Development of Ecosystem for Wild Animals
Development of Ecosystem for Wild Animals may be defined as the set of conservation oriented development measures to make protected areas and the human neighbours compatible with each other.
Development of Ecosystem for Wild Animals is a process of developing the conservation of natural resources that are sustainable by associating local persons in the development and implementation of rural development programmes.
Aims of Ecosystem Development Measures
Aims of Ecosystem development measures is reduce the dependency of people (or neighbours of forests in particular) for the resources from the forests .
People use the resources of forests for the following purposes in general:
- Fuel
- Grazing of livestock
- Fodder
- Building of houses
- Agricultural practices and implements
- Forest products
Natural Reserves
Various natural reserves existing in the wildlife regions provide the complete protection for the wild animals belonging to the different species.
Many times, human interventions are made for positive purposes in order to give more protection to the wild fauna and flora. It is to be understood that various natural reserves hardly comprise one percent of the earth’s land areas.
Most of the other areas are used for production of food, timber, pulpwood or other raw materials. Hence, in all these areas, wildlife conservation related measures need to be strengthened and if necessary, human intervention (Broader land use strategy) may be made in order to enrich the protective measures for the welfare of wild fauna.
Biomes and Ecological Equivalents
Major global units of flora and fauna are termed as biomes. With regard to the ecological equivalents, the wild animals in one region may differ from their taxonomic classification but taps particular environmental resources within the ecosystem.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is an area can be declared as a sanctuary through notification under the section 18 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 and the process of determination of peoples rights and their acquisition / elimination under sections 19-25 follows such a declaration.
Sanctuary can be defined in nut shell as a larger area meant for the protection of wild fauna and flora. Sanctuaries have sound legal status with a strong but not exclusive wildlife oriented management.
The grazing activities are restricted and subordinated to the needs of wildlife conservation. Moderate amounts of fund provision and staff facilities are given when compared to the national park.
Tourism may exist to some extent but is a restricted area. The status of a wildlife sanctuary can always be elevated to that of a national park.
National Park
National park is an area that has more legal status in general. A wildlife sanctuary may be elevated to the status of national park in the course of time, depending on the extent of additional protection, the value of the concerned wild animal species etc.
National park has a sound legal status. They are developed exclusively for the purpose of conservation of wildlife in their natural environment. Drastic manipulation of the wildlife habitat is not favored in general.
The approach towards the management related to the national park is basically of compensatory and reamelioratory nature.
