MITIGATING HUMAN WILDLIFE CONFLICT AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN DUDHWA TIGER RESERVE, UTTAR PRADESH THROUGH THE APPROACH OF CARBON FINANCEYatish Lele, J.V. Sharma1 and Ananya SrivastavaAbstract Human wildlife conflict is a pressing issue in and around tiger reserves. The local communities face economic losses from conflict leading to retaliation against wildlife. Irrespective of governmental initiatives, many states still face lack of financial resources on a timely basis to mitigate the conflict. Carbon finance is one such mechanism which could help in generating additional finance required to manage this issue. It is necessary to understand the contribution of ecosystem services in carbon mechanisms such as Climate, community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) to effectively use the mechanism. The study to understand the contribution of ecosystem services was undertaken in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) where human wildlife conflict is high. The methodology to understand the contribution of the ecosystem services was based by valuing services provided by DTR such as firewood, minor forest produce, fodder and grazing, carbon sequestration and recreation. The total economic value of DTR was estimated to be INR 10.58 billion in 2019 wherein the value of ecosystem services was found to be eight times greater than the value of carbon. Including these benefits in the carbon finance shall yield 8 times more benefits as compared to the benefits from afforestation project. |