reported from 1.1% to 14% between 1979 and 2002 respectively (Fig. 7). The rateof change in vegetation dynamics is very rapid and indicates a threat to the diversity anddisturbance to the vegetation dynamics of the landscape at local/regional level in the context ofnational and global agenda.

5. Discussion

Mountain and alpine pastures have traditionally played an important role in the developmentof livestock production systems in developing countries (Maikhuri, 1992; Nautiyal et al., 2003,2005) as well as developed parts of the world (Bernues et al., 2005). The land use change policies,or implementation of NRMP, have affected the economic perspective of rearing livestock in theregion. In 1982, the Nanda Devi National Park and VOF were created to protect uniqueecosystems and wildlife. Consequently, there have been further reductions in grazing areas, asmajor alpine pastures are the part of core protected areas. The economics of livestock rearingshowed that this sector was very strong before 1982 while contributing nearly half of the localpeople's income and livelihood. The animal husbandry system has started declining since theNRMP concept was formalised in the name of conservation. Consequent to this the economy ofthe local people has been negatively affected. This was one part of implementation of NRMP.Sheep and goat occupy important role in both energy and monetary flows due to its numbers. In arecent study carried out by Abule et al. (2005) emphasised that the carrying capacity of the systemis dependent on the stores found within the system and ability to replenish the depletions throughconsumption and in this direction the perceptions of the pastoralists on the intensity of the conflictvaried, but many indicated that the intensity has increased. This phenomenon is observed inNanda Devi Biosphere reserve where external effects of NRMP have increased grazing intensityfrom 3 livestock unit/ha to 6 livestock unit/ha respectively before and after implementation ofconservation policies. There is a very general phenomenon as increasing interest in preservationof grazing resources and especially those located in protected natural areas. Field based study on

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population of some important medicinal and aromatic herbs is done. The species richness ofvariety of medicinal and aromatic plants is decreasing as the invasion of other species in theregion is increasing. It means after given strict protection the invasion of species in alpine pastureis replacing the habitat of many valuable alpine herbs. A. humile was only found in the patchesfully covered by invaded vegetation. Study reported that landscape homogenization (increase inshrubs and parallel reduction in grassland) resulted from traditional land use interruption hasgenerally negative impact on the landscape. This leads to increase the chances of fire andprobability of burning in near future is very high where local homogeneity was higher (Vega-Garcia and Chuvieco, 2006).

Developing countries are experiencing rapid land cover change, but assessment of these areasis often restricted by variety of reasons however, assessment of regional land cover patterns is ingeneral the first step towards developing a successful conservation and management plan (Brandtand Townsend, 2006). Remote sensing techniques, including visual observation and imageinterpretation are useful for providing valuable information in a short time for large areas(Sandstrom et al., 2003). The vegetation map developed during this study for the alpine pasturesbefore and after implementation of NRMP in the region showed that there is no positive impact onvegetation cover of the alpine ecosystems. In NDBR and VOF the implementation of land usepolicies hindered animal husbandry system on one hand and contributed to overstocking inpastures on the other and changed the vegetation dynamics with invasion of bushes/thorny bushesand shrubs and unwanted weeds in the alpine ecosystems. The area of expansion of bushes/weedsincreased from 0.13% (1979) to 14% (2002) in the alpine pastures of the region. This is alsosupported by the study that spiny shrubs/bushes increase the establishment in the abandonedpastures/farmlands (Benjamin et al., 2005). An efficient dispersal strategy, greater germinationability and better seeding survival are identified as the major traits favoring the large-scaleinvasion of shrubs bushes/weeds (Mouillot et al., 2005) rather than alpine herbs. Many studieshave indicated that livestock grazing in alpine pastures/rangelands maintains the diversity of theecosystems/landscape (Singh and Kaur, 1983; Naithani et al., 1992; Bernues et al., 2005). Theimpact on vegetation is not only in terms of productivity and quality, but also in terms of thesignificance of vegetation dynamics, the species composition and diversity in the wholecommunity and landscape (Collins et al., 1998; Sternberg et al., 2000; Rook and Tallowin, 2003;Bernues et al., 2005). But policy makers find it hard to believe that pastoral practices are helpfulfor maintaining the diversity and management of the ecosystems on one hand (Chakravarty-Kaul,1998) and sustainable livelihood of the local people on the other. Scientific studies will be veryhelpful in understanding the complexity of the system and designing and developing the effectiveconservation program for the conservation and management of alpine pastures (Kala, 2004).Therefore, the sustainable development of alpine pastures/rangelands, protected areas, rather thanapplying general plans or very general recommendations— consideration of the socio-economicsof the local people and regional conditions needs great emphasis (Flamant et al., 1999; Kaecheleand Dabbert, 2002).

In case of the current study we have compared the data sets at different spatial and temporaldynamics. While analysing the economical and ecological perspectives following theimplementation of NRMP in the region the existing NRMP does not appear to be suitable forthe region. In addition to setbacks in the rural economy the ecological consequences of such Plansare leading to threats to the diversity of alpine herbs. Conservation and management would bemore effective and feasible if system function and structure related to the core national park andthe buffer zone are perceived in a comprehensive holistic way, integrating social and biologicalrelations and dependencies (Hjortso et al., 2006). The integrated approach considering ecosystem

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complexity in view is a more feasible and supportive approach for enhancing economics,maintaining natural capital and continuing to provide ecosystem services on a local, regional andglobal scales (Noordwijk et al., 2001) rather than the segregated unidirectional way forbiodiversity conservation.

6. Conclusion

The existing NRMP has been tested from an economic and ecological view-point. In the ruralecosystem the animal husbandry sector provides significant subsidiary income to local people afteragriculture land use. Unfortunately, the animal husbandry sector has received setbacks due to theimplementation of the NRMP, however unintentionally. The animal husbandry system that wasstrong three decades ago contributedmore in sustenance of the local people but has started decliningafter implementation of the NRMP and has shown a negative economic trend for the livelihood ofthe local farmer. However, the ecological perspective is also not showing support for the approachand framework of the current NRMP in the region. The invasion of weeds/bushes/thorny bushes isan example of changes in vegetation dynamics of alpine ecosystems. This is a threat to the diversityas the invasion of other species replaces the habitat of many important herbs in alpine pastures. Anintegrated approach for ecosystem conservation and sustainable livelihood of local people under theparameter for environmental conservation is therefore supported by this study.

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions. SN extendssincere thanks to Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for award of the fellowship and to JapanSociety for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for financial support for the purchase of remotesensing data. Opinions expressed here are of the authors and not of the organization with whichthey are affiliated.

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Sunil Nautiyal M.Sc. Ph.D. (Plant Science) is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher from Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation at Institute of Socioeconomics, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). Heinvestigates the sustainable livelihood aspects of local inhabitants in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. For the last years hehas been documenting the ecosystem responses of Himalayan region to anthropogenic pressures. His current interestsinclude designing, developing and demonstrating land use models suitable for various agro-eco regions of Himalaya.

Harald Kaechele is professor for environmental economics at the University of Applied Sciences of Eberswalde,Germany and vice-chair of the Institute of Socioeconomics at the Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land UseResearch in Müncheberg, Germany. He has a PhD from the Institute of Farm Management, Production Theory andResource Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany. He is acting president of German Environmental Fund andchairman of Friends of the Earth, Regional Organisation, Berlin.

Please cite this article as: Sunil Nautiyal, Harald Kaechele, Adverse impacts of pasture abandonment in Himalayanprotected areas: Testing..., Environmental Impact Assessment Review (2006), doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2006.10.003