IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iamodp/234108.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of protected areas on local livelihoods in the South Caucasus

Author

Listed:
  • Schott, Johanna
  • Kalatas, Talin
  • Nercissians, Emilia
  • Barkmann, Jan
  • Shelia, Vakhtang

Abstract

Nature conservation has a long tradition in the South Caucasus, a region with very high biodiversity. Alongside century old nature reserves (NR) in Azerbaijan and Georgia, two new transboundary national parks (NP) have recently been created in Armenia and Georgia. All of these protected areas exert an influence on the local populations, which use land located inside or in proximity to these areas. To investigate the impact of protected areas on the local populations, we conducted a qualitative study close to two neighbouring, historical NRs in Georgia (Lagodekhi) and Azerbaijan (Zaqatala), and close to the two new transboundary NPs in Armenia (Lake Arpi) and in Georgia (Javakheti). We collected the opinions of the local populations, local administrations, and environmental NGOs regarding the impact of protected areas on the livelihoods of the local populations and investigated whether the local populations developed strategies for dealing with these impacts. Results show that the land use restrictions entailed by protected areas cause conflicts of interests between the goals of conservation and those of the local populations on the one hand, and competition between different local groups with regard to scarce resources such as pastures on the other hand. These land use restrictions are due to the land use regulations of the protected areas and concern the use of pastures and forests. All sorts of tourism could provide a possible solution to settle conflicts and to increase incomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Schott, Johanna & Kalatas, Talin & Nercissians, Emilia & Barkmann, Jan & Shelia, Vakhtang, 2016. "The impact of protected areas on local livelihoods in the South Caucasus," IAMO Discussion Papers 234108, Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:iamodp:234108
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.234108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/234108/files/dp152.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.234108?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miranda, Juan José & Corral, Leonardo & Blackman, Allen & Asner, Gregory & Lima, Eirivelthon, 2016. "Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities: Evidence from the Peruvian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 288-307.
    2. Daniel Müller & Darla K. Munroe, 2005. "Tradeoffs between Rural Development Policies and Forest Protection: Spatially Explicit Modeling in the Central Highlands of Vietnam," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(3).
    3. Sri Lestari & Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka, 2012. "Voluntary participation in community collaborative forest management: A case study of Central Java,Indonesia," Working Papers EMS_2012_12, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    4. Zvi Lerman, 1999. "Land Reform and Farm Restructuring: What Has Been Accomplished to Date?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 271-275, May.
    5. János Kornai, 2008. "The Great Transformation of Central Eastern Europe: Success and Disappointment," International Economic Association Series, in: János Kornai & László Mátyás & Gérard Roland (ed.), Institutional Change and Economic Behaviour, chapter 1, pages 1-37, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Clements, Tom & Suon, Seng & Wilkie, David S. & Milner-Gulland, E.J., 2014. "Impacts of Protected Areas on Local Livelihoods in Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 125-134.
    7. Romão, João & Neuts, Bart & Nijkamp, Peter & Shikida, Asami, 2014. "Determinants of trip choice, satisfaction and loyalty in an eco-tourism destination: a modelling study on the Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 195-205.
    8. Getnet, Kindie & Pfeifer, Catherine & MacAlister, Charlotte, 2014. "Economic incentives and natural resource management among small-scale farmers: Addressing the missing link," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-7.
    9. LERMAN, Zvi, 2009. "Land reform, farm structure, and agricultural performance in CIS countries," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 316-326, June.
