South African rural coastal communities have utilised mangrove products for generations. However, the factors determining use are poorly understood and utilisation is rarely acknowledged in natural resource management.

New institutions created through decentralisation policies around the world, notwithstanding the rhetoric, are often lacking in substantive democratic content. New policies for decentralised natural resource management have transferred powers to a range of local authorities, including private associations, customary authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Scholars see such transfers as detrimental to the legitimacy of local democratic institutions, leading to a fragmentation of local authority and dampening prospects for democratic consolidation.

Forestry decision-making is still largely centralised in Guatemala. Nevertheless, elected municipal governments can now play a key role in local forest management. These local governments, with some exceptions, are the principal local institutions empowered to participate in natural resource authority. Some theorists argue that such elected local officials are the most likely to be representative and downwardly accountable. But do these political institutions have the ability to represent the interests of minority and historically excluded or oppressed groups?

Indira Gandhi’s life (1917–1984) spanned much of the twentieth century. She was Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy for two spells that totaled fi fteen years. To this day, her environmental legacy remains one that divides critics from admirers. One sees it as a defense against ecological impoverishment, especially in her initiation of wildlife preservation and environmental conservation.

Action to conserve biodiversity, particularly through the creation of protected areas (PAs), is inherently political. Political ecology is a field of study that embraces the interactions between the way nature is understood and the politics and impacts of environmental action. This paper explores the political ecology of conservation, particularly the establishment of PAs.

There is limited information on the ecological effects of anthropogenic disturbance caused by extractive activities such as grazing and firewood collection. A study was carried out in Sariska Tiger Reserve in India, to investigate the effects of disturbance on forest bird communities.

A raging debate continues between social and wildlife scientists in India on the relocation of people from parks to decrease conflicting interests of wildlife conservation and the local people. The goal of such relocations is to enhance the conservation of threatened species like the tiger.

The issue of displacement and rehabilitation of people from wildlife areas is a recurrent and central theme in the context of crises in nature conservation in India. India is one of the countries where the issue of relocation has lately acquired centre-stage in debates on biodiversity conservation.

Displacement resulting from the establishment and enforcement of
protected areas has troubled relationships between conservationists and rural groups in many parts of the world. This paper examines one aspect of displacement: eviction from protected areas. The authors examine divergent opinions