What drives local communities' attitudes toward the protected area? Insights from Bardia National Park, Nepal

Understanding the local communities' attitudes toward protected areas (PAs) is critical to PA management planning. However, what socio-economic and demographic factors drive their attitude remains poorly studied. We interviewed 135 residents in three villages in the buffer zone of Bardia National Park, Nepal, to assess their perceived benefits and costs of the PA. We found that perceived benefits are skewed toward wealthy and influential people, whereas costs associated with wildlife-caused damage (i.e., crop raiding) are borne disproportionately by poor people. The Tobit regression model showed that wealthy and educated residents who obtained direct tourism benefits from the park were significantly more likely to hold positive attitudes toward the PA. On the flip side, residents who had experienced conflict with park administration (park staff and military guards) and incurred a higher amount of crop loss in the recent past were likely to have negative attitudes. Our results showed that negative attitudes largely stemmed from park staff and military guards' behavior and inefficient service delivery from the national park office. In light of these findings, we suggest the park administration develop mechanisms to ensure efficient service delivery and pragmatic handling of community grievances concerning law enforcement and wildlife damage compensation. We also recommend directing park benefits to less educated and poor households and those suffering property losses from wildlife to improve park-people relationships.