Co-designing conservation interventions through participatory action research in the Indian Trans-Himalaya

Community-based conservation, despite being more inclusive than fortress conservation, has been criticized for being a top-down implementation of external ideas brought to local communities for conservation’s benefit. This is particularly true for Changpas, the pastoral people of Changthang in trans-Himalayan India who live alongside unique wildlife.

Our main aim was to co-design conservation interventions through participatory action research. We worked with two Changpa communities, to understand issues faced by them. Subsequently, we co-designed context-sensitive interventions to facilitate positive human-nature interactions. We did so by integrating the PARTNERS (Presence, Aptness, Respect, Transparency, Empathy, Responsiveness, Strategic Support) principles with the Trinity of Voice (Access, Standing, and Influence).
In Rupsho, we facilitated focus group discussions (FGDs) led by the community. We found livestock depredation by wildlife was primarily facilitated by the weather...., ,