Evaluating community incentives for biodiversity conservation in protected areas in Nepa

Recently, conservation efforts have expanded to incorporate delivering social and economic benefits to communities nearby or within protected areas. Benefits can generate incentives to encourage conservation support; however, such incentive-based programs (IBPs) have been criticised for failures in achieving both conservation and development goals. Many of the criticisms centre on deficiencies in benefit distribution and connection with conservation.;This research highlights the limitations and successes of selected IBPs in Nepal. The protected area approaches compared are the buffer zone concept in Royal Chitwan National Park and the biosphere reserve concept in Annapurna Conservation Area. The research finds that benefits continue to be unfairly and unequally distributed and the connection between benefits and conservation is not recognized unless benefits are directly dependent on natural resources. Illegal extraction and widespread support for environmentally destructive development suggest IBPs are not having the desired effect in gaining long term local support for conservation.