Examining socio-ecological transitions and new human–wildlife relations in farming landscapes of the Nepal Himalaya

Abstract

Wildlife invasion into farmlands is emerging as an acute problem in the Himalayas, threatening farm-based livelihood systems of smallholder rural communities. The problem is severe in the areas where successful forest restoration has been achieved by community forestry programmes alongside massive outmigration. Such evolving dynamics have created new conceptual and empirical discourses on conservation, nature-society relations and human-wildlife interactions, as some wild animals have become pests for farming communities. Consequently, the historical co-existence and relationships between subsistence communities and local ecosystems have been destabilized. By mobilizing the concepts of forest transition and agrarian transition, we explore these new and emerging relationships between the growing wildlife problem and deteriorating people's livelihood by examining the nature, extent and drivers of the new human-wildlife interactions and provide critical insights towards effectiveness of current policies and practical responses.