I was born and brought up in India and I have a passion for wildlife and wild places. I spent much of my youth in the jungles and mountains and I worked on WWF’s Project Tiger in the 70s. At that time, WWF India’s fledgling office was a one man and dog outfit - I was the dog, and loved every minute of it. Over the years, I have been both excited and depressed with the changes in the Indian wildlife scene. I believe responsible tourism can be a real enabler for positive change and I am delighted to see some real traction and support for the establishing of private and community wildlife conservancies in India.

It was therefore a pleasure to be a special invitee at the G20 summit in Kashmir a few weeks ago to present on the opportunities for wildlife conservancies in India. I have been involved with many conservation initiatives and worked with many of the largest international conservation organisations and funders such as Fauna & Flora International, RSPB , WWF and USAID that have contributed much to the establishment of conservancies. This article covers the areas I discussed in my presentation.

India is one of the few countries that enshrines conservation in its Constitution which mandates that the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. The Constitution also states that  it shall be the fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests and wildlife.

India is a wildlife rich country with more diverse habitats and wildlife than any other country that I can think of. IUCN data shows that India, a megadiverse country with only 2.4% of the world's land area, accounts for 7-8% of all recorded species, including over 45,000 species of plants and 91,000 species of animals.  However, IUCN also lists many Indian species as critically endangered. The reasons for this are many and well documented and a key issue is the lack of suitable habitat be it by deforestation, industrialisation, urban sprawl or divergence of wetlands and forests.  

So, increasing areas for wildlife is critical. The National Wildlife Database Cell of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is developing  a National Wildlife Information System (NWIS)  on the Protected Areas (PAs) of the country. Their information shows that India has a network of 998 PAs including 106 National Parks, 567 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 105 Conservation Reserves and 220 Community Reserves covering a total of 1,73,629.52 sqkm. 

Contrary to popular misconception much of India’s wildlife is outside the PAs and a 2021 report by WWF and UNEP cites research that indicates that 35% of India’s tiger ranges currently lie outside PAs. This leads to challenges and the report, ‘A Future for All – A need for Human-Wildlife Coexistence’, explains that Human-wildlife conflict - when struggles arise from people and animals coming into contact - often leads to people killing animals in self-defence, or as pre-emptive or retaliatory killings, which can drive species to extinction.

Conservancies can create a win win win – for wildlife, local communities and tourism. The challenge is not to let tourism become the sole priority. In most of the major wildlife tourist destinations in India there is overcrowding and this leads to a compromised wildlife experience for visitors and pressure on local resources. Private and community conservancies can do much to improve the situation. Understanding the carrying capacity is important and the G20 Summit included proposals for carrying capacity studies.

Working with many conservation organisations and tourism providers I have seen good and poor practice and for me a great example is the Maasai Mara Conservancies in Kenya.  The Maasai Mara ecosystem is home to approximately 25% of Kenya’s wildlife and most of the wildlife is in the conservancies that adjoin the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR). The first of these was the Ol Kinyei conservancy established by Jake Grieves-Cook. The conservancies are now larger than the MMNR and there are no physical boundaries between the Serengeti (including the PAs further South), MMNR and the Mara Conservancies. 

There are special rules and guidelines for size and type of camps, game drives, revenue sharing etc. Tourism partners also provide employment and other benefits to the local communities. Some years ago my son carried out a  research project  and his Proof of Concept Project Report explains the conservancy concept and shows the win win win that conservancies can create.

It is clear that good conservancies require effective governance, fair benefit sharing and cohesive decision making within an agreed framework. This is a nascent area for India with blue sky opportunities to properly anchor the purpose, vision and values with effective governance. We can learn from what others have done and use this to build relevant archetypes for community and private conservancies in India. The archetypes can be modelled with a focus on IUCN Green List criteria of good governance, sound design and planning, effective management and successful conservation outcomes.

The archetypes should:

• be frameworks acknowledging the variety of shapes, sizes and constraints of different conservancies and should be location and needs specific
• be seen as prototypes informing how to organise and support responsible tourism to generate resources for conservation
• incorporate agreements to enable greater collaboration and fair resource sharing partnerships between different stakeholders
• not be seen as a one size fits all fixed approach that is unable to provide flexibility or evolve over time

Land use management and clearly defined policies are essential to move from the ‘as is’ to the ‘to be’. Clear conservation objectives need to be articulated from the outset and in the Indian context these should align with and help shape national and state priorities for nature conservation. These policies are being framed to consider:

• Low impact responsible tourism (carrying capacity and acres per visitor)
• Improve the environment (reforestation and water table initiatives)
• Enhanced visitor experience (adherence to guidelines on game drives and other activities)
• Value over volume (pricing, access and camp sizes)

There should also be scope to benefit from biodiversity and carbon credits which  are different to offsets – in that they reward proactive, positive action and fund long-term conservation and habitat restoration. Thus, leading to positive contribution rather than simply offsetting negative impact.

I really believe that responsible tourism through the development of conservancies can incentivise the creation of additional wildlife habitats and ensure their viability. They will help address many of the existing challenges of human-animal conflict, wildflife crime, deforestation and habitat degradation.

I am delighted that, after years of effort and reluctance in many quarters to accept the conservancy concept, this is now a reality. Having seen the benefits in Africa and other parts of the world I was eager to gain support and see this happen in India and it was great that both the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change representatives at the G20 Summit evinced real support. The Summit culminated with the Ministry of Tourism and the Confederation of Indian Industry signing a MOU agreeing collaborative measures for the active promotion and support of ecotourism in the country.

The will and the enabling legislation is in place and it is vital to ensure that responsible tourism and conservation goals are not diluted. Care is needed to ensure that changes to laws, regulations and practices are not used to enable the destruction of existing protected areas and important wildlife habitats. On the ground implementation practices should avoid marginalisation of local communities often created by paying lip service to their needs. Short termism and profit motivation must not be allowed overtake important safeguards and the true vision of responsible tourism and conservancies.

There will be naysayers and some rightly held concerns that need to be recognised and addressed.  However, when done well, conservancies are a positive force for change. This is not the only answer to the challenges facing conservation efforts in India, but it is one that has worked elsewhere and can work in India. We need proponents who will be the moral compass to help chart the right path as we negotiate new times and new challenges.