In the Media
Push for forest conservation destroying Pakistani yak herding practices
February 10, 2012
CIFOR Forests Blog
Local government efforts to promote forest conservation in a Pakistani village are blocking access to common lands and destroying traditional yak herding practices that villagers depend on for their livelihoods, says a recent study by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
“We need to rethink our current understanding of conservation, as creating protected areas which people cannot enter can clearly be very detrimental to the livelihoods of forest communities,” said Syed Ajijur Rahman, CIFOR Associate and co-author of Commons becoming non-commons in the efforts for reconciliation between conservation and livelihoods: A case study of northern Pakistan.
Recent efforts by the local government to protect forested areas have forced traditional yak herders to abandon previously accessible pastures.Once viewed as a viable solution for protecting natural ecosystems, the study argued that many protected areas use top-down management approaches that “fail to recognise and respect the rights and values of local and indigenous peoples”. This was the case in North Pakistan’s Khunjerab National Park, where the establishment of state control over common resources did away with centuries-old herding practices, and igniting conflict over the access to and use of natural resources.
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Keywords: Asia, conservation, Pakistan, policy, protected forest