In this chapter, I have provided an introduction to my major research problem. I presented three major questions. After presenting a brief description of the research site, I presented methods that I used to carry out the research. In addition, I presented how my position as a Nepali Newar student from the US university facilitated or hindered
fieldwork and further analysis. In Chapter Two, I review the relevant literature to present current gaps in the political ecological analysis of territorialized community-based
conservation. I primarily focus on four major areas of political ecological scholarship that are related to contested property rights, construction of scientific knowledge, subject formation within conservation and the representation of human and non-humans. More importantly, I discuss two interrelated concepts including environmentality and
territorialization to understand how and with what strategies the state and non-state institutions have attempted to control people and spaces, and simultaneously how local people who are dependent on resources are challenging dominant meaning and practices of conservation and development in the buffer zone space of the CNP. I tried to look at the co-constitutions of space and identities through the place-based study in Bagmara buffer zone areas of CNP. In Chapter Three, I review the socioeconomic and political history of Nepal in different phases to provide a broader political economic and cultural context for my dissertation research. I divided Nepal’s history in different phases based on the major political and social changes in Nepal: before the 1950s, between 1950 and the 1990s and after the 1990s. In the first phase, I show the ways Rana rulers exploited labor and controlled land and resources for about 100 years. International engagement and social development started after the 1950s but was largely hindered by the panchayat
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political system and social hierarchies. I describe increasing democratization, economic liberalism and the simultaneous emergence of Maoist violence and identity politics after 1990s.
In Chapter Four, I look at the history of the production of the conservation and development landscape in the Chitwan Valley of Nepal. This chapter is a critical review of nature conservation and early development efforts of in the Chitwan Valley to
understand the ways these have shaped the production of state and non-state spaces and institutions in the Chitwan Valley. I started with royal hunting practices as a strategy of British-Indian rulers to control frontier spaces through Rana rulers. The practices established the Rana regime and exploitation of spaces and resources. Furthermore, I present international development assistances that expanded after the 1950s and the ways these prompted the transformation of the Chitwan Valley landscape and identities of people and the relationship between nature and society. More importantly, I show how local and global political economy and scientific knowledge are intertwined in the production of CNP in particular. I highlight the ways discourses of economic development, environmental crisis and wildlife extinction shaped the lives and livelihoods of rural indigenous people and the landscape of the Chitwan Valley. I intentionally left the material and discursive practices related to the landscape level conservation for future research. Chapter Five is one of my two place-based empirical chapters from the Bagmara buffer zone community forest area. This chapter provides the analysis and discussion of the political-ecological effects of territorialized community based conservation. In particular, in the chapter I show how a legally designated “impact zone” to benefit local buffer zone users resulted in the further territorialization of buffer
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zone spaces and the marginalization of forest and agriculture dependent populations. I discuss the differential distribution of access, costs and benefits from tourism and
Bagmara CF. More importantly, I show how discursive representation of human-wildlife conflict, development discourses and spatial and legal practices have enabled the control and commodification of the forest and water commons. In Chapter Six, I present the complex interrelations of conservation spaces, subject formation and the state’s efforts of governing people and nature. I described conservation violence and militarization in the buffer zone spaces of CNP. I noted the discourses of security and zero poaching years and the ways they have prompted ongoing militarization and violence. I explore the production of state-spaces and non-environmental subjects. In addition, I show how such practices are productive of environmental subjects, ethnic identities and touristic spaces. In addition, I discuss how state and non-state attempts to “improve” the life of people and practices, and the ways these helping practices rest on the reproduction or construction of new social hierarchies and identities such as caste, ethnicity and class. Finally, I describe the ways spatial practices shape resource access and contestation over meaning and practices of conservation.
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Chapter Two: Theoretical Framework
My research builds on and contributes to two key areas of emerging research in the field, which are 1) critical approaches to understanding the complex interrelations of conservation territories, subject formation, and state goals for governing people and nature: and 2) the political-ecological effects resulting from the rapid increase in
territorialized community-based conservation (CBCs), such as buffer zones, that seek to integrate socio-economic development goals with biodiversity protection. I review the relevant literature to present current lacunae in the political ecological analysis of territorialized community-based conservation and present the specific contribution that my research makes to the rapidly expanding literature on the political ecology of nature conservation.