    10. Paul Ferraro & Merlin Hanauer, 2011. "Protecting Ecosystems and Alleviating Poverty with Parks and Reserves: ‘Win-Win’ or Tradeoffs?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(2), pages 269-286, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schott, Johanna & Kalatas, Talin & Nercissians, Emilia & Barkmann, Jan & Shelia, Vakhtang, 2016. "The impact of protected areas on local livelihoods in the South Caucasus [Naturschutzgebiete und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Erwerbsquellen der lokalen Anrainerbevölkerung im Südkaukasus]," IAMO Discussion Papers 152, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    2. repec:zbw:iamodp:234108 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Ma, Ben & Zhang, Yuqian & Huang, Yuan & Wen, Yali, 2020. "Socioeconomic and ecological direct and spillover effects of China's giant panda nature reserves," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    4. Aparna Howlader & Amy W. Ando, 2020. "Consequences of Protected Areas for Household Forest Extraction, Time Use, and Consumption: Evidence from Nepal," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(4), pages 769-808, April.
    5. Sims, Katharine R.E. & Alix-Garcia, Jennifer M., 2017. "Parks versus PES: Evaluating direct and incentive-based land conservation in Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 8-28.
    6. Blackman, Allen, 2013. "Evaluating forest conservation policies in developing countries using remote sensing data: An introduction and practical guide," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-16.
    7. Estifanos, Tafesse Kefyalew & Polyakov, Maksym & Pandit, Ram & Hailu, Atakelty & Burton, Michael, 2020. "The impact of protected areas on the rural households’ incomes in Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Auliz-Ortiz, Daniel Martín & Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor & Mendoza, Eduardo & Martínez-Ramos, Miguel, 2023. "Are there trade-offs between conservation and development caused by Mexican protected areas?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Ota, Tetsuji & Lonn, Pichdara & Mizoue, Nobuya, 2020. "A country scale analysis revealed effective forest policy affecting forest cover changes in Cambodia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Jagger, Pamela & Sellers, Samuel & Kittner, Noah & Das, Ipsita & Bush, Glenn K., 2018. "Looking for Medium-term Conservation and Development Impacts of Community Management Agreements in Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains National Park," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 199-206.
    11. Ayal Kimhi, 2023. "Land Reform and Its Effect on Farm Household Income Inequality: Evidence from Georgia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-11, October.
    12. Gwenolé Le Velly & Céline Dutilly, 2016. "Evaluating Payments for Environmental Services: Methodological Challenges," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, February.
    13. Miranda, Juan José & Corral, Leonardo & Blackman, Allen & Asner, Gregory & Lima, Eirivelthon, 2016. "Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities: Evidence from the Peruvian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 288-307.
    14. Sadeghi, Azin & Zhunusova, Eliza & Günter, Sven & Dieter, Matthias, 2023. "Households' livelihood in restricted forest landscapes: What is the impact of contextual factors?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. Ben Ma & Yuqian Zhang & Yilei Hou & Yali Wen, 2020. "Do Protected Areas Matter? A Systematic Review of the Social and Ecological Impacts of the Establishment of Protected Areas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-13, October.
    16. Qi Sun & Chao Fu & Yunli Bai & Ayub M. O. Oduor & Baodong Cheng, 2023. "Livelihood Diversification and Residents’ Welfare: Evidence from Maasai Mara National Reserve," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Ben Ma & Yali Wen, 2019. "Community Participation and Preferences Regarding Conservation and Development Policies in China’s Giant Panda Nature Reserves," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-17, September.
    18. Kandel, Pratikshya & Pandit, Ram & White, Benedict & Polyakov, Maksym, 2022. "Do protected areas increase household income? Evidence from a Meta-Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    19. Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo & Diaz-Gutierrez, Julian Eduardo & Hanauer, Merlin M., 2018. "Unintended consequences of conservation: Estimating the impact of protected areas on violence in Colombia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 46-70.
    20. Howlader, Aparna & Ando, Amy W., 2016. "Consequences of Protected Areas for Forest Extraction and Human Well-being: Evidence from Nepal," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 236272, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    21. Ma, Ben & Cai, Zhen & Zheng, Jie & Wen, Yali, 2019. "Conservation, ecotourism, poverty, and income inequality – A case study of nature reserves in Qinling, China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 236-244.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iamodp:234108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iamoode.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.