Socioeconomics of biodiversity conservation in the protected areas: a case study in Bangladesh

Kaptai National Park (KNP) was declared a protected area (PA) in 1999 to protect its degrading biodiversity. This created conflicts between the forest-dependent communities and the KNP managers since in a PA everything is prohibited unless permitted. For the effective conservation of biodiversity resources of the PAs, Bangladesh has adopted forest co-management systems where forest-dependent people play an important role. Surveying a total of 150 households and using generalized logistic regressions, this study has investigated the socioeconomic factors that affect people's attitude towards biodiversity conservation of KNP and the level of their dependency on its resources. The study revealed that education, income, and forest dependency were positively linked to the likelihood of people's supports for management of KNP as a PA. However, the distance of household from KNP had a negative relationship with such perception. Similarly, people's income from forest, permanent residency in the study area, and forest-related occupation were positively aligned with their forest dependency. However, their education level significantly reduced their dependency on forest resources. Thus, educating the forest-dependent people, empowering the local and comanagement communities, and supporting alternative income generation activities should be appreciated for effective management of KNP. The study has identified the factors that require sufficient attention of the policymakers and forest managers to enhance biodiversity conservation at KNP and other PAs of the country.