Browsing by Subject "Resettlement"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Assessment of residents' social and economic Wellbeing in conservation resettlement: a case study of Padampur, Chitwan National Park, Nepal.
    (2011-12) Dhakal, Narayan P.
    Conservation resettlement is a controversial issue in balancing biological conservation with the people’s social and economic needs. Very few studies have examined the conservation resettlement outcome, and majority of them view resettlement as counterintuitive to the people’s livelihood in the name of biological conservation. This thesis focuses on residents’ responses on social, economic and environmental consequences of a voluntary resettlement. Studies of forced resettlement during the creation and maintenance of national parks and protected areas have found negative socioeconomic consequences for human wellbeing. I investigated residents’ social and economic wellbeing following a citizeninitiated resettlement program in Padampur, Nepal. We found a difference between voluntary and forced resettlement respondents in overall satisfaction as well as evaluation of land quality and employment factors. However, there was no difference in their evaluation of land ownership, housing, physical infrastructure, health, social ties, and support services as having positive outcomes. Most respondents reported being socially and economically better off in the new location. In the future, economic status, food and nutrition, and marginalization of some groups could potentially reduce satisfaction. Residents’ post resettlement economic wellbeing is an important factor in balancing conservation and socioeconomic needs. After the resettlement, we found more residents were engaged in off-farm jobs, micro-enterprises, and physical facilities which were serving their needs. Our findings suggest that considering the following factors in resettlement planning may provide better post resettlement economic wellbeing: a) participatory and bottom up planning; b) fair compensation of physical asset; and c) provision of basic needs for water, and facilities for health and education. I emphasize the need of participatory resettlement planning models, and feel that the results have general applications to resettlement efforts. To see the biological aspects of the resettlement, I assessed the prey abundance in the evacuated area in comparison to the abundance in the park core area. I have chosen Sambar Unit (SU) as a measurement unit to assess the prey abundance. SU is significant with more prey abundance in the evacuated area than the core area of the park. Residents’ perceived biodiversity loss and gain was assessed in both locations (old and new). After the resettlement, residents’ positive perception in restoring wildlife habitat in the old site decreased pressure and decreased human wildlife conflicts. In the new site, I found increased understanding on sustainable utilization of natural resources through community forestry by reducing forest dependency. I suggest the need of periodic monitoring of post resettlement biological and socioeconomic gains to evaluate the long term viability of voluntary resettlement for conservation and residents’ better wellbeing. We suggest future conservation related resettlement consider lessons from the Padampur model.
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    The resettlement of the Karen in Minnesota
    (2015-01) Lytle, Kathleen J.
    Minnesota has a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees into its communities. Following the Vietnam War large numbers of Southeast Asian (SEA)refugees came to Minnesota. With the implementation of the Refugee Act of 1980, a formal refugee resettlement program was created nation-wide. As part of the Refugee Act of 1980 Voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), were established to help the refugees with their resettlement process. Soon after the arrival of refugees from Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, refugees from other countries began coming to Minnesota. In the 1990s refugees from the former Soviet Union began resettling in Minnesota. In the mid 1990s refugees from East Africa began arriving. In the early 2000s, large numbers of Karen refugees from Burma began coming to Minnesota. In order to help the Karen refugees in their acculturation, it is important for the community within which they are living to understand them and their culture. Using an ethnographic approach, this qualitative research project is aimed at understanding the lived experiences of the Karen and their resettlement. It describes sources of stress the Karen experience during their resettlement, and it describes the experiences of key informants who have worked in the resettlement of the Karen to Minnesota. This research suggests that, for the Karen, the development of a social capital network of community support, established prior to their arrival, has been an important part of their resettlement experience. Although the Karen have a well-established network of social support in Minnesota, they continue to experience significant acculturative stress in all areas of their lives.
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    Resettling Buha: a social history of resettled communities in Kigoma Region, Tanzania, 1933-1975.
    (2011-05) Weiskopf, Julie Marie
    Residents of lowland Buha, in western Tanzania’s Kigoma Region, faced statesponsored, forced resettlement campaigns in both the colonial and postcolonial periods. In the 1930s, British colonial officials compelled those living in the easternmost areas to resettle closer to the roadway as a public health intervention in response to epidemic sleeping sickness. In the 1970s, Tanzanian officials forced everyone in the region to resettle again, this time in African socialist, or ujamaa, villages. This dissertation examines these schemes as part of a long-term history of resettlement in Buha, demonstrating how resettlement was a decades-long, unfolding process for both Ha people and government officials. In particular, I examine the interplay between the moral visions that different government officials and Ha people had for resettled areas and the material constraints in which they operated. Neither group could unilaterally implement their priorities but instead had to work within a series of limitations. For Ha people, this involved managing the forms of interference that government settlement and natural resource policies placed on their choice of domicile and use of resources. For state officials, they not only had to contend with competing Ha priorities, but also with resource limitations, internal divisions within their bureaucracies, and their own ideological commitments to western science and economic development. In the end, resettled communities created in the wake of removal were not the results of the transformative power of state planning, but instead formed at the intersection of Ha and governmental desires to replicate, adjust, or revolutionize Ha lives and livelihoods.