ABSTRACT
The omnipresent process of globalisation, in spite of its many positive outcomes, is often taking a toll over the environment as a natural outcome. Globalisation and its concurrent avatars of privatisation and liberalisation under the policy of structural adjustment is giving rise to upsurge of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, injustice, and inequality besides environmental degradation. The vicious situation demands a desperate search for alternative to comprehend the interests of conservation and people’s livelihood rights together. These demand a conservation policy which essentially requires economically viable protected areas. It has its genesis in the 1992 Earth Summit, when a bold new Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was developed which, inter alia, calls on governments to establish systems of protected areas and to manage these in support of conservation, sustainable use and equitable benefit sharing. The governments recognition of protected areas as economic institutions have a key role to play in the alleviation of poverty and the maintenance of the global community’s critical life-support systems. This new vision for protected areas requires an awareness and understanding of the economic values generated by these protected areas. However, global conventions and programs alone are not enough to ensure the continued existence of, and sufficient funding for, protected areas. In times of fiscal austerity and tightening government budgets – especially in developing countries which are home for much of the world’s biodiversity – traditional funding sources for protected areas are increasingly under threat. Innovative alternatives to these traditional sources are needed in order to secure the long-term viability of protected areas. It is through endogenous development which calls for social, economic, and cultural transformations of societies based on the revitalisations of traditions, respect for environment and equitable relations of production; hitherto excluded communities can be organised to develop the potential of every region. In this background, the chapter explores the impact of globalisation on conservation policies of India and Economic viability of protected areas.
