Bardia National Park (BNP) and Sonaha indigenous minorities, Nepal

Creation of national park impacted Sonaha indigenous groups in the Karnali river delta. Despite participatory conservation they continue to struggle for livelihoods while facing conservation injustice.

Description:

The Sonaha ethnic minority groups in south-wester Nepal inhabit the lower Karnali River Delta and they consider the river and riverine environment as their ancestral territory. The Sonaha history of inhabitation in the delta can be traced back to the times prior to the unification and creation of modern Nepal (in the1800s). The Sonaha historically led a semi mobile way of life; dependent on river based customary livelihoods (artisanal fishing and manual panning of gold dusts) and accessed forest resources. They managed riparian areas and riverbanks as a common property for gold panning.

After the creation of Bardia National Park (the Park) in 1976 and subsequent deployment of armed military park guards (formerly a hunting reserve of the monarchy), Sonaha mobile ways of life and customary livelihoods came under the pressures of the Park management restrictions. Significant portion of their riverine territory came under the jurisdiction of the Park (western section). The Geruwa River (branch of the main Karnali River) that marks the boundary of the Park pushed Sonaha to the periphery of the Park as a portion of the river delta came under the jurisdiction of the Park. Fishing and gold panning, and residing on make shift shelter on the river islands in the Park became illegal and punishable under the national park law.

Cases of harassment of Sonaha by the Park guards include confiscation of fishes, arrests, and imposition of fines by the Park management. Restrictions displaced many landless Sonaha from their customary livelihoods, forced them into exploitative agricultural labor systems, and induced seasonal labour migration away from the river delta. In the 1990s, the government of Nepal introduced legal reforms to address conflicts between park management and locals nationally, and introduced the policy of managing the peripheral villages as buffer zones to be jointly managed by buffer zone residents and park administration. In 1996, buffer zone area was declared in BNP.

Buffer zone locals are organised into local level user groups and committees, entitled to receive 30-40%of the Park revenue and receive benefits of conservation and development projects. The Sonaha resisted the park rules by silently contravening park rules in their daily lives.

Given the weaker political and economic status of the Sonaha in the society dominated by more powerful Tharu ethnic groups and hill migrants, Sonaha representation in the buffer zone management is dismal. Exclusive Sonaha committees in the buffer zone villages that were created to capitalise on micro funding for development projects failed eventually and are dysfunctional. Despite the introduction of participatory conservation regime and projects in the Park buffer zone, it has failed to transform the lives of Sonaha and to offer just livelihood alternatives.

Since late 1990s they began to organise themselves to wage a collective struggle for fishing and gold panning rights with the help of NGOs. Between 2006 and 2011, the Sonaha launched a vigorous campaign for their rights, organised protests with the Park administration with the support of locals and activists resisting the Park policies. In 2008 they negotiated a nine month fishing license with the Park administration but it was short lived after a case of poaching of the horn of a dead rhino by three Sonaha youth took place. The collective resistance against the Park policies has weakened in the recent times, although these issues along with the issue of an official recognition of Sonaha as one of the indigenous nationalities of Nepal are occasionally raised by Sonaha leaders and NGOs. Encounters between Sonaha and the Park patrols have also lessened, as the major river channel of Karnali flows outside of the Park boundary. While small portion of the estimated 1250 Sonaha population (as of 2013) in the delta still engage in customary occupations, the trend of labour outmigration is growing.

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Basic Data

Name of conflict:	Bardia National Park (BNP) and Sonaha indigenous minorities, Nepal
Country:	Nepal
State or province:	Province 5
Location of conflict:	Bardia district (Lower Karnali River Delta, Buffer Zone of Bardia National Park)
Accuracy of location	HIGH (Local level)

Source of Conflict

Type of conflict. 1st level:	Biodiversity conservation conflicts
Type of conflict. 2nd level:	Establishment of reserves/national parks Aquaculture and fisheries
Specific commodities:	Land

Project Details and Actors

Project details	Creation of Bardia National Park, 1976 (formerly a wildlife reserve) by then His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, Ministry of Forest, Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation. See more Creation of Buffer Zone, 1996. Several large-scale integrated conservation and development projects have been executed in several protected areas and conservation landscapes of Nepal. These projects as follows also include the Bardia National Park and its buffer zone (including the Karnali River Delta, and Sonaha settlements in the buffer zone) Park and People Project (later Participatory Conservation Project ) (1995-2004): United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Government of Nepal, World Wildlife Foundation ( WWF) Nepal, Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) Nepal, National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Terai Arc Landscape Project (since 2001): WWF Nepal and Nepal Government. Western Terai Arc Landsacpe Project (2006-2010): UNDP, Global Environmental Facility (GEF), Nepal Government , WWF Nepal and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV Nepal), Biodiversity International (BI), Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD). Hariyo Ban Program (2001-2016; 2016-2021): United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Nepal Government, WWF Nepal, Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal (FECOFUN) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) . (See less)
Project area:	Bardia National Park (968 sq. km) Buffer Zone (507 sq.km)
Level of Investment for the conflictive project	The current Park management plan, states $ 82027.85 for the Buffer Zone Management (Conservation, Community Development, Income Generation, Conservation Education, Administration) and $47867.71 for Park and People Relations
Type of population	Rural
Affected Population:	While the total population in the buffer zone of the BNP is 1,14,201 which includes diverse major ethnic groups such as Tharu, Chetri of hill origin, around 1250 Sonaha population (as of 2013) were affected by the creation of the Park.
Start of the conflict:	1976
Relevant government actors:	Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Federal Government of Nepal.
International and Finance Institutions	United Nations Development Program (UNDP) from United States of America - Donor of the integrated conservation and conservation project as listed in the Project Details section World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from Switzerland - Involved in the integrated conservation and conservation project as listed in the Project Details section Biodiversity International - Involved in the integrated conservation and conservation project as listed in the Project Details section United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (USAID) from United States of America - Donor of the integrated conservation and conservation project as listed in the Project Details section Global Environment Facility (GEF) from United States of America - Donor of the integrated conservation and conservation project as listed in the Project Details section
Environmental justice organizations (and other supporters) and their websites, if available:	Nepal Sonaha Association Sonaha Bikas Samaj (Sonaha Development Society), Bardia Community Development Organization (CDO),Kathmandu. People Centred Development Forum (PCDF), Bardia. Human Rights and Environment Concern Centre (HURECOC), Bardia. Protected Area People's Rights Federation (PARF)

