Rural community participation and its socioeconomic development through forest management - a case study, Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India.

Keoladeo National Park (KNP) is one of the seven natural world heritage sites in India. In the early 1970s, prompted introduction of Prosopis juliflora(Sw.) DC to the KNP was done. Initially it was introduced in small patches but gradually it got spread over the entire park and become serious threats to the biodiversity of park. Therefore, to remove this invasive plant from KNP, 4490 members of 1435 families from 15 villages actively participated and 230.84 metric ton of wood was removed from the park. A survey was conducted among randomly selected 100 villagers of different age group from 22 to 65 years (X = 43.7 ± 9.58) having family size in the range of 4 to 9 members in their families ( X= 6.04 ± 1.3) from different villages who participated in this programme. It was administered by using semistructured interview questionnaires to elicit opinions from the respondents and attitudes were measured by ten attitude statements and constructed an attitude index. Local communities strongly supported this programme as 91 % (X= 1.09 ± 0.28) of the respondents agreed with the statement that they have benefitted from this programme significantly. Results suggested that this participatory management programme has improved the livelihoods to some extent and provide positive conservation attitudes among communities.