Assessment of the economic and conservation potential of different land uses in Chikmagalur, Western Ghats, India
Student name: Ms Ritwika Basu
Guide: Dr Chubamenla Jamir
Year of completion: 2013
Host Organisation: French Institute of Pondicherry, India
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Cheryl D. Nath
Abstract: The main assumptions on which this study was based are: a) The expected
positive relationship between habitat structural diversity and species diversity,
b) The role of economic trade offs (benefit-cost ratio) in farmer’s land use
decisions, and c) The importance of government policy and other institutions in
promoting better land use practice. In the following paragraphs these concepts
are elaborated on, to show how these concepts and inter linkages between them
need to be considered when developing economically and ecologically
sustainable land use pattern. Analysis of the data collected was divided into 3
sections: geographic, economic and socio-economic. The findings from these
analyses talk about the impact of various factors- geographic, economic and
socio-economic on the potential for promoting farmers to grow native trees in
Chikmagalur, Karnataka.. The different factors used for analyses were Land
holding size, distance from homestead, water availability, (geographic factors)
and production costs, incomes and Net present values of different crops
(economic factors) and the role of willingness, perception of benefits, incentives
(social factors) etc to assess the future possibility of designing schemes,
incentives etc. that will be both remunerative as well as encourage farmers to
participate in a larger goal of conservation.
