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Browsing by Subject "consensus building"

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    Indigenous tribes as participants in monitoring wildlife leading to collaborative management on national forest lands in Taiwan
    (2022-11) Huang, Chih-Chien
    Since the Taiwan Forestry Bureau (TFB) implemented the Wildlife Conservation Act (WCA) in 1989 to protect wildlife and forbid hunting activities, indigenous tribes have asked for the reinstatement of hunting rights to support their traditional culture. In response to indigenous tribes’ request, the TFB revised the WCA for indigenous tribes in 2004 so that they would be able to conduct traditional hunting. However, questions concerning the health of the wildlife population arose because no information on wildlife populations existed. Indigenous tribes argued the wildlife populations had increased because their crops were damaged by wildlife, but the TFB had no information on the population size of any wildlife species to present to the general public on the issue. To decrease conflicts between the TFB and indigenous tribes, I designed a citizen-science survey, the Ungulate Pellet Groups Sign Survey, to encourage the indigenous hunters to participate in wildlife monitoring in the role of citizen scientists in order to track wildlife population change. The objective of this survey was to collect information on focal wildlife (muntjac, serow, and sambar deer), as well as to increase trust between the TFB and the indigenous tribes. In addition, I tested indigenous hunters’ ability and performance in conducting scientific wildlife surveys, and encouraged indigenous hunters to participate in wildlife management with the TFB. To mitigate conflicts caused by implementation of the WCA and encourage indigenous tribes to manage their natural resources, the TFB initiated the Community Forestry Project (CFP) in 2002. This project helped develop the indigenous tribes’ abilities in building consensus, inventorying natural resources, and using cultural knowledge to develop nature-based tourism in order to increase tribal incomes. In 2012, ten years after the CFP was implemented, the TFB initiated a tribal-based ecotourism project, the Ecotourism Committee Project (ECP) to encourage indigenous tribes to develop tribe-featured ecotourism in order to manage national forest lands with the TFB. The ECP consisted of a committee composed of diverse members, including tribal representatives, scholars, management experts, and government officials. The TFB officers acted as an interface, integrating step-by-step procedures to help develop the tribes' visions on using national forest land sustainably. The sign survey yielded not only wildlife population information such as seasonal migration, habitat preferences, and the influence of environmental factors, but also provided government agencies a cost-efficient way of collecting wildlife information to enhance wildlife management where there are terrain constraints. Furthermore, indigenous hunters in my study demonstrated their ability to conduct scientific wildlife surveys and revealed their anxiety about losing their tribal hunting culture. My study suggests employing indigenous hunters as citizen scientists, not only to collect wildlife population information for wildlife management but also to participate in being part of the management system, decreases conflict decrease the TFB and preserves their hunting culture. Indigenous hunters successfully demonstrated their ability to work as citizen scientists, but the indigenous tribes' transition from working with the CFP to the ECP was not straightforward. Indigenous tribes seemed to perform well in the tribe consensus building for the CFP but failed to be present in the ECP. This study also provides insight into how focal groups can cooperate in the management of wildlife and national lands.