Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India

Approximately, one-quarter of India’s land area comprises common-pool resources, e.g., pasture land, forests, and water bodies, upon which the livelihoods of over 300 million rural people depend. Despite their importance, these resources are subjected to encroachment and degradation, raising importa...

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Autores principales: Hughes, Karl, Sharma, Himani, Priyadarshini, Pratiti, Vågen, Tor, Winowiecki, Leigh, Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168208
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author Hughes, Karl
Sharma, Himani
Priyadarshini, Pratiti
Vågen, Tor
Winowiecki, Leigh
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
author_browse Hughes, Karl
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Priyadarshini, Pratiti
Sharma, Himani
Vågen, Tor
Winowiecki, Leigh
author_facet Hughes, Karl
Sharma, Himani
Priyadarshini, Pratiti
Vågen, Tor
Winowiecki, Leigh
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
author_sort Hughes, Karl
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Approximately, one-quarter of India’s land area comprises common-pool resources, e.g., pasture land, forests, and water bodies, upon which the livelihoods of over 300 million rural people depend. Despite their importance, these resources are subjected to encroachment and degradation, raising important questions about what can be done to promote their protection and restoration. Since 2001, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has worked with over 7000 villages to secure their rights to the commons, while facilitating collective action and access to finance to promote their restoration. To evaluate the impact of FES’s intervention model, we compare prioritized common land areas in 24 intervention and 24 control villages located in two districts in the state of Rajasthan—Bhilwara and Pratapgarh. We employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to control for program placement bias while contrasting changes in key ecological indicators over time derived through remote sensing. Based on data collected through village surveys (n = 48), household surveys (n = 911), systematic biophysical data collection (n = 480), and remote sensing, we find evidence that the rollout of FES’s intervention model (a) was relatively greater in the intervention villages but below expectation; and (b) facilitated significant increases in tree cover and tree and shrub diversity, while significantly reducing encroachment, particularly in the intervention villages intervened before 2011. We further find that the institutional strengthening dimension of FES’s work is a plausible mechanism that gave rise to these effects.
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spelling CGSpace1682082025-10-26T12:52:02Z Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India Hughes, Karl Sharma, Himani Priyadarshini, Pratiti Vågen, Tor Winowiecki, Leigh Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. biophysical models data land restoration livelihoods remote sensing Approximately, one-quarter of India’s land area comprises common-pool resources, e.g., pasture land, forests, and water bodies, upon which the livelihoods of over 300 million rural people depend. Despite their importance, these resources are subjected to encroachment and degradation, raising important questions about what can be done to promote their protection and restoration. Since 2001, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) has worked with over 7000 villages to secure their rights to the commons, while facilitating collective action and access to finance to promote their restoration. To evaluate the impact of FES’s intervention model, we compare prioritized common land areas in 24 intervention and 24 control villages located in two districts in the state of Rajasthan—Bhilwara and Pratapgarh. We employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to control for program placement bias while contrasting changes in key ecological indicators over time derived through remote sensing. Based on data collected through village surveys (n = 48), household surveys (n = 911), systematic biophysical data collection (n = 480), and remote sensing, we find evidence that the rollout of FES’s intervention model (a) was relatively greater in the intervention villages but below expectation; and (b) facilitated significant increases in tree cover and tree and shrub diversity, while significantly reducing encroachment, particularly in the intervention villages intervened before 2011. We further find that the institutional strengthening dimension of FES’s work is a plausible mechanism that gave rise to these effects. 2024 2024-12-20T22:16:07Z 2024-12-20T22:16:07Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168208 en http://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1155 https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1317 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04896-9 https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13862-280130 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acadf4 Open Access Springer Hughes, Karl; Sharma, Himani; Priyadarshini, Pratiti; Vågen, Tor; Winowiecki, Leigh; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth. 2024. Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11: 1535(2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04057-3
spellingShingle biophysical models
data
land restoration
livelihoods
remote sensing
Hughes, Karl
Sharma, Himani
Priyadarshini, Pratiti
Vågen, Tor
Winowiecki, Leigh
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title_full Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title_fullStr Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title_full_unstemmed Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title_short Integrating Earth observation, biophysical, and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in Rajasthan, India
title_sort integrating earth observation biophysical and survey data to evaluate the ecological impacts of a common land protection and restoration intervention in rajasthan india
topic biophysical models
data
land restoration
livelihoods
remote sensing
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168208
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