Conflict & Mobilization

Intensity	MEDIUM (street protests, visible mobilization)
Reaction stage	Unknown
Groups mobilizing:	Farmers Indigenous groups or traditional communities Local ejos Social movements Women Sonaha indigenous minorities Fisher people
Forms of mobilization:	Official complaint letters and petitions Public campaigns Street protest/marches Strikes Occupation of buildings/public spaces

Impacts

Environmental Impacts	Potential: Other Environmental impacts, Biodiversity loss (wildlife, agro-diversity)
Other Environmental impacts	The creation of national park, buffer zone and their management have contributed to the conservation of biodiversity in general. Based on conversations with locals in the buffer zone, it suggests strict conservation of forests in the Park, sometimes have triggered unsustainable timber extraction resources and led to degradation in the nearby community forests (outside buffer zone). Likewise, improvement of forest cover in the Park and buffer zones have also contributed to human-wildlife conflicts. Some locals also suspect due to rich forest cover in the Park, the riverside settlements in the buffer zone have had experienced flooding as well as river cutting of their agricultural lands.
Health Impacts	Potential: Malnutrition, Mental problems including stress, depression and suicide
Socio-economical Impacts	Visible: Loss of livelihood, Loss of traditional knowledge/practices/cultures, Specific impacts on women, Violations of human rights, Land dispossession, Loss of landscape/sense of place, Other socio-economic impacts, Militarization and increased police presence, Displacement
Other socio-economic impacts	Triggered out-migration of the Sonaha; pushed Sonaha into exploitative agricultural bonded labor systems; lost control and access to ancestral riverine territory; loss of history , ecological knowledge and wisdom, and collective management of gold panning riparian environments.

Outcome

Project Status	In operation
Conflict outcome / response:	Criminalization of activists Environmental improvements, rehabilitation/restoration of area Migration/displacement Repression Strengthening of participation Violent targeting of activists Application of existing regulations
Proposal and development of alternatives:	The Sonaha organisations and supporting NGOs have been advocating Sonaha coexistence with the river environment, restore fishing and gold panning rights, engage Sonaha in conservation, offer just and sustainable livelihood alternatives for the Sonaha. Struggling for either rights to customary livelihoods or economic development (alternative livelihoods) is a contested topic within the Sonaha communities in the delta.
Do you consider this an environmental justice success? Was environmental justice served?:	No
Briefly explain:	The Sonaha people continue to be marginalised in the national park and buffer zone management, planning and decision making. No just alternatives have been provided for the losses of traditional livelihoods, cultural practices, identities and human rights violations and atrocities in the past from the Park authorities.

Sources & Materials

Juridical relevant texts related to the conflict (laws, legislations, EIAs, etc)

National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 (1973)

Buffer Zone Management Regulation, 1996.

References to published books, academic articles, movies or published documentaries

Thing, S.J. (2018). Politics of Nature Conservation and Space National Park, River, and Sonaha Ethnic Minorities. In Social Science Baha (Ed.), Conference Proceedings 2013: The Annual Kathmandu Conference on Nepal & The Himalaya (pp. 146-171). Kathmandu: Himal Books.

Thing, S.J., Jones, R. & Birdsall Jones, C. (2017). The Politics of Conservation: Sonaha, Riverscape in the Bardia National Park and Buffer Zone, Nepal. Conservation & Society, 15(3), 292-303.
[click to view]

Thing, S.J. (2019). Politics of Conservation, Moral Ecology and Resistance by the Sonaha Indigenous Minorities of Nepal. In C.Griffan., R.Jones & I.Robertson (Eds.). Moral Ecologies - Histories of Conservation, Dispossession and Resistance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

My Republica (news report)
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Related media links to videos, campaigns, social network

Documentary by Nepal Federation of Environmental Journalists.
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Documentary by FIAN Nepal
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Meta information

Contributor:	Sudeep Jana Thing, Curtin University. Email: [email protected]
Last update	18/08/2019
Conflict ID:	4022