Community dependence and their interaction with natural ecosystems: a case study at Koshi Tappu wildlife reserve, Nepal
Student name: Ms Priya Pradeep Joshi
Guide: Dr Joachim Schmerbeck
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Gopal Rawat and Dr Nakul Chettri
Abstract: Natural ecosystems are banks of goods and services which can sustain and
nurture human life. The current study deals with the identification of different
biomass resources and quantification of their extraction at Koshi Tappu wildlife
reserve, Nepal. There were nine major biomass resources identified out of
which, fuel wood, fodder and fish production were extracted in a large quantity.
The study also included economic valuation of the resources that were
consumed. The economic valuation was done by the principal of total economic
valuation (TEV), the TEV of Koshi Tappu Wildlife reserve was found out to be
3573.96 lakh NRs/annum (1.74% of the GDP of Nepal for the year 2012). The
highest contributor to the TEV of the reserve was fuelwood followed by fodder.
The study also involves analysis of level of dependency of the local people and
villages on the reserve based on socio – economic factors ( occupational groups,
migration status, livestock units, family size, landholding and resource use
pattern). It was found that the agricultural groups depended most on the
resources from the reserve while Shreepur – Haripur villages showed maximum
overall dependency.
Key words: Ecosystem goods and services, TEV, KTWR, Resource
dependence, Quantification,
